The Mudcat Café TM
Thread #111501 Message #2349818
Posted By: 12-stringer
27-May-08 - 12:49 AM
Thread Name: Lyr Req: Long Chain Charlie and Moundsville
Subject: RE: Long Chain Charlie and Moundsville lyric
Moundsville wasn't a maximum security federal prison; it was the West Virginia State Penitentiary. Legend persists that Moundsville was, abt 1865 and when West Virginia was opening up for business, given the choice between hosting the state prison or the state university. They moved over to a new prison some years ago.
In my younger days I knew a few people who had seen Moundsville Prison a little more up-close than I ever have, but I don't remember hearing the term "Long Chain Charlie" from any of them. However, nb that hillbilly singer Billy Cox, who was from Charleston, recorded a "Long Chain Charlie Blues" in 1934 on the ARC label. It's also about a man on his way to prison, and "Charlie" is the agent who's going to take him there. So maybe this term had some usage in WV -- perhaps more so in the southern part of the state than in the north, where I live.
Otherwise, Cox's song seems to be completely different from Stover's, though the themes are related. Cox's melody takes off from "Black Bottom Strut/Deep Elem Blues" and his narrator isn't on Death Row.