DOWN ON PENNY'S FARM

Come you ladies and you gentlemen and listen to my song.
I'll sing it to you right, but you might think it's wrong.
It may make you mad, but I mean no harm.
It's all about the renters on Penny's farm.

CHO: Hard times in the country, down on Penny's farm.

Well, you move on out to Penny's farm,
Plant a little crop o' 'bacco and little crop o' corn.
He'll come around and he'll plan and plot,
Till he gets himself a mortgage on everything you got.

You go to the fields and you work all day,
Till way after dark, but you get no pay.
Promise you meat or a little lard.
It's hard to be a renter on Penny's farm.

Well, here's George Penny coming into town,
With a wagon-load of peaches, not one of 'em sound.
He's got to have his money or somebody's check.
You pay him for a bushel and you don't get a peck.

Then George Penny's renters, they come into town,
With their hands in their pockets, and their heads hanging down,
Go in the store and the merchant will say,
"Your mortgage is due and I'm looking for my pay."

Goes down in his pocket with a trembling hand --
"Can't pay you all, but I'll pay you what I can."
Then to the telephone the merchant makes a call,
"They'll put you on the chain gang if you don't pay it all."


Recorded by The Bentley Boys in 1929.
Included in "Anthology of American Folk Music, Vol. 1-3,"
various artists, 1997.
Related to "Hard Times," "Down on Roberts' Farm," "Tanner's Farm,"
and Bob Dylan's "Maggie's Farm."

@bitching @hardtimes
filename[ PENNYFRM
XX
Feb07
mudcat.org

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