Black Jack Davy- Gant (TX) 1934 Lomax
[From: Our Singing Country- John A. Lomax & Alan Lomax; II. Social Songs: 7. Old-Time Love Songs. Their notes follow.
R. Matteson 2012]
BLACK JACK DAVY
No. 72. Gant family, Austin, Texas, 1934. See "The Gypsy Laddie," Child No. 2005 Sh, 1:233; Hu, p. 118; Be, p. 73.
One morning I called on the Gant family at ten o'clock. Mrs. Gant met me at the door dressed in her early morning wrapper. "The children are all asleep," she whispered apologetically, "and haven't gone to school today. Last night we all got to singing and dancing. We didn't go to bed until two o'clock this morning. The children stayed up, too, so I'm letting the whole bunch sleep until dinnertime."
The Gants were east Texas people from the sandy, square-dancing, razorback country that stretches into Arkansas, through northern Louisiana, Mississippi, and Alabama to the mountains. The Gants had followed cotton into Oklahoma, then down into the Panhandle and, in drought and years of bad prices, had moved on. In Oklahoma they learned new songs, new Gants were born, and some of the young ones began to pick the guitar. In the PanÂhandle they learned cowboy songs, the oldest daughter was married and had her first baby, and Adoniram began to pick the guitar. Dispossessed again, they came to Austin, the capital, looking for something to do. When there were no more jobs, they got a little food from the Relief and lived in a shack on the bank of the Colorado River.
The Gants were from the square-dancing, ballad-singing country, and on Saturdays there was always a dance at their house. On other week nights some of the boys would drop in to pick Ether's guitar, and there would be singing on the porch.
"Working on the highway, earning three dollars a day" And when no one was sick and the girls didn't have dates, there might be a singing at home: Mrs. Gant, who taught them their songs and their love of singing, and who knew the saddest songs, the oldest daughter, Glyda, who pretended to turn her nose up at the ballads but could sing "The Old Lady from Tennessee" better than anybody else in the family; Foy, who could pick the guitar as well as a man and used to remind them of their tunes; Ella, who was twelve and knew all the old tunes, especially the "funny ones"; the three boys, who mostly sang the blues, the cowboy songs, and the jailhouse ballads; Mr. Gant, who had one song, "Bangum and the Boar," over which his rights were almost personal; and then on the beds, leaning against someone's knee or breast, the tow-headed Gant kids, listening, falling asleep, and waking up to listen again.
"The singing kept us so happy, we just couldn't go to sleep," smiled Mrs. Gant.
Gant songs in this book: "Tee Roo," "Adieu to the Stone Walls," "Black Jack Davy," "When First to This Country a Stranger I Came."
1 Black Jack Davy come a-ridin' through the woods.
Singing songs so gayly,
Sang so loud he made the wild woods ring,
Charmed the hearts of a lady,
Charmed the hearts of a wife.
2 The old man came in that night,
Inquiring for his lady,
Said, "Where is my wife?"
The servant spoke before he thought,
"She's gone with the Black Jack Davy,
She's gone with the Black Jack boy."
3 "Go saddle me up my milk-white horse,
Saddle him slow and easy,
I'll ride all night till the broad daylight
And overtake my lady,
And overtake my wife."
4 He rode all day and he rode all night,
Till he came to the edge of the water;
There he looked on the other side,
There he spied his darling,
There he spied his wife.
5 "Will you forsake your house and home?
Will you forsake your baby?
Will you forsake the one you love
To roam with the Black Jack Davy?
To roam with the Black Jack boy?"
6 "Yes, I'll forsake my house and home;
Yes, I'll forsake my baby.
And I'll forsake the one I love
To roam with the Black Jack Davy,
To roam with the Black Jack boy."
7 "Will you pull off your snow-white gloves
Made of Spanish leather,
Give to me your lily-white hand,
Bid farewell forever,
Bid farewell goodbye?"
8 "Yes, I'll give up my snow-white gloves,
Made of Spanish leather,
Give you my lily-white hand,
Bid farewell forever,
Bid farewell goodbye."
9 "Last night I lay in my own feather bed,
By the side of my little baby;
Tonight I'll lay in the mud and rain,
By the side of Black Jack Davy,
By the side of the Black Jack boy."