I Wish I Was A Mole In The Ground [VIDEO]

Once upon a time there was a good ol’ boy called Bascom Lamar Lunsford. He picked the banjo and wandered the back roads of the North Carolina hills. Learning tunes from the locals. In 1901 a high school kid named Fred sang a strange song called “I Wish I Was A Mole In The Ground”. Besides wanting to be a mole, Fred also wished he was a lizard in the spring (so he could hear his baby sing, obviously).

About 25 years would pass.

But Fred’s bizarre lyrics and banjo picking stuck with good ol’ Bascom, who would record the tune for Brunswick Records at a 1928 session in Ashland, Kentucky.

Another 25 years (or so) would pass.

Then in 1952, a fella named Harry Smith tossed Bascom’s tune into his groundbreaking Anthology of American Folk Music collection for Folkways Records. This turned all the beatniks (and pre-hippies) on to the odd little mole song.

Another 50 years (or so) would pass.

I was sitting in an indoor skatepark in downtown Winona, Minnesota. They turned an old abandoned building from the 1880s into a skatepark. Second floor. Winopunks, freegans, crustpunks, gutterkids, all hanging out smoking stolen cigarettes and eating cheap tacos. In a corner of that skatepark was a little recording studio. I wandered up there one day with a jug, a guitar, and a few friends.

Recorded several tunes, and “I Wish I Was A Mole In The Ground” was one of them. A hundred plus years later, the song is still just as strange, just as funky, just as fun to sing.

Thanks, Bascom. But – more importantly – thanks, Fred. Whoever you are. Hope your wish came true, and you became a mole or a lizard. Time keeps on repeating so I hope you got the chance.

Here’s a music video my wife Kitty put together of our adventures on the road. No moles. No lizards.

See ya again real soon – if the good Lord’s willin’, and the creek don’t rise!

Cheers,
Jack