Author Topic: Add: East Virginia


dmcg

Posted - 12 Jun 05 - 12:37 pm

I was born in East Virginia,
North Car'lina I did go,
There I courted a pretty young woman,
And her age I did not know.

Her hair was of some brightsome colour,
Her cheeks were of a rosy red,
On her breat she wore white lilies,
Many a tear for her I've shed.

In my heart you are my darlin',
At my door you're welcome in,
At my gate, I'll always meet you,
If your love I could only win.

When I'm asleep I'm dreaming of you,
When I'm awake I see no rest,
Moments seem to me like hours,
With achin' pains all acrost my breast.

I'd rather be in some dark holler,
Where the sun refuse to shine,
Than to see you another man's darlin',
And to know you'll never be mine.

When I am dead and in my coffin,
With my pale face towards the sun,
You can come and see me darlin',
See the deed that you have done.



Source: Alan Lomax, The Penguin Book of American Folk Songs, Penguin, 1964


Notes:

Comments on the Notation:
Alan Lomax directed that this "may be sung in close harmony, Southern Mountain style." For that reason I had provided the full notation he gave.

Alan Lomax also wrote:

Western Virginia, the wild mountainous region across the Appalachians, was settled by poor white Calvinists. It never felt itself part of the slave-owning South, and in 1860 it separated from "Eastern Virginia", set up its own State Government and allied itself with the Union. This song, dating from the period, comes from the mountainous borders of East Virginia. Like so many mountain love songs, it is laden with a sense of despair and frustration and a melancholy brooding about death. These frontier folk were weighted down with a Calvinist feeling of the shamefulness of the flesh. The rather nonsensical line
On her breast she wore white lilies

may once have been
And her breasts were white as lilies





Edited By dmcg - 12-Jun-2005 12:47:05 PM




masato sakurai

Posted - 12 Jun 05 - 03:02 pm

"The East Virginia Blues" : Carter Family (Issued: July 1941) [audio] is at Honkingduck.






Jon Freeman

Posted - 13 Jun 05 - 10:53 am

Thanks Masato. Loved it. I'll have to see if I can get myself some Carter family stuff.

We used to do East Virginia Blues in the Llandudno Folk Club quite a bit but I don't remember any but the first verse and "I don't want your green back dollar.." which doesn't exist in the ones given here. Perhaps it was close to this version that I have found at bluegrass lyrics.com listed as being performed by the Stanley Brothers:

I was born in East Virginia
North Carolina I did go
There I courted a fair young maiden
But her age I did not know

Oh her hair was dark and curly
And her cheeks were rosy red
On her breast she wore a lilly
Where I longed to lay my head

Molly dear, go ask your mother
If you my bride might ever be
If she says no, come back and tell me
And I'll run away with thee

No I'll not go ask my mother
Where she lies on her bed of rest
In her hand she holds a dagger
To kill the man that I love best

The ocean's deep and I can't wade it
And I have no wings to fly
I'll just get some blue-eyed boatman
For to row me o'er the tide

I'll go back to East Virginia
North Carolina ain't my home
I'll go back to East Virginia
Leave old North Carolina alone

I don't want your green back dollar
I don't want your watch and chain
All I want is you my darling
Say you'll take me back again

For you know I'd like to see you
At my door you're welcome in
At my gate I'll always greet you
For you're the girl I tried to win




Mr Happy

Posted - 14 Jun 05 - 01:11 am

I was born in East Virginia
North Carolina I did go
There I met the fairest maiden
Her name, her age I did not know

Her hair it was a light brown colour
Her cheeks they were a ruby red
On her breast she wore white lilies
There I longed to lay my head

Courtin' birds don't know my sorrow
Courtin' birds don't know my pain
For when they've courted one another
Then they'll fly away again

I don't want your green back dollar
I don't want your watch and chain
All I want is you my darling
Say you'll take me back again


From singing of 'The Black Diamonds' circa 1968






Malcolm Douglas
Posted - 14 Jun 05 - 02:01 am

Who were they, and where did they get it?




masato sakurai

Posted - 14 Jun 05 - 03:14 am

From Digital Library of Appalachia (to listen, click on Click here to display item):

(1) "East Virginia Blues," sung by Roy Swayney [rec. 1979; short exerpt]

(2) "East Virginia Blues," sung by Ray Hicks [rec. 1978; short exerpt]

(3) "East Virginia Blues," sung by Lily May Ledford

From the Max Hunter Collection:

(4) "East Virginia," sung by Betty Lou Copeland [rec. 1969]

(5) "East Virginia," sung by Ollie Gilbert [rec. 1971]






Jon Freeman

Posted - 14 Jun 05 - 09:39 am

I've tried a google for Black Diamonds but had no joy.

While here, I suppose I might as well give a link for the Stanley Brothers I mentioned.




Michael Morris

Posted - 14 Jun 05 - 05:05 pm

This variant from the Todd-Sonkin collection / Voices From the Dust Bowl is very close to the Lomax version, with some odd lyrical phrases reflecting the oral tradition: "Last Virginia"; "But her name I did not know"


EAST VIRGINIA BLUES

Wayne Dinwiddie
Visalia, 1941

I was born in Last Virginia
To North Carolina I did go
Fell in love with a fair young maiden
But her name I did not know.

Now her hair were dark and curly
And her cheeks were rosy red
And on her breast she wore white lilies
Where I longed to lay my head.

In my heart you are my darling
At my door yore welcome in
At my gate I'll always greet you
Yore the girl I tried to win.

Now I'd rather be in some dark hollow
Where the sun don't ever shine
Than for you to be another man's darlin'
When I know you'll never be mine.


Edited By Michael Morris - 14-Jun-2005 05:20:00 PM




Mr Happy

Posted - 14 Jun 05 - 11:53 pm

could be 'last' is a typo?




masato sakurai

Posted - 15 Jun 05 - 12:44 am

Seems to be. Listen to it at Voices from the Dust Bowl the Charles L. Todd and Robert Sonkin Migrant Worker Collection, 1940-1941.






Michael Morris

Posted - 15 Jun 05 - 05:23 am

I listened to it again, and I think you're both correct. And I suppose it's quite likely Dinwiddie learned the song from a recording or radio broadcast.


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