[Dixielandjazz] Aunt Hagar's Blues

[James O'Briant]

Here's a question for some of the archivist on this list....

Two of the bands with which I sub from time to time play "Aunt Hagar's
Blues." Both play it from the lead sheet that's # 295 in the Neighbors Fake
Book.  The Firehouse Fake Book (where it's # 387) is virtually identical.  

The same tune (all three strains) appears twice in the Anderson Collection
-- once in Volume 1, Page 59, and once in Vol. I of the "With Verses"
section, Page 122V.  The tune is again nearly identical, but in both places
Anderson gives the title as "Aunt Hagar's Children's Blues."

To further confuse the situation, I recently purchased a CD of recordings
made by W.C. Handy's Memphis Blues Band between 1917 and 1923.  One of the
tones on the record is called the "Honking Cow Blues." It contains the
distinctive second strain of "Aunt Hagar's Blues."

Can anyone clear up the title discrepancy, and illuminate any connection
between "Aunt Hagar" and "Honking Cow?"

Jim O'Briant
Tuba
Gilroy, CA