Knoxville Girl- Arthur Tanner (GA) 1925 REC
[From the recording by Arthur Tanner, "The Knoxville Girl" in June 1925 (Silvertone 3515) Chicago, Illinois. Also “Knoxville Girl”, by Arthur Tanner & His Corn Shuckers (Columbia 15145-D, 1927) Atlanta, Georgia.
Arthur Tanner was the brother of Gid Tanner of Skillet Lickers who recorded for Columbia in 1924 with guitarist and singer Riley Puckett. Puckett's solo 1924 version was never issued but Arthur Tanner probably got his version from Puckett or it was a local version they all knew.
R. Matteson 2016]
Knoxville Girl (my transcription) Arthur Tanner guitar and vocal, probably Earl Johnson on fiddle; Chicago Illinois, June, 1925.
I met a little girl in Knoxville
A town you all know well
And every Sunday evening
Out in her home I’d dwell
We went to take an evening walk
About a mile from town;
I picked a stick up from the ground
I knocked that fair girl down.
She fell upon on her bended knees
For mercy she did cry;
"Willie dear, don’t kill me here
I’m not prepared to die."
She never spoke another word,
Just beat her more her more;
Until the ground around her,
Was in[1] her blood did flow.
I taked her by her golden curls
And dragged her round and round
I throwed her into the river,
That flows from Knoxville Town.
“Go there, go there, you Knoxville Girl,
With the dark and rolling eyes,
Go there, go there, you Knoxville Girl,
You'll never be my bride.”
I started back to Knoxville,
Got there 'bout midnight;
And mama she was worried,
Was awful in an fright.
"My son, my son what have you done
To bloody your clothes so?"
The answer I gave mother,
"Was bleeding at my nose."
I called for me a candle,
To light myself to bed;
Also for me a handkerchief
To bind my aching head.
I rolled and tumbled the whole night long,
Was trouble there for me;
Flames of hell around my bed,
And in my eyes could see.
[They] carried me to the Knoxville jail,
They locked me in cell.
My friends all tried to help[2] me
But none could pay my bail.
Her sister swore my life away.
She knew without doubt.
Then I was the same man
That carried her sister out.
1. possibly "Within"
2. not clear
3. not clear