Knoxville Girl- Howard Collins (KY) 1937 Lomax REC
[AFC recording 1937001- 1541A recorded by Alan Lomax in 1937. From Kentucky Alan Lomax Recordings, 1937-1942.
Listen: https://archive.org/details/afc1937001_1541A.
This is close to the commercial recordings- with the last stanza added.
R. Matteson 2016]
The Knoxville Girl- sung by Howard Collins with dulcimer accompaniment on October 19, 1937 in Smithboro, KY; Knott County.
The little town of Knoxville
A place you all know well;
There lived a fair young maiden,
And near there he did dwell.
They went out for a stroll one day,
About one mile from town,
He picked up a hedgewood stick
And knocked that fair girl down.
She fell upon her bending knees,
O Lord have mercy, she cried,
Oh Willie, my dear, don't murder me here,
I'm not prepared to die.
He did not stop to think about [it],
He beat her more and more,
Until the ground around about
Stood in a bloody gore.
He picked her by the curly white hair,
He drug her 'round and 'round,
He threw her in the clear water stream,
That flows through Knoxville town.
Go there go there you Koxville girl,
With dark and rolling eyes
Go there go there you Koxville girl,
You'll never be my wife.
He started back for Knoxville
He got there about midnight;
His 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.