Sleepy Desert- Wilmer Watts (NC) 1929 REC
[Transcription of Wilmer Watts and His Lonely Eagles 'Sleepy Desert' was recorded 29 or 30 October 1929 in New York City and issued as Paramount 3282. Reissued on Various Artists 'Times Ain't Like They Used To Be: Early American Rural Music Vol III' Yazoo CD 2047. Notes by Stewie follow.
R. Matteson 2016]
Watts was from North Carolina and worked in the cotton mills. Band member, Palmer Rhyne, duetted on vocals on 'Sleepy Desert' and the pair were accompanied by an unidentified, but tasty, steel guitarist.
SLEEPY DESERT - Sung by Wilmer Watts and His Lonely Eagles; recorded 29 or 30 October, 1929.
Wake, oh wake, you sleepy desert
Wake, oh wake, it's a-comin' day
Oh stick your head out of the window
See what your true lover say
Some people says that courting's pleasure
Oh what pleasure do I see
When the dearest girl in this world
Has done and turned her back on me
Wake, oh wake, you sleepy desert
Wake, oh wake, it's a-comin' day
Oh stick your head out of the window
See what your true lover say
There's no one (to follow to) bedroom
There's no one to sleep with me
I got a wife way up in heaven
And the Lord knows she loves me
Wake, oh wake, you sleepy desert
Wake, oh wake, it's a-comin' day
Oh stick your head out of the window
See what your true lover say
You (needn't to bother) to ask my papa
He's in his room a-takin' his rest
And in his hand he holds a weapon
To kill the man that I love best