About This Song

Boil Them Cabbage Down is a traditional American fiddle tune and song. "Bile" is just an old way of spelling "boil." Nobody agrees on where it started. Ralph Rinzler traced the melody to "Smiling Polly," an English country dance printed in 1765. Alan Lomax called it a Black reel tune that went on to become popular with white square dance musicians. Some see African roots in it, others English ones, and the song as it's known in the South mixes both, from the slave and minstrel banjo traditions to the mountain fiddlers.

Uncle Dave Macon made the first recording, singing with his banjo, in New York on July 11, 1924. It came out that fall as "Bile Them Cabbage Down," and Macon put his own name on it as writer. Players don't learn it from one famous record. It's a standard in beginner fiddle and banjo books, which is where most people pick it up, usually with whatever set of verses they happened to learn.

Also recorded by Gid Tanner's Skillet Lickers and Clayton McMichen's Georgia Wildcats.