Last Possum Up Tthe Tree: Song Lyrics
- Friday, September 01, 2006 -
Little Birdie, Little Birdie, come sing to me your song,We've
a short time to be here and a long time to be gone.
Track 5; EAST VIRGINIA, f-FGCD: Elmer Slone and McKinley Everage were the first people I heard play and sing this banjo song. East Virginia dates back to the migration from east Virginia to the North Carolina frontier, which began in the eighteenth century. This song most likely originated with African Americans. Early settlers in the Knott County area, including my Hammons, Gibson and Adams ancestors, had previously moved to the mountains of North Carolina from east Virginia. This migration included enslaved African Americans, whose ancestors brought the banjo from Africa.
I am from old east Virginia
To North Carolina I did go,
There I met a fair young maiden,
Lord, her name and age I did not know.
Oh her hair was a dark brown curly,
And her cheeks were a rosy red,
On her breast she wore white linen,
There I'd love to lay my head.
I'd rather be in some dark hollow,
Where the sun don't never shine,
Than to see you with some other,
And to know you'd never be mine.
I must leave old North Carolina,
I must leave you all alone,
I'm going across that rocky mountain,
East Kentucky will be my home.
Track 6; COLONIAL JONES EXPLAINS MOONSHINE (Spoken): A few months after the Possum CD was released I got a call from Indiana. The caller asked if the story I told about his father was true. After I told him it was, he told me where Colonial Jones had his moonshine still. He said, "Dad wouldn't let us drink moonshine, but he would sometimes let us drink still beer." Colonial Jones had his still in an old coal bank in a number four coal seam. The old coal openings were developed to provide coal for household use, and usually contained good water.
I am glad I did not use the correct location and name for the man who traded his wife for a mule. A call from one of his descendants might not have been pleasant.
