Bonny George Campbell- Lunsford (NC) 1949 REC
[From LOC recording LC/AAFS rec. No. 9474 (A2) dated March 1949.
R. Matteson 2013, 2016]
BONNY GEORGE CAMPBELL- Bascom Lamar Lunsford Turkey Creek. Recorded by LOC in 1949 in Washington DC.
Listen: Bascom Lamar Lunsford
"This is a text of 'Bonny George Campbell' as sung in the southern Appalachian region. Very seldom you hear it except in terms of a fiddle tune called 'Cumberland Gap.' The slower tune 'Bonny George Campbell'. . ."
[Fiddle]
High upon highlands, low upon Tay,
Bonny George Campbell rode out on one day.
All saddled, all bridled, and booted rode he
And home came the saddle but never came he.
My barn is to build. My baby's unborn.
My Bonny George Campbell will never return.
Well high upon highlands, low upon Tay,
Bonny George Campbell rode out on one day.
[Fiddle]
All saddled, all bridled and booted rode he,
But home came the saddle and never came he.
Home came the saddle all bloody to see,
And home came the good horse, but never came he.
"Now, of course, the mountain boys speed it up, play it on a higher pitch, and use it for a country dance tune 'Cumberland Gap.'"
[Plays version of Cumberland Gap]