Bluegrass Messengers

Grieve, Oh Grieve- Sam Hinton (TX) 1927 REC

[My date, learned from his mother by 1927 dates to late 1800s. From FOLKWAYS RECORDS Album No. FA 2401; 1966 Folkways Records and Service Corp., 17 W. 60th St., NYC. THE WANDERING FOLK SONG By SAM HINTON. His notes follow,

R. Matteson 2017]


Grieve, Oh Grieve-- I learned this one long before "There Is a Tavern in the Town" became a hit song. My mother learned it when she was a girl in Gatesville, Texas, and I can't remember when I didn't know it. It contained the first line I recognized as a floating stanza, and I can still remember my delight at hearing Rev. Terry Wilson of Crockett, Texas, read the 137th Psalm, with its familiar lines". . . . yea, we wept when we remembered Zion. We hanged our harps upon the willows. . ." Later, the appearance of "The Tavern in the Town" gave me an inkling of the wandering propensities of music.

Grieve, Oh Grieve- Sung by Sam Hinton of Texas in 1966 he learned it from his mother when he was a boy.

Oh grieve, oh grieve, my true love grieve;
Must I love someone that don't love me?
Must I go bound while you go free
And love somebody that don't love me?

Oh dig my grave, both wide and deep,
With marble slab at head and feet;
On my breast a turtle dove
To show this world that I died for love.

Adieu, adieu, kind friends, adieu;
I can no longer stay with you.
I'll hang my harp on the willow tree
To show the world that I died for thee.

Oh, dig my grave, oh dig it deep ETC.