Lyrics:
In eighteen hundred one, peg and awl
In eighteen hundred one, peg and awl
In eighteen hundred one, peggin’ shoes was all I’d done
I’m gonna lay me down my awl, my peg and awl
In eighteen hundred two, peg and awl
In eighteen hundred two, peg and awl
In eighteen hundred two, peggin’ shoes was all I’d do
I’m gonna lay me down my awl, my peg and awl
In eighteen hundred three, peg and awl
In eighteen hundred three, peg and awl
In eighteen hundred three, peggin’ shoes was all you’d see
I’m gonna lay me down my awl, my peg and awl
They’ve invented a new machine, peg and awl
They’ve invented a new machine, peg and awl
They’ve invented a new machine, I peg one shoe, it pegs fifteen
I’m gonna lay me down my awl, my peg and awl
In eighteen hundred four, peg and awl
In eighteen hundred four, peg and awl
In eighteen hundred four, peggin’ shoes I’ll do no more
I’m gonna lay me down my awl, my peg and awl
Lyrics Sung by The Carolina Tar Heels (1928)
In the days of eighteen and one, peg and awl
In the days of eighteen and one, peg and awl
In the days of eighteen and one, peggin’ shoes is all I done
Hand me down my pegs, my pegs, my pegs, my awl
In the days of eighteen and two, peg and awl
In the days of eighteen and two, peg and awl
In the days of eighteen and two, peggin’ shoes is all you’d do
Hand me down my pegs, my pegs, my pegs, my awl
In the days of eighteen and three peg and awl
In the days of eighteen and three peg and awl
In the days of eighteen and three, peggin’ shows was all you’d see
Hand me down my pegs, my pegs, my pegs, my awl
In the days of eighteen and four peg and awl
In the days of eighteen and four peg and awl
In the days of eighteen and four, I said I’d peg them shoes no more
Throw away my pegs, my pegs, my pegs, my awl
They’ve invented a new machine, peg and awl
They’ve invented a new machine, peg and awl
They’ve invented a new machine, prettiest little thing you ever see
Throw away my pegs, my pegs, my pegs, my awl
Make one hundred pair to my one, peg and awl
Make one hundred pair to my one, peg and awl
Make one hundred pair to my one, peggin’ shoes it ain’t no fun
Throw away my pegs, my pegs, my pegs, my awl
• More Recordings •
About the Song:
This unique piece of balladry was first recorded by the Carolina Tar Heels on November 14th, 1928 and released by Victor (V-40007) on January 18th, 1929. Interestingly, it has almost exclusively been recorded commercially with no traditional documentation to my knowledge.
“Peg and Awl: a part of the Captain Kidd tune family according to Alan Lomax in The Folk Songs of North America in the English Language, which dates back to at least 1701. This tune family includes songs like “Johnny I Hardly Knew Ye” in Ireland and “Crawdad Song” in the American South. Lomax says this may be the first American song dealing with “redundancy or mechanical unemployment.” Interestingly, the dates do not match the American Industrial Revolution, where shoe-making machines weren’t used until 1858. The dates are closer to industrialization in England but are still a little early as shoe-making machines weren’t invented until 1812 by Marc Brunel to support soldiers in the Napoleonic wars, after which shoe production returned to the hands of the shoemaker.
Charles W. Darling says the song was composed in the middle of the century in his 1983 collection, The New American Songster: Traditional Ballads and Songs of North America, but gives no source. This is especially doubtful, as the later possible date of 1929 is still a bit away from the middle of the century.
It is sometimes lumped together with the bawdy “The Long Peg and Awl”, as was done in the liner notes of the reissued Anthology of American Folk Music. However, the connection seems to stop at featuring tools in a shoemaker’s kit.
Two recordings by Bascom Lamar Lunsford titled “The Ruint Cobbler” (March 1935, AFS 01828 A03) and “Ruint Cobbler (White Spiritual)” (March 1949, AFS 09486 B04) are in the Library of Congress but are not accessible online. This version is presumably published in Lunsford and Lamar Stringfield’s 1929 collection, 30 And 1 Folk Songs From Southern Mountains. This book isn’t available online though.
Other titles: “The Ruint Cobbler”
Related Songs: “Ship that Never Returned” (Similar verse melody)
Learned from Bruce Molsky’s 2000 album, Poor Man’s Troubles.