Len Spencer - Arkansaw Traveler 1908

Victor 16199 - Len Spencer - Arkansaw Traveler 1908 (Spelled Arkansaw on the record) Arkansas. Recorded 12-01-1908 (Spoken Word)
Leonard Garfield Spencer (February 12, 1867 -- December 15, 1914) was an early American recording artist. He recorded numerous popular songs in the pre-1920s, the most popular of which was "Arkansaw Traveler" The song is an early novelty record and consists of a back-and-forth banter with an Arkansas local who is playing a fiddle. Examples from the conversation include asking "How far is it to the next crossroads?", to which the answer is given, "You just follow your nose and you'll come to it." One man asks, "How long have you lived here?" The answer, "See that mule? It was here when I got here." In another, a man asks another why he doesn't fix the leak in his roof, to which the man replies that it's been raining. The first man then asks him why he doesn't fix it when it isn't leaking. The answer is that doesn't leak when it doesn't rain. The song ends with the first man completing the fiddle tune for the Arkansan.