Knoxville Girl- Nora May Begley (KY) 1937 Lomax REC
[AFC recording 1937001- 1408A1 (first stanzas missing) by Alan Lomax. From Kentucky Alan Lomax Recordings, 1937-1942.
Listen: https://archive.org/details/afc1937001_1408A1
R. Matteson 2016]
Knoxville Girl-- sung by Nora May Begley of Pine Mountain, Harlan County on September 23, 1937
I called for me a candle
To light myself to bed.
Also for me a handkerchief
To bind my achin' head.
I rolled and tumbled all night long,
No rest could I see;
Flames of hell around my bed
And in my eyes could see.
'Bout three weeks or later
The fair young body was found
A-flowing down the river
That flows through Knoxville town.
They carried me to the Knoxville jail
They locked me up in cell;
My friends all tried to spare[1] me,
But none could go my bail.
Her sister swore my life away,
She did without a doubt,
Here you are the very man
That carried my sister out.
Now they're going to hang me;
A death I hate to die;
Now they're going to hang me up
Between the earth and sky.
1. unclear