“Little Joe” (also “Darling Little Joe”) is sung by a dying boy to his mother. He asks what the little birds that come to the window will do, and what his kitten will do, alone, and what the old gardener will say when she asks him for flowers for her son. He tells her to keep his dog, Tag, who will mourn for him, to show the dog his coat so that he will not forget his master, and to speak kindly of Joe. And he tells her she will miss him for a while, but in heaven he will grow no larger, and an angel will know when she asks at the gate for her darling little Joe. In other versions the dog is called Tiger.
Folklorists collected it from singers in Arkansas, Missouri and Oklahoma. John Quincy Wolf recorded Mrs. E.P.J. Garrott singing it in Batesville, Arkansas, on 18 July 1952; she had learned it from her mother. Max Hunter recorded Ethel Hunter singing it in Springfield, Missouri, in June 1958, and O.B. Campbell in Vinita, Oklahoma, in August 1971.
Doc Hopkins, singing and playing guitar, made an early commercial recording, at Grafton, Wisconsin, around April 1932; it was issued on the Broadway label (8337) with “Methodist Pie.” Bill Clifton recorded it at the Starday studio in Nashville on 23 February 1961, with Mike Seeger and Smiley Hobbs among the players, for the album Carter Family Memorial Album. The Stanley Brothers recorded it on 16 January 1961 at the King studio in Cincinnati, with Carter Stanley singing lead, Ralph Stanley on banjo, Curley Lambert on mandolin, Art Stamper on fiddle and George Shuffler on bass; King released it in March 1962 on Award Winners at the Folk Song Festival. Norman Blake sang it with his guitar and Tut Taylor’s dobro on 30 December 1971, for Home in Sulphur Springs (Rounder, 1972). Dry Branch Fire Squad recorded it for Echoes of the Mountains (Rounder, 2009), and Mighty Poplar, with Andrew Marlin singing lead, for their 2023 album.
