Knoxville Girl- McFarland & Gardner (KY-TN) 1926
[From the recording on 12-10-1926; Brunswick 110, 1926 and Vocalion A5121, 1927.
Both blind from birth, Lester McFarland of Gray, Kentucky(1902-1984) and Robert Gardner of Oliver Springs, Tennessee (1897- 1978) met in 1915 while attending the Kentucky School for the Blind in Louisville. They were known as "Mac and Bob," who were known as harmony singers.
Their version is a Kentucky/Tennessee traditional version from the Wexward/Oxford tradition. It is unknown how many versions were cover versions of this -- since the text is standard.
R. Matteson 2016]
Knoxville Girl- sung by Lester McFarland and Robert A. Gardner; Vocalion A5121, 1927
Oh in the town of Knoxville
I used to live and dwell
And in that little Knoxville town
I owned a flour mill.
I fell in love with a Knoxville girl
With dark and rolling eyes,
I promised her I'd marry me,
If me she'd never deny.
I called at her sister's house,
At nine o'clock that night.
And little did that fair girl think
I owed her any spite.
I asked her take a walk with me
Down to the meadows gay,
Where we could have a social talk,
And name our wedding day.
We walked along, we talked along,
Till I came to the level ground;
There I picked up an hedgewood stick
And I knocked that fair girl down.
She fell upon her bending knees,
Oh Lord have mercy she cried,
"Oh Willie my dear, don't murder me here,
For I'm not prepared to die."
The very, very word she said,
I beat her more and more,
I beat her til the ground around
Was in a bloody gore.
Then I took her by yellow hair
I drugged her 'round and' round
I drug her to the still water deep,
That flows through Knoxville town.
And just 'bout six weeks later
That Knoxville girl was found
A-floating down the still water deep,
That flows through Knoxville town.
Her sister swore my life away
She swore without a doubt
She swore that I was the very man,
That laid her sister out.
And now they're going to hang me,
A death I hate to die;
They're going to hang me up so high
Between the earth and sky.
And now they're going to hang me,
A death I hate to die;
They're going to hang me up so high,
Between the earth and sky.