Lowdown Lonesome Low- Stubblefield (ID) 1941
[From: Our Singing Country by John and Alan Lomax, 1941.
Bio excerpt from Wiki: Blaine's father Mickle played the fiddle. In his youth in the Snake River country, Blaine learned to play guitar and fiddle and took an interest in folksongs, which he picked up from miners, cattlemen, pioneers, sheepherders, and traveling medicine men. Blaine also got songs from his father. Mickle typed some songs out on his typewriter. Blaine became an enthusiastic folksong collector and singer. While editor of McGraw-Hill's Aviation magazine in Washington, DC, Blaine was asked by a local radio station to run a weekly program of folk music. In this way he attracted the interest of ethnomusicologist Alan Lomax at the Library of Congress.
Blaine worked with Alan Lomax to record folk songs at the Archive of Folk Culture of the Library of Congress in Washington DC. The songs were recorded on 12-inch phonograph records or reel-to-reel magnetic tape and are available in the Idaho Collections in the Archive of Folk Culture at the Library of Congress. Fourteen songs sung by Blaine were recorded in 1938. In 1939 and 1942, five songs sung by Blaine were recorded and five songs sung by Blaine and Frank A. Melton were recorded. Blaine accompanied himself on guitar.
The words and music of four songs sung by Blaine in 1938, Way Out in Idaho, If He'd Be a Buckaroo, The Low-Down, Lonesome Low, and Brennan on the Moor, (see also Willy Brennan) were printed in Our Singing Country and are available online. Other folksongs sung by Blaine in the Library of Congress recordings include Bryan O'Lynn, Poor Miner, The Farmer's Curst Wife, and The Golden Vanity.
Folk songs recorded by Stubblefield for the Library of Congress are designated in some places as “by Blaine Stubblefield” but were not authored by him.
Several of the folk songs contributed by Stubblefield to the Library of Congress had been gotten by Blaine from his father Mickle.]
THE LOW-DOWN, LONESOME LOW- A. No. 2506. Acc. on guitar and sung by Blaine Stubblefield, Washington, D.C., 1939. See "The Golden Vanity," Child No. 286; Sh, 1:2825 Ga. 2, p. 2145 Col, p. 154; Be, p. 97.
1 "Captain, oh, captain, what will you give me If I will sink the Turkey Reveille,
As she sails in the low-down,
Low-down, low-down,
As she sails in the low-down, lonesome low?"
2 "Gold and silver, shining so bright
And my fairest daughter shall wed you tonight,
If you sink her in the low-down,
Low-down, low-down,
If you sink her in the low-down, lonesome low."
3 Then he bared his breast and he swam on the sea
Till he came along by the Turkey Reveille
As she sailed in the low-down,
Low-down, low-down,
As she sailed in the low-down, lonesome low.
4 Some with their cards and some with their dice,
And some were taking their best friend's advice,
As she rowed in the low-down,
Low-down, low-down,
As she rowed in the low-down, lonesome low.
5 Then he bared his breast and he swam in the tide,
And he bored ten holes in the old ship's side,
And she sank in the low-down,
Low-down, low-down,
And she sank in the low-down, lonesome low.
6 Some with their hats and some with their caps
Were trying to stop them salt-water gaps,
As she sailed in the low-down,
Low-down, low-down,
As she sailed in the low-down, lonesome low.
7 Then he bared his breast and he swam in the tide
Until he come along by his own ship's side,
As she rolled in the low-down,
Low-down, low-down,
As she rolled in the low-down, lonesome low.
8 "Captain, oh, captain, take me on board,
For if you don't you have forfeited your word,
As you sail in the low-down,
Low-down, low-down,
As you sail in the low-down, lonesome low."
9 "Sailor boy, sailor boy, don't appeal to me,
For you drowned fifty souls when you sank the Reveille,
As she sailed in the low-down,
Low-down, low-down,
As she sailed in the low-down, lonesome low."
10 "If it wasn't for the love that I have for your men,
I would serve you the same as I've served them,
As you sail in the low-down,
Low-down, low-down,
As you sail in the low-down, lonesome low."
11 Then he hoisted his sails, and away sailed he,
And he left the poor sailor boy to drown in the sea,
To drown in the low-down,
Low-down, low-down,
To drown in the low-down, lonesome low.
12 So he bared his breast and down swam he,
He swam till he came to the bottom of the sea,
And he drowned in the low-down,
Low-down, low-down,
And he drowned in the low-down, lonesome low.