I learn this from the singing of Jeff Warner

Claudy Banks
(Collected by Jeff Davis & Dick Swain from Fred Redden of Middle Musquodoboit, Nova Scotia, ca 1990.)

In youth I craved adventure, to Australia I did stray
Leaving friends and my dear mother for adventure far away
She begged me not to leave her or to return some day
To the bonny banks of Claudy, ten thousand miles away

Chorus:
Oh blame me not for weeping, oh blame me not I say
For I long to see my mother, ten thousand miles away

Last night as I lay sleeping, I had a dreadful dream
I thought I saw my mother who was waiting there for me
She said that she must leave me, she could no longer stay
By the bonny banks of Claudy, ten thousand miles away

Today I got a letter, it came from sister dear
Telling me of my dear mother and wishing I were there
She said that they have laid her in a grave so cold and gray
By the bonny banks of Claudy, ten thousand miles away

I wish I were a little bird, I'd fly so far away,
To the bonny banks of the Claudy, ten thousand miles away.
As the years roll on before me, I'll sometimes kneel and pray.
For the bonny banks of Claudy, ten thousand miles away.


Last verse complied from Almedia Riddle's version