She'll Be Comin' Round The Mountain

Here's a lively new arrangement of the folk favorite that is easy enough for primary students and yet has some elements that make it usable with older classes as well.

No one is exactly sure where and when this song originated, though it was said to be a favorite by the time the great railroads were covering our country in the 1890s. There are many more verses that can be added, and it is a great song for letting your students create their own story lines for new verses.

The arrangement begins with a stop-time, virtuoso soli performed by the guitars, mandolin and "fiddle." (Actually, our fiddle player is the amazing Phil Palermo who you have heard on some of our earlier recordings.) This recurs as an interlude before verses 3 and 5, then serves to add excitement under the final reprise at bar 43.

In performance, this interlude will provide a nice place for some simple group movement. One possibility would be to have your singers standing in lines with feet apart, feet pointed outward. Then they should put their thumbs just under their belts with elbows pointing away from the body. Now, bend the knees in time to the music, possibly having every other singer alternate their up-down movement. To break the stance, you might have them clap on the two accented chords (C, G) that occur just before they start to sing.

For fancier staging, add your own mountain band with any combination of washtub bass, guitar (or cardboard "air guitar"), washboard, triangle, fiddle (or cardboard "air fiddle"), autoharp (avoiding the C# diminished chord), spoons, or jug. For unisex costuming, add jeans or bib overalls, a plaid shirt, a bandanna, and a straw hat...and prepare for new riches when you send your picture in to our Photo Journal column. If you prefer to have the girls in more traditional attire for the period/style, add jean skirts, or more accurately, a bit of calico, and maybe even (gasp) a few petticoats.