Black Jack Davy- McBee (TN) 1962 REC, 1977 REC, 1978 Film
[From youtube. McBee first recorded Black Jack Davy in 1962 on Prestige Folklore FL 14008. Online notes and sources follow.
R. Matteson 2012, 2015]
Hamper McBee, legendary moonshiner, carnival barker, and ballad singer, first recorded Black Jack Davy in 1962 on Prestige Folklore FL 14008. (Hamper McBee - Cumberland Moonshiner). He was recorded again by renowned Country Music scholar Charles K. Wolfe and filmmaker Sol Korine at Hamper's home in Monteagle, Tennessee, in 1977, The Good Old-Fashioned Way compiles the best of McBee's traditional ballads, affecting original compositions, and outlandish, side-splitting stories of life on the carnival circuit, at the moonshine still, in the back of Sheriff Bill Malone's patrol car, and as Hamper McBee. Sol Korine made a short documentary style film: A candid portrait of the Tennesse ballad singer, story-teller, and part-time moonshiner Hamper McBee.
Sol Korine film can be viewed online: http://www.folkstreams.net/film,236
Film by Blaine Dunlap, Sol Korine
Produced by Sol Korine
Cinematographer: Blaine Dunlap
Sound: Ron Judkins
Editing: Blaine Dunlap with Lamar Howard
Copyright: 1978, Sol Korine and Blaine Dunlap
29 minutes, A candid portrait of the Tennesse ballad singer, story-teller, and part-time moonshiner Hamper McBee.
Notes: Hamper learned much of his music from his father and friends around Monteagle Mountain and had established a reputation at folk festivals in the 1970s as an accomplished and expressive ballad singer.
The film follows Hamper as he works, socializes, and talks about his music. He sings "Black Jack Davy," "Nine Hundred Miles," Wayfaring Stranger," "Rye Whiskey," and a song he wrote himself "Bill Malone," about the local constable who routinely arrested Hamper when he had too much to drink.
Hamper McBee is also a moonshiner, and Raw Mash shows him plying his trade at this nearly lost art.
Black Jack Davy- Hamper McBee (TN) 1962 REC, 1977 REC, 1978 Film
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y_twmPSo4gg
Oh, Black Jack Davy come a-runnin' through the hills
Down to the valley shady.
He whistled and he sang through the wildwood trees,
And he charmed the heart of a lady,
Charmed the heart of a lady.
The Lord returning late at night,
He asked about his lady.
The servant said "She left you now,
And gone with Black Jack Davy,
Gone with Black Jack Davy."
Last night she slept on a fine feather-bed
Beside her husband and baby.
Tonight she sleeps on the cold, cold ground,
Beside ol' Black Jack Davy
Beside ol' Black Jack Davy.