Everyone ought to look at the song in the Randolph collection Ozark Folksongs. Vance Randolph collected the song from Irene Carlisle, the only time it has turned up in tradition. Most of us sing it with slightly altered words, keeping the chorus consistent to enable audiences to sing along. The original version had variable chorus lines. Staines did record it for us, not realizing that we had also recorded it (a bit differently) a decade earlier. I think I may have told the story in an earlier thread, but Vance Randolph told me that he had searched for other versions of the song in every folksong collection or songster he could lay his hands on, and finally approached Irene, asking, "C'mon, Irene! Didn't you write that song?" She insisted that she had learned it from a young Texan who boarded at her home in the Ozarks some years before. It remains unique in the tradition, although others have re-written it for the rivers of their own home region. Art can tell you about the one for the State of Illinois. I know of one for West Virginia, but don't have those words now. I'm sure there are others. The words as we recorded them are in the DT. Just put [Down by the Brazos] in the box up there and you'll find them easily. But, seriously, look at the original and get the words right!

Sandy