The Little Old Log Cabin in the Lane

The Little Old Log Cabin In The Lane è una canzone popolare statunitense scritta da Will S. Hays nel 1871 per i cantori girovaghi. Scritta in dialetto, la canzone parla di un anziano, forse uno schiavo o ex-schiavo, che trascorre in suoi ultimi anni in una vecchia capanna diroccata. Il titolo viene dal ritornello:

"... de little old log cabin in de lane" (... la vecchia piccola capanna in fondo al sentiero)

Il testo stesso della canzone era folklorico e diede origine a numerose canzoni di risposta, ma la melodia fu ancora più usata, divenendo la base di molte altre vecchie canzoni folk.^[1] come "Little Red Caboose Behind The Train" o "The Lily Of The Valley".

La registrazione di "The Little Old Log Cabin In The Lane" realizzata da Fiddlin' John Carson fu una delle prime registrazioni commerciali di un musicista bianco dell'America rurale.^[2] La sua popolarità convinse l'industria a continuare la produzione di musica folk rurale.

La canzone è da allora uno standard del Bluegrass.

^ Thorp, Songs of the Cowboys, pp. xviii-xviv: "Again, others have been built upon well-known airs; 'The Cowboy's Dream' is sung to the tune of 'My Bonnie Lies Over the Ocean,' and Jack Thorp's 'Little Joe, the Wrangelr' was composed to the tune of 'The Little Old Log Cabin in the Lane'. "
^ Carlin, Country Music, p. x: "One artist whom Brockman recommended was a fifty-plus-year-old fiddler and sometime house painter named Fiddlin' John Carson; the Okeh label dutifully made a custom record of Carson singing the late-nineteenth-century popular song 'The little Old Log Cabin in the Lane' for Brockman to sell, but didn't even bother to assign a master number or affix a label to the 500 records pressed for him. It was only after the record became a regional hit that the light bulb of commerce lit up in the executives' heads, and suddenly they were scouring the countryside for entertainers."

[1] Thorp, Songs of the Cowboys, pp. xviii-xviv: "Again, others have been built upon well-known airs; 'The Cowboy's Dream' is sung to the tune of 'My Bonnie Lies Over the Ocean,' and Jack Thorp's 'Little Joe, the Wrangelr' was composed to the tune of 'The Little Old Log Cabin in the Lane'. "

[2] Carlin, Country Music, p. x: "One artist whom Brockman recommended was a fifty-plus-year-old fiddler and sometime house painter named Fiddlin' John Carson; the Okeh label dutifully made a custom record of Carson singing the late-nineteenth-century popular song 'The little Old Log Cabin in the Lane' for Brockman to sell, but didn't even bother to assign a master number or affix a label to the 500 records pressed for him. It was only after the record became a regional hit that the light bulb of commerce lit up in the executives' heads, and suddenly they were scouring the countryside for entertainers."

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