American Ballads and Folk Songs: page - 0168

Complete Text, Lyrics & Sheet Music

	American Ballads and Folk Songs_____________ STEWBALL Skew Ball was an Irish race horse of broadside fame. The song came over to America and was turned into a work song by the slaves as some of the quoted stanzas will testify. And now Skew Ball has be­come "Stewball" and his race is sung in the prisons of Louisiana, Texas, Mississippi, and Tennessee. It is the most widely known of the chain-gang songs in the states we visited, and by far the most con­stant as to tune and words. The following stanza illustrates the way Stewball is sung by a gang of Negro workmen in the fields. The accents mark the hoe or ax blows. Leader                                         Chorus Way out in                                    Unh-hunh— Californy,                                      Unh-hunh— Where oP Stewball                        Unh-hunh— Was born,                                      Was born— All de jockeys                                Unh-hunh— In de country                                 Unh-hunh— Said he blew there                          Unh-hunh— In a storm,                                     In a storm— In a storm, man,                            Unh-hunh— In a storm.                                     In a storm.