Popular Culture Review Vol. 12, No. 2, August 2001 | Page 67

Reuben James

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said they had not heard the song until the late 1950’s when it was recorded by the
Kingston Trio (Ringle).
R eu ben Jam es

and

T h e W ild w o o d F lo w e r

Seeger and Guthrie were generally considered the real musicians in the
Almanac Singers, but even they were not adverse to simply taking old melodies and
adding new words. And this is certainly what happened with “Reuben James.” Guthrie
said: “I never waste my high-priced time by asking or even wondering in the least
whether I’ve heard my tune in whole or in part before. There are ten million ways of
changing any tune around to make it sound like my own” (Guthrie, 82).
Seeger added,
“Sometimes Woody would get a melody and make up verses to
it, but then feel he needed a chorus. And he would have to
compose a chorus because the original melody didn’t have one.
.. . ‘Reuben James’ used ‘Wildwood Flower,’ a tune recorded
by the Carter family. . . . [H]e added a chorus worthy of any
good composer. He fiddled around with the melody of the verse,
until he compounded and developed elements of it into a sing
able refrain.
So Woody was a music composer as well as a poet.” (Seeger,
54).
Although Guthrie’s words were original, the melody comes from “I’ll
Twine Mid the Ringlets,” an 1860s song with words by Maude Irving and tune by
J.R Webster of New Hampshire. The sheet music was a top-seller in the 1860s
(Drexler), and the words tell the tale of a Victorian maiden who, spurned by her
lover, says she will laugh despite her tears. The melody is comprised of various
trips up and down the scale: E-F-G/A-C-E/F-E-D/F-B-C (repeat).
The song passed through Southern oral traditions until Maybelle Addington
Carter and her sister-in-law Sara Dougherty Carter recorded the song for RCA
Victor studios on May 10, 1928 (Maybelle’s 19th birthday). Maybelle played lead
guitar while Sara sang the song and played guitar. The song was an instant hit, and
reached number 3 in the 1928-version of