American Pastimes - July 19, 2022

This week American Pastimes features music from the 1994 Home Grown Music Festival, a set of songs recorded in 1930 by the little-known Floyd County Ramblers, and toe-tapping selections from the classic 1985 vinyl release "Young Fogies, Vol 1."  In addition, there are four versions of the true but fabled tale of “Duncan & Brady" aka "Been On the Job Too Long." 

Here's the story behind that folk song: 

In October 1880 Patrolman James Brady was shot and killed while responding to a barroom brawl at the Charles Starkes Saloon in the red-light district of St. Louis, Missouri. Harry Duncan, a boot-black, porter and actor/singer, was arrested and convicted of the crime. The killing escalated racial tensions within the city and violence erupted. Sentenced to hang, Duncan fought the decision with a series of appeals that took the case all the way to the United States Supreme Court. His attorney, Walter Moran Farmer presented his case before the Court. It was the first time that an African-American attorney argued a case before the Supreme Court. The appeal was denied and Duncan was executed by hanging in July 1894. Up until the end Duncan continued to claim that saloon owner Starkes was the real killer.

Probably within weeks of the shooting local musicians were singing about the news event and the evolution of a folk tale began. It doesn’t seem unreasonable to assume that initial versions of the song placed the story in the context of ongoing police harassment of African-Americans in a southern city during the Reconstruction Era. But as the song found its way to different communities and musicians it took on new features, specifics, and meaning. With each rendition Duncan’s occupation shifted; from bartender to gambler to grocery owner to lineman. For the most part Brady always remained a police officer (with the “shinin’ star”) and in its most popular widespread versions the song remained a simple matter of good riddance to a corrupt cop. This is evident in the versions collected in the south by Dorothy Scarborough for her 1925 book On the Trail of Negro Folk-Songs and those gathered up in Nebraska by Carl Sandburg for his 1927 book American Songbag:

Duncan and his brother was playin’ pool
When in comes Brady actin’ the fool.

Sandburg’s version ends by asking:

Brady, Brady where you at?
Struttin’ in hell with his Stetson hat.

The earliest known recording of the story was made in 1929 by Wilmer Watts & the Lonely Eagles. Not much is known about Watts other than he was from the North Carolina Piedmont region. Some of his other songs, such as ‘Cotton Mill Blues’, suggest that he worked the cotton mills. His version of the story is called ‘Been on the Job Too Long’ and it reverses the names and roles: Duncan is the sheriff and Brady a working man; a lineman (possibly a reference to electric or telephone lines, or railroad, but more likely in this context a mill worker). It was Brady who had “been on the job too long” and gets killed by the sheriff. Watts may have been subtly commenting on local labor troubles which were common in the Piedmont during the early 20th century as mill owners used the local police to fight the union organizers.

The policeman though in most versions remains the unsympathetic character. His bad nature is often reinforced by the response of other secondary characters to his death. Music collector Paul Clayton recorded this verse:

Brady, Brady, was a big fat man;
The doctor caught a hold of Sheriff Brady's hand,
Felt for the pulse and then he said,
I believe to my soul Sheriff Brady is dead.
Been on the job too long.

Even Mrs. Brady’s reaction is presented with ambivalence while at the same time presenting her as a sympathetic character. When told of her husband’s demise in some versions:

She up and started singing his mourning song.
Runnin’ round town and crying up and down
In an old Mother Hubbard and a blue night-gown
SHE’D been on the job too long.

In yet another version Mrs. Brady takes the news of his death with tepid calmness and remarks to their children, "We’ll all draw a pension when your daddy dies." In that version it’s only the prostitutes who react with real emotion to his demise:

Shufflin' up the street
In they sweet little shimmies
And they black-stockin' feet.
Been OFF the job too long.

Brady's premature retirement at the hands of Duncan had allowed the working girls to return to their livelihood.

By official accounts Officer Brady wasn’t a bad cop. According to the St. Louis Police Department Memorial he was responding to assist other officers engaged in a shootout that was already taking place in a saloon. But his death in the line of duty found a place in American folklore with hundreds of versions of the tale. As accurate recollections of a historic event the vast majority fail, but as reflections of the human experience and lessons in the social conditions found throughout America in the late 19th and early 20th century they more than succeed.

American Pastimes has featured versions performed by Wilmer Watts & the Lonely Eagles, Leadbelly, the Johnson Mountain Boys, The Roanoke Jug Band, The Possum Trot Orchestra, Martin Simpson, Dave Van Ronk, and Tom Rush.


Sources:  John Russell David's Ph.D. dissertation "Tragedy in Ragtime: Black Folktales from St. Louis" (St. Louis University, 1976); the Mudcat Cafe folk music website (mudcat.org).

