Here’s a tune that shows up on the “Maine Fiddle Camp All-time favorite jam tunes” list at number 13! This tune shows up so many different places, it’s really quite amazing.. Read on… Golden Slippers was originally an “Old time minstrel show song” entitled “Oh dem Golden Slippers.” It has words and melody, both of which were composed by an African American minstrel songwriter and banjo player named James A. Bland in 1870. In the early 1900s it passed into the folk and fiddling tradition, is considered an American Reel, Two Step, or Polka, and is widely known, both in the northern and southern traditions. Most often played in D Major, though some times in G or C or F in standard tuning. AB, AAB, AABB (for dances). The tune often shows up in tune and/or song collections without credit to Bland, and was noted by several collectors as “in folk tradition” in the early twentieth century.

One version of the lyrics goes:

Oh my golden slippers are laid away,
Cause I don’t expect to wear them til my wedding day,
And my long tailed coat that I love so well,
I will wear up in the chariot in the morning

Chorus:

O dem golden slippers, O dem golden slippers
dem golden slippers I’m gwine to wear cause they look so neat;
O dem golden slippers, O dem golden slippers
dem golden slippers I’m gwine te wear to cross the golden street.

The tune has been recorded many many times all through the last century and it appears in scores of tune books as well. Here’s a nice old recording on 78rpm from 1928:

The tune really has “legs” as we say, and got folded into the Quebecois tradition and renamed “Reel d’Or”. Here’s a French Canadian version with 3-fiddle harmony and some words (in French) by the legendary Jean Carignan:

The tune (and the chorus of the song) was also picked up for use in a singing square with the title “Golden Slippers”. Here’s renowned Connecticut square dance caller, Ralph Sweet, calling the dance at the Guiding Star Grange in Greenfield, MA.

Bringing it all back home to Maine Fiddle Camp, all Fiddle Campers will remember Doug Protsik, accompanied by the infamous MFC “backup band of renown”, doing his rendition of “Going to the Barn Dance Tonight” before the evening old time country dance at Camp. Doug’s interpretation of this song, which was the theme song of “Don Messer’s Jubilee” TV show on Canadian television in the 50’s and 60’s, interjects the singing squares Red River Valley, and YES, Golden Slippers.. Here’s a video of Doug with Old Grey Goose at the Skye Theater. Look for Golden Slippers the square dance at 0:38

So: here ya go: Minstral Song in the 19^th century, fiddle tune, singing square, one of Maine Fiddle Camp’s “greatest hits”, MFC “Camp Tune” 2014, and part of “Goin’ to the Barn Dance Tonight..!!

I started writing this blog on March 1, 2022, so I guess this is my 2nd anniversary. Wow how time flies! Thanks to all of you who read this. If you have any comments or suggestions, email me at callbill@hotmail.com

Finally, don’t forget to tune in to Pam Weeks’ and my weekly Tuesday night online mini-concert and jam. here’s the info: Tuesday night Online jam session and mini-concert with Pam Weeks and Bill Olson – FolkWorks

bill