I always find the history of a tune interesting, as well as information about the musicians. The Devil Eat the Groundhog comes from Kentuckian Owen “Snake” Chapman (1919 - 2002), who learned it from his elderly father, Doc Chapman, born in 1850. BHO member Jim Reed brought the tune to us a couple of years ago with a video of his friend, Kentuckian fiddler and banjo picker Paul David Smith (1933 – 2011). Paul had learned it from Snake and they’d recorded it together on Snake’s Walnut Gap CD. Additionally Paul came out with a CD whose title name is Devil Eat the Groundhog. Snake plays the fiddle on this and Jim’s brother, John Reed, plays the guitar. Jim had been mentored by Snake and Paul when they used to visit his childhood home in Pike County, Kentucky.
The tune is catchy and upbeat, but actually the song is about a hound dog who stole the groundhog meal after the hunter had dressed it. The lyrics are:
God almighty d____d dog (3X)
The devil eat the groundhog!
If you want to learn more about Jim Reed’s experiences with Snake and Paul, go to Paul Roberts’ interview on his banjocrazy.com website and see theInterview with Jim Reed. Here’a a part of it:
Paul Roberts: Can you remember any musical experiences as a child that helped you as you were learning to play?
Jim: I know one thing for sure. Paul David Smith and Owen “Snake” Chapman had more to do with my playing than anyone. ..I’ve listened to them all night long. Not once did they play the same song twice.
At the time I was about 12 years they started coming to my dad’s house to pick with my dad and my brothers. Of course, I wasn’t really that good, but they heard some sounds that I was playing that fit into their fiddling. They’d mostly played with clawhammer players and hadn’t been around too many 3-finger style pickers.So you can say they took me under their wings and started telling me, ‘we will play this slow, and when we nod our head, you take a break.’ From there, I started playing fiddle tunes on the banjo. They taught me to be smooth and play notes you don’t hardly hear on a banjo. I think that it may be that some of my playing is just because of their experience and patience.
Here is lots of information about Snake: bio of Owen Snake Chapman and a couple of interesting facts:
Doc Chapman’s father is said to have helped Abe Lincoln build fences.
Snake got his nickname from an Italian road worker who visited the family, giving Owen cookies and affectionately calling him the same name as his pony, Blacksnake.
Video of Paul David Smith playing Devil Eat the Groundhog
BHO member frfiddle plays Devil Ate a Groundhog
BHO member TheBanjoPrince's video
Good simple tab from Stewart Tyler May site
Don Borchelt's tab page I learned The Devil Eat the Groundhog from Don Borchelt’s beautiful 3-finger picking and worked to get my clawhammer version up and down the neck similar to Don’s playing.
I hope you give it a try and share it here, too.