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Melodically adapted by The Ghosts of Johnson City, the first collected text version of this Appalachian bootlegging song was made by Cecil Sharp in 1918 in ‘English Folk Songs from the Southern Appalachians’.

This song goes by many names and the lyrics vary greatly from version to version, but the ‘dig a hole in the meadow’ and the ‘revenue officers (or highwaymen)’ verses appear in each variation of the tune.

lyrics

Wake up wake up darling Corey

What makes you sleep so sound

The revenue officers are coming

They're gonna tear your still house down



Well the first time I seen darling Corey

She was sitting on the banks of the sea

Had a forty-four buckled around her

And a banjo on her knee



Go away go away darling Corey

Quit hanging around my bed

Your liquor has ruined my body

Pretty women gone to my head



Dig a hole dig a hole in the meadow

Dig a hole in the cold cold ground

Dig a hole dig a hole in the meadow

Gonna lay darling Corey down



Can't you hear those bluebirds a singing

Don't you hear that mournful sound

They're preaching darling Corey's funeral

In some lonesome graveyard ground



Wake up wake up Darling Corey

And go get me my gun

I ain't no man for fighting

But I'll die before I run

credits

from Am I Born to Die?, released October 20, 2015

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The Ghosts of Johnson City Portland, Maine

Based in Maine with musical roots in Appalachia and the Deep South, The Ghosts of Johnson City present simple and soulful versions of old mountain music, Civil War songs, coal-mining melodies, disaster chronicles, haunting murder ballads and tunes of love and loss in times of poverty. ... more

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