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

lyrics

Come all you old Virginia girls and listen to my noise
Don't you never marry none of these Kentucky boys.
'Cause if'n you do, your fortune will be
Cornbread and buttermilk is all you will see. (2)

If you want to go a-courting, boys, I'll tell you where to go
Down to the old man's house below.
The girls all mad and their heads not combed
The children's all a-crying and the old folks gone. (2)

When they go to milk, they milk in a gourd
They set it in the corner and they cover it with a board.
An old cotton apron, greased all around
And an old leather bonnet with a hole in the crown. (2)

All I saw for supper was an old piece of beef
About half done and about half raw
About half done and about half raw
And the ashcake, cornbread, bran and all. (2)

They put me to carving on an old piece of beef
They had no knife and they had no fork
They had no knife and they had no fork
And I sawed about an hour, and I couldn't make a mark. (2)

I just kept a-sawing 'til I got it off the plate
One of them girls said, "You'd better wait"
I just kept a-sawing 'til I got it on the floor
I give it a kick and I kicked it out the door. (2)

Saw the old man a-coming with a double-barreled gun
One of them girls said, "You'd better run."
I stood my ground just as brave as a bear
And I tangled my fingers in that old man's hair. (2)

credits

from Survey of Traditional Music, Vol. 5: Grown on American Soil, released August 7, 2023
Recorded by Mark Wilson and Roger Cooper, South Portsmouth, KY, 6/96.

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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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