The Mudcat Café TM
Thread #16528   Message #154389
Posted By: harpgirl
26-Dec-99 - 10:17 PM
Thread Name: Lyr Add: Zeb Tunney's Girl
Subject: Zeb Tunney's Girl
...AP Hudson's collection of "Folksongs of Mississippi", a sourcebook I have been seeking, lists this song as a good example of the feud ballad. It comes from Tishomongo County, Mississippi:

Zeb Tunney's Girl

It was out in the Tennessee Mountains
Away from the sins of the world
There Dan Kelly's son stood leaning on his gun
Thinking of ZebTunney's girl

Dan was a hot blooded youngster
His dad raised him thirty hand right
And he had him sworn from the day he was born
To shoot every Tunney in sight

"Powder and shot for the Tunney's
Don't save a hair on their head!"
Old Dan Kelly cried as he lay down and died
With young Danny there by his bed

Dan took the vow to his pappy
He would kill every one
His heart in a whirl with his love for the girl
He loaded his double-barrel gun

Moon shining down on the mountains
The moon shining down on the still
Young Dan took a sip, hung his gun to his hip
Started out to slaughter and kill

Over the mountains he wandered
Son of a Tennessee man
With fire in his eyes and his gun on his thigh
Lookin for old Zeb Tunney's clan

Shots ringing out on the mountain
Shots ringing out on the breeze
Old Dan Kellys son with the smoke in his gun
The Tunney's all down on their knees

The fame of old Dan Kelly's moonshine
Had gone far and wide of the world
How Dan Kelly's clan shot them down to a man
And brought back old Zeb Tunney's girl


...another charming Mississippi song...harpgirl