The song has only the single entry in the Roud index (Roud:6981 - Hicarmichael).

It's not a song I've come across before, but the tune is quite good. I can't see why it couldn't be sung; it's easy to change nigger to Hicarmichael in the 3 repeats of the line it appears in.

It's also incorrect to say it's wiped from all folk databases. Apart from the Roud index entry, there is an entry for the song in the Ballad index at Fresno State Hicarmichael.

I give the lyrics below. The word I've transcribed as wrec'ed, pronounced as wreck-ed, I've taken to be a form of wretched, but it may be some use of wrecked that I'm not familiar with.

Mick

---

HICARMICHAEL

Come all o' you young people, I'll tell you if I can.
Come all o' you young people, I'll tell you if I can.

Come all o' you young people, I'll tell you if I can,
Concerning a murder done by a coloured man.

His name was Hicarmichael, a man you all knew well.
They took him down to Knoxville and they locked him in a cell.

And the sheriff he went to arrest him all on one Sabbath day.
The sheriff he went to arrest him all on one Sabbath day.

The sheriff he went to arrest him all on one Sabbath day.
"I have a warr'nt it's for you", the sheriff unto him did say.

And as he proceeded to read, it the nigger shot him dead.
And as he proceeded to read, it the nigger shot him dead.

And as he proceeded to read it, the nigger shot him dead.
I'll tell you boys it will not do a wrec'ed life to live.

I'll tell you boys it will not do a wrec'ed life to live.
It will not do to take the life of anyone, for their life you cannot give

And money will not pay your fees when you're called before your God.
It's money will not pay your fees when you're called before your God.

It's money will not pay your fees when you're called before your God.
It's cost the many of a poor man's life, took and laid him under the sod.



Source: Dillard Chandler