Name: The Lexington Murder
Duration: P00H02M36S
Description: For an in-depth discussion of this track, see the album notes: tinyurl[dot]com/V1NATnotes.

Fields Ward, vocal and guitar - The Lexington Murder

from Survey of Traditional Music, Vol. 1: From British Tradition by Field Recorders' Collective

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For an in-depth discussion of this track, see the album notes: tinyurl[dot]com/V1NATnotes.

lyrics

My tender parents brought me up,
Provided for me well.
‘Twas in the city of Lexington,
They put me in the mill.

‘Twas there I spied a fair young maid,
On her I cast my eye.
I asked her if she’d marry me,
And she believed a lie.

I went down to her mother’s house
At eight o’clock last night.
I asked her if she’d take a walk
A little way with me.

We walked along both side by side,
‘Til we came to a solemn place.
I took a stick from off of the fence
And struck her in the face.

She fell down on her bended knees
And loud for mercy did cry,
“For heaven’s sake, don’t murder me
For I’m unprepared to die.”

I did not attend her mercy cry,
But I struck her all the more,
‘Til I saw the innocent blood appear
That I could never restore.

Then I run my hands through her coal black hair,
To cover up my sin.
I drug her to the riverside,
And there I plunged her in.

Young men, young men, take warning from me,
And if your sweetheart’s true,
Don’t ever let the devil get
The upper hand of you.

credits

from Survey of Traditional Music, Vol. 1: From British Tradition, released August 7, 2023
Recorded by Mark Wilson and Bill Nowlin, Bel Air, MD, 3/04/73. 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.

fieldrecorder.org

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