East Virginia John Browns Dream Nora Brown
(Music: “East Virginia”)
(Banjo)
(Singing) I’m from
old East Virginia.
North Carolina
I did go.
I met
a fair, young maiden.
Her name I did not know.
(Banjo)
Don’t that road
look rough and rocky?
Don’t that sea look wide and deep?
Don’t my darlin'
look
the sweetest …
When she’s in my arms asleep?
(Banjo)
Her hair
was a dark-brown curly.
Her cheeks were chestnut red.
On her breast
she wore a white lilly.
Through the night, the tears she shed.
(Banjo)
Captain,
Captain, I am dyin'.
Won’t you take these words for me?
Take them back
to old East Virginia.
Tell my darlin' she is free.
(Banjo)
(Music ends)
(Applause and cheers)
That was a song called “East Virginia”
I learned from a man named Clifton Hicks
who lives down in Georgia.
The next song …
I have for you
is called “John Brown’s Dream.”
It’s an old dance tune.
And you may notice that the banjo
that I’m holding looks a little different
than banjos you might be used to seeing
or the one I just played, for example.
And this banjo
is sort of an earlier model.
Banjos kind of evolved like a human has.
And I like to say that the sound
that comes out of this banjo
is a sound that was
just a little closer to the source,
which is Africa,
and some people forget that,
so, yeah …
(Banjo tuning)
(Music: “John Brown’s Dream”)
(Banjo)
(Banjo continues)
(Singing) John Brown’s dream,
John Brown’s dream the devil was dead.
I’m gonna get that, get that, get that,
I’m gonna get that pretty little girl.
(Banjo)
John Brown’s dream,
John Brown’s dream the devil was dead.
(Banjo)
Come on, Liza, Liza, Liza.
Come on, Liza we’ll be pickin' it again.
I’m gonna get that, get that, get that,
I’m gonna get that pretty little girl.
(Banjo)
(Music ends)
(Applause and cheers)
Thank you very much.