The Knoxville Girl Explained

The Knoxville Girl
Type:Song
Genre:Murder ballad

"The Knoxville Girl" is an Appalachian murder ballad.

Origins

It is derived from the 19th-century Irish ballad "The Wexford Girl", itself derived from the earlier English ballad "The Bloody Miller or Hanged I Shall Be" (Roud 263, Laws P35) about a murder, in 1683, at Hogstow Mill, south of Shrewsbury. This ballad was collected by Samuel Pepys, who wrote about the murder of Anne Nichols by the Mill's apprentice Francis Cooper. Other versions are known as the "Waxweed Girl", "The Wexford Murder". These are in turn derived from an Elizabethan era poem or broadside ballad, "The Cruel Miller".[1]

Possibly modelled on the 17th-century broadside William Grismond's Downfall, or A Lamentable Murther by him Committed at Lainterdine in the county of Hereford on March 12, 1650: Together with his lamentation., sometimes known as The Bloody Miller.

Lyrics

I met a little girl in Knoxville, a town we all know wellAnd every Sunday evening, out in her home, I'd dwellWe went to take an evening walk about a mile from townI picked a stick up off the ground and knocked that fair girl down

She fell down on her bended knees, for mercy she did cry"Oh Willy dear, don't kill me here, I'm unprepared to die"She never spoke another word, I only beat her moreUntil the ground around me within her blood did flow

I took her by her golden curls and I drug her round and aroundThrowing her into the river that flows through Knoxville townGo down, go down, you Knoxville girl with the dark and rolling eyesGo down, go down, you Knoxville girl, you can never be my bride

I started back to Knoxville, got there about midnightMy mother, she was worried and woke up in a frightSaying "dear son, what have you done to bloody your clothes so?"I told my anxious mother I was bleeding at my nose

I called for me a candle to light myself to bedI called for me a handkerchief to bind my aching headRolled and tumbled the whole night through, as troubles was for meLike flames of hell around my bed and in my eyes could see

They carried me down to Knoxville and put me in a cellMy friends all tried to get me out but none could go my bailI'm here to waste my life away down in this dirty old jailBecause I murdered that Knoxville girl, the girl I loved so well

Recordings

YearArtistReleaseNotes
1924 "Knoxville Girl" Earliest recording[2]
1937 "Never Let the Devil Get the Upper Hand of You" [3]
1938 "In My Little Home In Tennessee/The Knoxville Girl" [4] [5]
1947Cope BrothersKnoxville Girl / She Sleeps Beneath The Norris DamKING 589
1956 Tragic Songs of Life [6] (US Country #19)
1959 "The Knoxville Girl/Which One Is To Blame" [7] (US Country #18)
1961 ?
1963 Hootenanny – A Bluegrass Special [8]
1969 Saluting The Louvin Brothers [9]
1972 Bobby and Sonny [10]
1974 Apprentice (In A Musical Workshop) [11]
1975 Outlaws
1978 Me 'N Ole Pete
1996 Live From Robert's
1996 Car Button Cloth [12]
1996 Move into the villa villakula
1996 "Henry Lee/Knoxville Girl" [13]
2002 The Executioner's Last Songs [14]
2003 Smothered and Covered
2005 Black Sheep Boy [15]
2005 The Ballads [16]
2005 All Likkered Up [17]
2006 Searching for the Wrong-Eyed Jesus [18]
2008 Rachel Brooke [19]
2009 The Fox Hunt America's Working So We Don't Have To [20]
2008 The Boxmasters [21]
2013 Oh, Willie, Please... [22]
2014 Autocantata [23]
2015 Am I Born To Die?

Samples

Parodies

Uses in other media

The song features prominently in If Ever I Return, Pretty Peggy-O, the first book in the Ballad mystery series by Sharyn McCrumb.

Bibliography

External links

Notes and References

  1. Book: Thomson, Graeme. I Shot a Man in Reno: A History of Death by Murder, Suicide, Fire, Flood, Drugs, Disease, and General. A&C Black. 2008. New York/London. 59. 978-0826428578.
  2. Web site: Gid Tanner – "Knoxville Girl" . Personnel from Brooks/Rust. Russell lists Riley Puckett as the vocalist and notes that Puckett played guitar and Gid Tanner may be playing fiddle.. Discography of American Historical Recordings . ucsb.edu . 1924 . March 1, 2017.
  3. Web site: The Virginia Mountain Boys . The song [Knoxville Girl] appears in many American folksong collections in widely variant forms. Some other recordings: Carter Family, "Never Let the Devil Get the Upper Hand of You", recorded June 17, 1937, in New York, releases, DECCA 5479, Montgomery Ward M-8027, Melotone 45250 and other reissues. . Smithsonian Folkways . smithsonianfolkways.org. 1977 . March 1, 2017.
  4. Web site: The Blue Sky Boys – "In My Little Home In Tennessee/The Knoxville Girl" . discogs.com . 1938 . March 1, 2017.
  5. Book: Cohen . John . Seeger . Mike . The New Lost City Ramblers Song Book . 1964 . 1st . Oak Publications . New York. 0-825600464.
  6. Web site: The Louvin Brothers – Tragic Songs of Life . discogs.com . 1956 . March 1, 2017.
  7. Web site: The Wilburn Brothers – "The Knoxville Girl/Which One Is To Blame" . discogs.com . 1959 . March 1, 2017.
  8. Web site: John Duffey and The Country Gentlemen – Hootenanny: A Bluegrass Special . discogs.com . 1963 . March 1, 2017.
  9. Web site: Jim and Jesse – Saluting The Louvin Brothers . discogs.com . 1969 . March 1, 2017.
  10. Web site: The Osborne Bros - Bobby & Sonny . Discogs.
  11. Web site: Dave Loggins – Apprentice (In A Musical Workshop) . discogs.com . 1974 . March 1, 2017.
  12. Web site: The Lemonheads Car – Button Cloth . discogs.com . 1996 . March 1, 2017.
  13. Web site: Nick Cave And The Bad Seeds & PJ Harvey – "Henry Lee/Knoxville Girl" . discogs.com . 1996 . March 1, 2017.
  14. Web site: Pine Valley Cosmonauts w/Brett Sparks – The Executioner's Last Songs . discogs.com . 1996 . March 1, 2017.
  15. Web site: Okkervil River – Black Sheep Boy . discogs.com . 2005 . March 1, 2017.
  16. Web site: Sweetwater – The Ballads . discogs.com . 2005 . March 1, 2017.
  17. Web site: Roger Alan Wade – All Likkered Up . discogs.com . 2005 . March 1, 2017.
  18. Web site: The Singing Hall Sisters – "The Knoxville Girl". discogs.com . 2006 . March 1, 2017.
  19. Web site: Rachel Brooke – Rachel Brooke . discogs.com . 2008 . March 1, 2017.
  20. Web site: The Fox Hunt – America's Working So We Don't Have To . Spotify . 2009 . Aug 30, 2019.
  21. Web site: The Boxmasters – The Boxmasters . discogs.com . 2008 . March 1, 2017.
  22. Web site: Vandaveer – Oh, Willie, Please... . discogs.com . 2013 . March 1, 2017.
  23. Web site: Beaches In Boise – Autocantata . discogs.com . March 2014 . March 1, 2017.

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