Lyr Req: Louisville Burglar

Subject: Louisville Burglar lyrics
From: GUEST,Jim
Date: 14 Feb 08 - 03:12 PM

I recall a song that I learned in high school from a New Lost City Ramblers album called Louisville Burglar. I picked up the guitar today and that tune came out but the lyrics escape me.
It started:
Raised up in Louisville a city you all know well
Raised up by honest parents...
That's as far as I can remember. Can you help?

Subject: RE: Louisville Burglar lyrics
From: Mick Pearce (MCP)
Date: 14 Feb 08 - 05:35 PM

It's pretty much the same as the Boston Burglar, which you can find in this thread: Origins: Boston Burglar , but if you give me a few minutes to type it up, I'll post the NLCR version.

Mick

Subject: Lyr Add: LOUISVILLE BURGLAR
From: Mick Pearce (MCP)
Date: 14 Feb 08 - 05:55 PM

Here's the lyrics. When I've got time I'll put up the tune. You can hear a version of the Boston Burglar at The Max Hunter Collection - The Boston Burglar

Mick

---

LOUISVILLE BURGLAR

Raised up in Louisville, a city you all know well,
Raised up by honest parents, the truth to you I'll tell,
Raised up by honest parents, and raised most tenderly,
'Til I became a burglar at the age of twenty-three.

My character was taken and I was sent to jail,
My people found it all in vain to get me out on bail,
The jury found me guilty, the clerk he wrote it down,
The judge he passed the sentence and sent me to Frankfort town.

They put me on an eastbound train one cold December day,
And as I passed the station, I could hear those people say,
Yonder goes the burglar, for some great crime I know,
For some great crime or other, to Frankfort town must go.

I saw my aged father a-pleading at the bar,
I saw my dear old mother dragging out her hair,
Dragging out those old grey locks, the tears were streaming down,
She says, "My son, what have you done to be sentenced to Frankfort town?"

I have a girl in Louisville, a girl that I love well,
If ever I get my liberty, long life with her I'll dwell,
If ever I get my liberty, bad company I will shun,
Playing cards, and gambling, and also drinking rum.

To you who have your liberty, pray keep it while you can,
Don't walk about the streets at night or break the laws of man,
For if you do, you surely will, you'll find yourself like me,
Serving out your twenty-one years in the state penitentiary.


Source: Old Time String Band Songbook (formerly the New Lost City Ramblers Songbook).

The notes there say: NLCR, Vol. 2. From the Hickory Nuts, OK 45169. Played and sung on the original record at a break-neck pace with fiddle, banjo, and guitar by one of the early and anonymous groups recorded in the late 'twenties by the Okeh company. When we stopped at Hickory Nut Gorge in western North Carolina asking after a band of musicians called The Hickory Nuts, the reply was, "Well, we've got a lot of nuts around here, but..."

Subject: RE: Louisville Burglar lyrics
From: GUEST,Jim
Date: 15 Feb 08 - 02:22 PM

Thanks, Mick.
That's exactly what I wanted.

Subject: RE: Louisville Burglar lyrics
From: Amos
Date: 15 Feb 08 - 02:49 PM

Terrific ole standby, I have sung it for many years almost exactly as Mick posted it.


A

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Louisville Burglar
From: GUEST,Katie
Date: 05 Dec 16 - 12:33 AM

I personally love the Easy Street's version of this. Frank Hall, Bob Herring, Randy Marmouze, Teri Klassen, and Mark Fedderson. One of the best old-time bands there every has been!