Knoxville Girl- Davis siters (KY) 1937 Lomax REC
[AFC recording 1937001_1490A2 recorded by Alan Lomax in 1937. From Kentucky Alan Lomax Recordings, 1937-1942.
Listen: https://archive.org/details/afc1937001_1490A2
R. Matteson 2016]
The Knoxville Girl (Part 1 and Part 2)-- Sung by Mary Davis and Cora Davis on October 9, 1937in "Sibert, Manchester" KY; Clay County.
Was in the town of Knoxville
I used to live and dwell;
In this little Knoxville town,
I owned a flour mill.
I fell in love with a Knoxville girl
With dark and rolling eyes,
I promised I would marry her,
If [me] she would never deny.
I knocked up to her sister's house
At nine o'clock one night
And little did fair girl think
I owed her any spite[1]
I asked her take a walk
Down through the meadows gay,
That we might have a social talk
And name our wedding day.
We walked along we talked along,
Till we came to the level ground
And there I picked a hedgewood stick
And I knocked that fair girl down.
She fell upon her bended knees,
O Lord have mercy, she cried,
Oh Willie, my dear, don't murder me here,
For I'm not prepared to die.
I heeded not one word she said,
I beat her more and more,
I beat her till the ground around
Stood in a bloody gore.
I took her by her yellow hair,
I drug her 'round and 'round,
I throwed her in the still water deep,
That flows through Knoxville town.
I started back for Knoxville
I got there about midnight
My mother she was wearied,
And jumped up in a fright.
"Oh son, oh son what have you done,
To bloody up your clothes
Oh mother dear please hush your voice,
I'm bleeding from the nose.
About six weeks later,
The Knoxville girl was found,
Floating down the clear water stream,
Below that Knoxville town.
Her sister swore my life away,
She swore without a doubt,
That I was the very man,
That laid her sister out.
So now they're going to hang me,
A death I hate to die,
They're going to hang me up,
Between the earth and sky.
So now they're going to hang me,
A death I hate to die,
They're going to hang me up,
I'll bid you all goodbye.
1. in a fight