"DOWN BY THE EMBARRAS" (pronounced---AM-BRAW) by Win Stracke,1963, a founder of the Old Town School Of Folk Music in Chicago & a great man.(after "Down By The Brazos")These are all Illinois rivers.I did this on _Songs O The Heartland_ with Cindy Mangsen on Kicking Mule Records---gone now. Dan Keding has written a good one for Wisconsin.

I've crossed the Des Plaines & forded the Vermillion,
Swum the Little Wabash & followed the Apple,
Calumet's muddy, the Rock River clear,
But down by the Embarras I courted my dear.

(chorus) It's hi the li, le the le, give me your hand,
repeat
repeat
There's many a river that waters the land.

The broad Illinois flows glossy and gliding,
The crooked Kaskaskia flows weaving and winding,
Abe Lincoln's Sangamon, it crosses the plain,
But I never will walk by the Embarras again.

She hugged me and she kissed me, called me her dandy,
The Mackinaw's rocky, the Kankakee sandy,
She kissed me, she hugged me, she called me her own,
Down by th Embarras she left me alone.

The girls of Fox River they're plump and they're pretty,
The Spoon and Macoupin have many a beauty,
Chicago flows slowly past girls by the score,
So down by the Embarras I'll wander no more.