Bluegrass Messengers

Knoxville Girl- Nora May Begley (KY) 1937 Lomax REC

[AFC recording 1937001- 1408A1 (first stanzas missing) by Alan Lomax. From Kentucky Alan Lomax Recordings, 1937-1942.
Listen: https://archive.org/details/afc1937001_1408A1

R. Matteson 2016]

Knoxville Girl-- sung by Nora May Begley of Pine Mountain, Harlan County on September 23, 1937

I called for me a candle
To light myself to bed.
Also for me a handkerchief
To bind my achin' head.

 I rolled and tumbled all night long,
 No rest could I see;
 Flames of hell around my bed
 And in my eyes could see.

 'Bout three weeks or later
 The fair young body was found
 A-flowing down the river
 That flows through Knoxville town.

 They carried me to the Knoxville jail
 They locked me up in cell;
 My friends all tried to spare[1] me,
 But none could go my bail.

 Her sister swore my life away,
 She did without a doubt,
 Here you are the very man
 That carried my sister out.

 Now they're going to hang me;
 A death I hate to die;
 Now they're going to hang me up
 Between the earth and sky.

1. unclear