The Crawdad Song

arr. Paul Jennings

This popular old folk tune originated in the 19th century South, a slight variant on "Sweet Thing." It's easy-going and fun to sing, especially the question and answer on "honey" and "babe."

Our arrangement features acoustic bass, guitars, and a solo lead on the dobro. For the introduction and interlude we also bring in a Q & A from our string section. We use slight variations on two of the many verses to be found, and if you want to do lots more, this is an easy tune to perform with I-IV-V chords, easiest in E for guitar, or in G with autoharp or guitar. It would also be fun done with just voices and body percussion. As a matter of fact, if you want to do a lot of verses in performance, consider doing some of it with voices and body percussion first, then heading into the written arrangement.

Text is taken from Music K-8 magazine.