Hangman, Swing Your Rope- Smith (VA) 1942 Lomax
[From: Portraits: Hobart Smith recorded by Alan Lomax in 1942. Liner notes follow.
R. Matteson 2015]
Hobart Smith was born on Little Mouton, Saltville, VA on May 10, 1897. Smith was the oldest of four brothers in a family of eight children born to King and Louvenia Smith. Both his parents were banjo pickers; his sister, Texas Gladden, a noted ballad singer.
Hobart began playing the banjo when he was seven, later the guitar and the fiddle. His repertoire of instruments also included piano, organ, harp, mandolin and most any other stringed instrument.
Recording magnate, folk and country music authority Alan Lomas of New York was the first to record Hobart. Lomas called Smith "the best mountain instrumentalist that I've ever found, and the forty-two recordings in the Library of Congress will always stand as proof of that."
Hangman, Swing Your Rope- sung by Hobart Smith in 1942.
Oh hangman swing, [and] swing the rope,
Swing it for a while,
I think I see my father coming,
He's rode for a many a mile.
"Oh have you come to see me hung,
Or come to pay my fee?"
"Oh yes I've come to see you hung,
Upon the gallows tree."
(Followed by mother, then brother, then sister and finally sweetheart:)
"Oh have you come to see me hung,
Or come to pay my fee?"
"Oh no I've not come to see you hung,
And hung you never shall be."