AUNT CAROLINE DYER BLUESI'm goin' to Newport News
Just to see Aunt Caroline Dyer
I'm goin' to Newport News
Just to see Aunt Caroline Dyer
She's a fortune tellin' woman
(What you gonna ask her boy?) (Spoken)
Oh lord, and she don't tell no lies
(I'm gonna see her myself) (Spoken)I'm goin' to Newport News (this morning)
Catch a battleship across the doggone sea
I'm goin' to Newport News
Catch a battleship across the doggone sea
Because bad luck and hard work
Oh lord, sure don't agree with meAunt Caroline Dyer she told me
Son, you don't have to feel so low
Aunt Caroline Dyer she told me
Son, you don't have to feel so low
I'm gonna fix you up a mojo
Oh lord, so you can strut your stuff
(Go on and strut your stuff) (Spoken)Aunt Caroline Dyer she told me
Son, these women don't mean you no good
(I reckon I knowed that) (Spoken)
Aunt Caroline Dyer she told me
Son, these women don't mean you no good
So take my advice
And don't monkey with none in your neighbourhoodI am leavin' in the morning
I don't want no one to feel blue
(We'll all leave then) (Spoken)
I am leavin' in the morning
I don't want no one to feel blue
I am going back to Newport News
And do what Aunt Caroline Dyer told me toSource: Memphis Jug Band. Original recording Vi 23347, recorded on Thursday 29 May 1930. Reissued on 'The Memphis Jug Band Vol 3' JSP CD 608.
Note: Newport News figures in a number of other blues, including some by the Memphis Jug Band. This port in Virginia was a major embarkation point for the US troops of the American Expeditionary Force in WWI which accounts for the second stanza. It appears that Aunt Caroline was a real person and Dick Spottswood informs us that it is said she lived to the ripe old age of 140 years!
The words 'this morning' in the first line of the second stanza are in brackets because what is sung is indecipherable – it sounds like 'partner', but this seems unlikely. I have followed the lead of Susie Rothfield, who does a lovely version with the Blue Flame Stringband (Flying Fish), and have opted for 'this morning'.