What an interesting and long-lived thread!

"Blue Ridge Banjo" -- I have the LP at home -- and "French Broad River" in particular played a part many years ago in leading me to pick up the banjo. Thinking now of Obray Ramsey and the banjo, I wish I could even touch the hem of his garment, but that didn't happen.

I remembered the words and the order of the verses differently from the ones above. Here's a transcription directly from the LP, warts and all, though I never could make out the word after "mountain" in the fourth verse. Maybe you can.

-- djc

SONG OF THE FRENCH BROAD RIVER

(Traditional Collected & Sung by Obray Ramsey)

In the mountains and the valleys there the French Broad River flows,
If it could write the history of the mighty things it knows
It could write of Boone and Crockett, Jackson and the Cherokee,
Flowing down from Carolina through the hills of Tennessee.

From the Paint Beds to the Painted Rocks the Indian made his stand
Up and down the river with his bow in his right hand;
Coming from the lowlands dressed in buckskin, with a gun,
The white man pushing westward, the setting of the sun.

From the big Bald Mountain down the edge of Tennessee,
That's the Laurel Valley with its trace of Cherokee;
To the Mountain Island Laurel River rolls along,
She flows into the French Broad as she sings her mighty song.

Up the French Broad valley you can hear a lonesome sound,
That's the bloodhound baying as he runs the blackbird down;
Heading up some mountain [?], he makes a running fight,
He's heading for the balsams, he's fighting for his life.

Come and sit down by the river, linger with it all day long,
You'll hear a million voices join together in this song;
The far-off cry of bygone days still linger in the air
On the bosom of the river, you can hear them singing there.