  • 7:30pm Devlin by Tony Rice Unit on Devlin ( Rounder)
  • 7:35pm Take It Out Back by Chuck Brodsky on Last Of The Old Time (Red House Records)
  • 7:38pm William Henry Paddle by Chuck Brodsky on Subtotal Eclipse (ChuckBrodsky.com Records)
  • 7:43pm Winds Of Winfield by Mike Sumner on Winds Of Winfield (Mike Sumner)
  • 7:47pm That Sweet Gal of Mine by Billy Droze on That Sweet Gal of Mine (RBR Entertainment)
  • 7:49pm Halfway Down the Highway by Deidre McCalla on Endless Grace (MaidenRock)
  • 7:54pm Makes No Sense by Barry Oreck on Leap Year (Barry Oreck)
  • 7:58pm I Can't Believe It's True by Barry Oreck on Leap Year (Barry Oreck)
  • 8:03pm Scotch on the Beach by Tim May & Steve Smith on Tim May & Steve Smith ( unknown)
  • 8:06pm Freight Train Boogie by Folk Fervor on Homegrown Music Festival 1994 ( Butte Folk Music Society)
  • 8:09pm Tires by Mark Adams & Jesse Jay Harris on Homegrown Music Festival 1994 ( Butte Folk Music Society)
  • 8:09pm Long Black Veil by The Red Dirt Bullies on Homegrown Music Festival 1994 ( Butte Folk Music Society)
  • 8:14pm Here On the Inside by Dave & Deb Cowan on Homegrown Music Festival 1994 ( Butte Folk Music Society)
  • 8:18pm Across the Great Divide by Make It So on Homegrown Music Festival 1994 ( Butte Folk Music Society)
  • 8:24pm Go My Way by Bill Hearne on A Very Short Time (Howlin' Dog Records)
  • 8:27pm Back to Susquehanna by Bill Steely and Where's Dave on This Is Love (Sky Llama Duck)
  • 8:32pm She's Gone, Gone, Gone by J.D. Crowe & The New South on My Home Ain't In The Hall Of Fame (UMG - New Rounder)
  • 8:35pm In Tennessee by Bobby Giles & Texas Gales Bluegrass Band on In Tennessee (Bell Buckle Records)
  • 8:38pm Down on the Corner by Bobby Smith & The Boys From Shiloh on Smokin' Bluegrass (CMH Records)
  • 8:45pm Been on the Job Too Long by Willmer Watts & The Lonely Eagles on Vintage Country - The Roots Collection (Yazoo)
  • 8:48pm Duncan and Brady by Lead Belly on Lead Belly: The Smithsonian Folkways Collection (ORCHARD - Smithsonian Folkways Recordings)
  • 8:52pm Been On the Job Too Long by Possum Trot Orchestra on unknown ( unknown)
  • 8:56pm Duncan & Brady by Tom Rush on Trolling for Owls ( unknown)
  • 9:06pm Ripple by Dale Ann Bradley on The Hard Way (Pinecastle Records)
  • 9:13pm Step Stone by Floyd County Ramblers on Times Ain't Like They Used To Be: Early American Rural Music, Vol. 5 ( )
  • 9:16pm Aunt Dinah's Quilting Party by Floyd County Ramblers on No Hard Times (Awa Music)
  • 9:19pm Ragtime Annie by Floyd County Ramblers on unknown ( Victor)
  • 9:22pm Granny Will Your Dog Bite by Floyd County Ramblers on Serenade The Mountains: Early Old Time Music On Record, CD A (JSP Records)
  • 9:28pm Going to the Races by White House (David Parmley, Larry Stephenson , Charlie Cushman , Jason Carter , Missy Raines) on Whitehouse (Pinecastle Records)
  • 9:31pm Uptown Blues by Whitehouse on Whitehouse (Pinecastle Records)
  • 9:35pm Take Me Back To My Old North Carolina Home by The Hotmud Family on The Young Fogies (UMG - Rounder)
  • 9:38pm Good Indian / Cutting At The Point by The Deseret String Band on The Young Fogies (UMG - Rounder)
  • 9:39pm Boys, Them Buzzards Are Flying by The Fly By Night String Band on The Young Fogies (UMG - Rounder)
  • 9:41pm Visits by Tommy Jarrell & Friends on The Young Fogies (UMG - Rounder)
  • 9:44pm Dubuque by Dr. Humbead's New Tranquility String Band on The Young Fogies (UMG - Rounder)
  • 9:47pm The Glory In The Meetinghouse by The Hurricane Ridgerunners on The Young Fogies (UMG - Rounder)
  • 9:51pm Just Because by Jorma Kaukonen on Blue Country Heart (SME - Columbia)
  • 9:56pm Bethany Beach/Blackberry Blossom by Ken Kolodner & Brad Kolodner on Otter Creek (Fenchurch Music)
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