Lyr Add: Way Down in de Lonesome Valley

Subject: Lyr Add: WAY DOWN IN DE LONESOME VALLEY
From: Q (Frank Staplin)
Date: 21 Dec 04 - 08:30 PM

Lyr. Add: Way Down in de Lonesome Valley

De mockin' birds a singin' so sweetly
So sweetly, so sweetly.
De mockin' birds a singin' so sweetly,
So sweetly, so sweetly.
Way down in de lonesome valley.

Dey tell you one thing en dey mean another,
Mean another, mean another.
Dey tell you one thing en they mean another,
Mean another, mean another.
Way down in de lonesome valley.

Some say, what make de young girls so deceivin'?
So deceivin', so deceivin'.
Some say, what make de young girls so deceivin'?
So deceivin', so deceivin'.
Way down in de lonesome valley.

Collected from Hector Smith, ex-slave, Marion Co., South Carolina, 1937. "Dat go way back dere. De people didn' have nothin' more den a mouth organ to make music wid in them times."
Suggests derivation from "Pretty Saro."

From Slave Narratives, American Memory, prepared by Annie Ruth Davis, Project 1888-(1).