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This disturbingly dark southern Appalachian murder ballad is believed to date back to Old World sources as early as the 1600’s. Recorded many times by various artists and appearing in numerous lexicons under different names, we hear in this song the tale of the unfortunate and untimely fate of a girl from Knoxville, Tennessee with “dark and roving eyes” at the hands of her violent young lover who believes she “can never be my bride.”

There has been much scholarship on the meaning of the dark narrative in this song; in this case, we’ll leave it to the listener to decide how these terrible events came to pass.

lyrics

I met a girl in Knoxville

A town we all know well

And every Sunday evening

Out in her home I'd dwell

We went to take an evening walk

About a mile from town

I picked a stick up off the ground

And knocked that fair girl down



She fell down on her bended knees

For mercy she did cry

Oh, Willie dear, don't kill me here

I'm unprepared to die

She never spoke another word

I only beat her more

Until the ground around me

Within her blood did flow



I took her by her golden curls

And drug her 'round and 'round

Throwing her into the river

That flows through Knoxville town

Go there, go there, you Knoxville girl

With the dark and roving eyes

Go there, go there, you Knoxville girl

You can never be my bride



I started back to Knoxville

Got there about midnight

My mother she was worried

And woke up in a fright

Saying, "Dear son, what have you done

To bloody your clothes so?"

I told my anxious mother

I was bleeding at my nose



I called for me a candle

To light myself to bed

I called for me a handkerchief

To bind my aching head

I rolled and tumbled the whole night through

As troubles was for me

Like flames of hell around my bed

And in my eyes could see



They carried me down to Knoxville

And put me in a cell

My friends all tried to get me out

But none could go my bail

I'm here to waste my life away

Down in this dirty old jail

Because I murdered that Knoxville girl

The girl I loved so well

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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