Boil Them Cabbage Down

This is an online fiddle lesson for the tune "Boil Them Cabbage Down." BluegrassDaddy.com is your best source for Bluegrass, Old Time, Celtic, Gospel, and Country fiddle lessons!

Genre: Old Time, Bluegrass
Skill Level: Beginner, Intermediate
Key of A

This lesson is free!

You may download and use any of the MP3s and tablature for your personal use. However, please do not make them available online or otherwise distribute them.

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Video #1: Here is a video of me performing the fiddle tune "Boil Them Cabbage Down."

FIDDLE TABLATURE/NOTATION

Tablature Part 1 (1 page, PDF)
Notation and Tablature Part 1 (2 pages, PDF)

Tablature Part 2 (1 page, PDF)
Notation and Tablature Part 2 (2 pages, PDF)

Tablature Part 3 (1 page, PDF)
Notation and Tablature Part 3 (2 pages, PDF)

Video #2: Here is a measure-by-measure fiddle lesson of "Boil Them Cabbage Down" Part 1.

Video #3: Here is a measure-by-measure fiddle lesson of "Boil Them Cabbage Down" Part 2.

Video #4: Here is a measure-by-measure fiddle lesson of "Boil Them Cabbage Down" Part 3.

Video #5: Here is "Boil Them Cabbage Down" Part 1 with the metronome.

Video #6: Here is "Boil Them Cabbage Down" Part 2 with the metronome.

Video #7: Here is "Boil Them Cabbage Down" Part 3 with the metronome.

Video #8: Here is "Boil Them Cabbage Down" at 65 BPM.

MP3s

To download an MP3 to your computer, simply right-click the link above the player, then choose "save link as." The MP3 will then be sent to your downloads folder.

Performance track with fiddle and vocal:

MP3 #1: "Boil Them Cabbage Down," 115 bpm with fiddle and vocal

MP3 #2: "Boil Them Cabbage Down," 65 bpm with fiddle

Jam tracks at different speeds:

MP3 #3: "Boil Them Cabbage Down," 65 bpm jam track

MP3 #4: "Boil Them Cabbage Down," 115 bpm jam track

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"Boil Them Cabbage Down", also know as "Bile Them Cabbage Down", "Bile 'Em Cabbage", etc., supposedly can be traced to an an English country dance called Smiling Polly, first printed in 1765.  “Bile” is a phonetic writing of the word “boil.” A hoecake is a thin, flat cake made from cornmeal, originally baked on a hoe.  As it has been played and sung throughout the South, the song integrates African and European musical elements: banjo and fiddle – slave, minstrel and mountaineer. (Ballad of America)



Boil Them Cabbage Down

Possum in a 'simmon tree,
Raccoon on the ground.
Raccoon says to possum,
Please shake some 'simmons down.

CHORUS:
Boil them cabbage down, down.
Turn them hoecakes 'round, 'round.
The only song that I can sing is
Boil them cabbage down.

Raccoon has a bushy tail,
Possum's tail is bare.
Rabbits got no tail at all but a little
Bunch o' hair.

(Chorus)

Someone stole my old coon dog.
Wish they'd bring him back.
He chased the big hogs through the fence,
And the little ones through the crack.

(Chorus)

Met a possum in the road,
Blind as he could be.
Jumped the fence and whipped my dog
And bristled up at me.

(Chorus)

Heard my dog the other night,
Though he'd treed a coon
Saw them walking paw in paw
Later by the light of the moon

(Chorus)

Raccoon and the Possum,
Walking on the prairie
Raccoon says to Possum;
Would you like to marry?

(Chorus)

Raccoon died of the whoopin' cough,
Possum died of the colic.
'Long come a frog with a fiddle on his back
Inquirin' his way to the frolic.

(Chorus)