Digital Tradition Mirror

Pick a Bale of Cotton

(This score available as ABC, SongWright, PostScript, PNG, or PMW, or a MIDI file)
Pennywhistle notation and Dulcimer tab for this song is also available

Pick a Bale of Cotton

Jump down, turn around to pick a bale of cotton
Jump down, turn around to pick a bale a day.*

cho: Oh Lordy, pick a bale of cotton,
     Oh Lordy, pick a bale a day.

That nigger from Shiloh can pick a bale of cotton
That nigger from Shiloh can pick a day.

Me and my gal can pick etc.

Me and my wife etc.

Me and my buddy etc.

Me and my poppa etc.

Takes a might big man to etc.

NOTE: A bale of cotton weighs about a quarter of a ton. Nobody ever picked
     a bale in a day. An astounding number of folkies sing "pick a bale of
     hay". That's not bragging; it's just silly. You don't pick hay. RG
RG

Thanks to Mudcat for the Digital Tradition!