Lyr Req: Hills of Kentucky (Debby McClatchy)

Subject: Hills of Kentucky/Debby McClatchy
From: Mrs.Duck
Date: 25 Feb 01 - 10:24 AM

Anyone help with words to this song?-chords might be useful too. Thanks.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Hills of Kentucky/Debby McClatchy
From: Mary in Kentucky
Date: 25 Feb 01 - 11:41 AM

Is this also the one recorded by Gerri Gribbi? I found these words on her web site. The Hills of Kentucky (http://creativefolk.com/lyrics.html#Hills of Kentucky)

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Hills of Kentucky/Debby McClatchy
From: Mrs.Duck
Date: 25 Feb 01 - 01:08 PM

No its not that one. The one I'm after has achorus that begins
Hills of Kentucky look to my home
The Californian foothills......etcand is about the destruction caused my using hydraulic hoses in mines.The other one looks good though thanks.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Hills of Kentucky/Debby McClatchy
From: Sorcha
Date: 25 Feb 01 - 01:18 PM

I am not having any luck at all........

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Hills of Kentucky/Debby McClatchy
From: Joe Offer
Date: 25 Feb 01 - 06:58 PM

Well, you can click here for a Webpage about Debby, although I don't think she operates it.
Apparently, the song is on her Apples in Winter album. I have her two CD's, and it's not on either of them.

I'd suggest you e-mail the person who runs the McClatchy Website and see if that works. I tried to talk her into visiting Mudcat, but she claims to have an intense dislike for computers. She's a darn good cook, though.

-Joe Offer-

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Hills of Kentucky/Debby McClatchy
From: Sorcha
Date: 25 Feb 01 - 07:01 PM

Red Clay Ramblers keep coming up on searches. Is she with them now?

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Hills of Kentucky/Debby McClatchy
From: Joe Offer
Date: 25 Feb 01 - 07:15 PM

Come to think of it, the last woman who kissed me was Debby McClatchy. Alas, it was only on the cheek...

But to answer your question, Sorcha, she usually performs solo.

-Joe Offer-

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Hills of Kentucky/Debby McClatchy
From: Bev and Jerry
Date: 26 Feb 01 - 12:55 AM

Besides being one of the world's greatest clawhammerists, she puts on a terrific show.

Bev and Jerry

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Hills of Kentucky/Debby McClatchy
From: GUEST,Cecily Bohrer (debby website....)
Date: 26 Feb 01 - 09:40 PM

I think the song you're talking about is "California Faith," which is on the "Homemade Goodies" album. I could be mistaken, but it sounds like the one you're talking about. (At least the part about the hydrolic mine anyway...) I believe I found that album on gemm.com, so if you're looking for it, you might find it there. As far as the website goes, you are correct, Debby does not run it, I did it as a final project for one of my classes. Geocities does seem to have some problems loading the graphics, but if something doesn't come up, you can hit refresh and it will generally show up then. Anyhow, good luck. -Cecily Bohrer [e-mail]

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Hills of Kentucky/Debby McClatchy
From: GUEST,Cecily B.
Date: 26 Feb 01 - 09:47 PM

The more I think about it, the more I think that wasn't the song you were talking about. Maybe I will make it a goal to try and post lyrics to the songs on the site also. -Cecily

Subject: Lyr Add: HILLS OF KENTUCKY (Debby McClatchy)
From: Les B
Date: 27 Feb 01 - 12:04 AM

From the album "Debby McClatchy and the Red Clay Ramblers" Innisfree/Green Linnet - 1976.

HILLS OF KENTUCKY

Chorus:
Hills of Kentucky, look to my home
The California foot hills lie barren, dust blown
The hydraulic hoses took more than the gold
And the diggins'lie fallow, though 100 years old
Though 100 years old

Chorus:

You've all heard of the gold rush back in '49
Where they got the gold by pannin' and diggin' in the mine
But the deepest deposits were the richest in ore
And all the older methods they weren't good enough anymore
They weren't good anymore

They found that water pressure would wash the land away
And then by using sluices, wash out the mud and clay
And left down at the bottom the bright heavy gold
And the land lay stripped of top soil, desolate and cold
For the bright heavy gold

Chorus:

I hear down in Kentucky that your gold it is black coal
And machines instead of water are taking a heavy toll
And your children's children will walk a barren land
Best you learn from California and save it while you can
Oh please save it while you can

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Hills of Kentucky/Debby McClatchy
From: Mrs.Duck
Date: 27 Feb 01 - 12:26 PM

Yes thats it. Thanks a lot all of you and especially Les. Its also on Debby's solo album Apples in Winter btw.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Hills of Kentucky/Debby McClatchy
From: Joe Offer
Date: 27 Feb 01 - 03:10 PM

Hey, that's a powerful song, especially for us in the Sacramento area. The land still suffers from the ecological damage done by the gold miners. Hydraulic mining was the most destructive method, washing away mountains and silting out the land below.

The people across the street from me live on the bluffs of the American River in Fair Oaks, a suburb of Sacramento. Below me is a vast wasteland left by the gold dredges, huge mountains of gravel where nothing grows but rattlesnakes. There is an advantage, though - the area is rocky and unstable, so man can't use it for development and nature has taken over everything but the mountains of dredger tailings. We have coyotes, raccoons, beavers, river otters, possum, muskrats - and rattlesnakes as big around as your arm. Lots of birds and wildflowers, too - although a lot of the vegetation is exotic because the dredging destroyed the native vegetation. It's the same in the hydraulic mining areas - what's left behind is unfit for human use, but nature eventually takes it back.

Debby's ancestors founded the Sacramento Bee newspaper in the 1840's, and part of the family is still involved in the operation of the newspaper. Debby's father married a woman from Kentucky (or thereabouts), and Debby gew up in the foothills northeast of Sacramento. She says her passion is collecting songs about the California Gold Rush, and she's quite an expert on the topic.

-Joe Offer-

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Hills of Kentucky/Debby McClatchy
From: Mrs.Duck
Date: 27 Feb 01 - 05:32 PM

I'm hoping to run into Debby at a small old time festival in June. I'll remind her of that kiss,Joe!!!

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Hills of Kentucky/Debby McClatchy
From: Bev and Jerry
Date: 28 Feb 01 - 01:35 AM

Joe:

Rattlesnakes as big around as your arm? Maybe we'll reconsider staying at your place.

Just kidding

Bev and Jerry