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For an in-depth discussion of this track, see the album notes: tinyurl[dot]com/V5NATnotes

lyrics

All on old Smokey all covered with snow,
I lost my own true lover by courting too slow.

Yes, courting it is a pleasure, and parting is a grief.
Some false-hearted true lover is worser than a thief.

They’ll hug and they’ll kiss you, they’ll tell you more lies
Than the crossties on the railroad or stars in the skies.

Your parents, they are against me, they say I’m too poor,
They say that I’m not worthy of entering your door.

I know that I drink whiskey, but my money is my own,
And if they don’t like me, they can leave me all alone.

I'll build me a log cabin on top of the rise,
Where the wild birds and the pretty women can hear my sad cry.

credits

from Survey of Traditional Music, Vol. 5: Grown on American Soil, released August 7, 2023
Recorded by Mark Wilson, Cambridge, MA, 11/18/72. Previously unissued.

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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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