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For an in-depth discussion of this track, see the album notes: tinyurl[dot]com/V3NATnotes.

lyrics

“Oh, Mister Bartender, has Father been here?
He hasn't been home through the day.
‘Tis something unusual, and Mother's in fear
Some accident keeps him away."

“Oh, no, little pleader, oh yes, he's been here
Some officers took him away.
Run home to your mother, and quick let her know
What’s keeping your father away."

“It was not my father that done the bad deed
But the whiskey that maddened his brain.
Oh, let him go home to dear Mother, I plead,
I’m sure he won’t touch it again."

"No, no, little pleader, your father can't go
Some officers took him away.
Run home to your mother and quick let her know
What’s keeping your father away."

Then away to the prison, so sadly he crept
In the darkness so lone and so deep.
It creaks its great hinges twice, three times or more,
As prison bars often do creak.

"It was not my father that done the bad deed
But the whiskey that maddened his brain.
Oh, let him go home to dear Mother, I plead,
I’m sure he won’t touch it again."

"No, no, little pleader, your father can’t go
He committed a crime and must pay.
Go home to your mother, and quick let her know
What's keeping your father away."

Then away through the darkness, to home, sad as death
This message so sadly he bore,
"Dear Mother, I’ll shun it as long as I have breath
I’ll touch it or taste it no more."

credits

from Survey of Traditional Music, Vol. 3: Songs of Melancholy and Sorrow, released August 7, 2023
Recorded by Mark Wilson, Medford, MA, 5/7/74.

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Field Recorders' Collective

The Field Recorders’ Collective is a nonprofit organization dedicated to the preservation and distribution of noncommercial recordings of traditional American music, material that is unavailable to the general public.

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