There was a 1929 song called "Razors in the Air" that was a minor hit for Vernon Dalhart (singer/guitarist) and fiddler Adelyne Hood (also harmony singer), that was a three part melody, with a chorus of "Hoe the Corn Moses/Moses Hoe the Corn". Their rendition was learned from sheet music published in 1879-80 by Harry Bennett and J.E. Murphy, whom I think were Tin Pan Alley composers in NYC.
In the 1970s my friend Pat Conte (from NYC) "re composed" it as "Moses Hoe The Corn" (as the only lyric) and as a two-part blues fiddle tour-de-force, in the key of E major. I liked what he'd done and asked him to send me a recording of his rendition and the Dalhart/Hood recording. I turned it into a two-part old time dance tune (using the same two parts that Pat had used) in the key of D that my band, "The Rhythm Gorillas", played often for square and contra dances. I taught it to the Canote twins while visiting on the West Coast in 1980, so it caught on out there. - Kerry Blech
