Fifty Miles Of Elbow Room

I think this song is what first truly alienated me from my metal-head friends. They just couldn't get it why I would like a song so much that was about going to heaven. They sneered at the "three great chords" progression typical of the Carter Family tunes, and I just gave up explaining it. It's not supposed to be difficult to play; it's supposed to be fun to play. And that tune is kind of a doozy to sing, for all it's no "Oh Danny Boy."

One hundred miles its length and breadth

The four-square city stands

With gems its walls of jasper shine

Not made with human hands

One hundred miles the gates are wide

Abundant entrance there

With fifty miles of elbow room

On either side to spare

For the gates are wide on the other side

Just beyond the sunset sea

There'll be room to spare as we enter there

Room for you and room for me

For the gates are wide on the other side

Where the flowers ever bloom

On the right hand, on the left hand

Fifty miles of elbow room

Sometimes I'm cramped and crowded here

And long for elbow room

I want to reach for altitude

Where fair flowers bloom

It won't be long til I shall fade

Into that city fair

With fifty miles of elbow room

On either side to spare.

Hand Of The Almighty; or God Will Fuck You Up

Don't tell me you don't know this one.

Oh, sinner do not stray

| D | D |

From the straight and narrow way

| G | D |

For the Lord is surely watching what you do

| D | D | A7 | A7 |

If you approach the Devil's den,

| D | D |

Turn round, don't enter in

| G | D |

Lest the hand of the Almighty fall on you

| D | A7 | D | D |

He'll fuck you up (he'll fuck you up)

Yes, God will fuck you up

If you dare to disobey His stern commands

He'll fuck you up (he'll fuck you up)

Don't you know he'll fuck you up

So you better do some prayin' while you can

Long ago a man named Lot

Had a wife he thought was hot

But she would not stop her black and sinful ways

You know it was her own damn fault

When God turned that bitch to salt

That's the way he used to work back in those days

He fucked 'em up (he fucked 'em up)

He really fucked 'em up

When the people went and turned their backs on Him

He can fuck you up (he'll fuck you up)

No shit he'll fuck you up

Just like he fucked the people up back then

I used to have a friend named Ray

Who walked that evil way

He cursed and drank and broke his neighbor's fence

You know Ray was full aware

That some sheep were over there

And he knew them in the Biblical sense.

God fucked him up (he fucked him up)

He went and fucked Ray up

Went and paid him back for all his wicked sins

He fucked him up (he fucked him up)

Fucked that boy completely up

Now he's married to a Presbyterian.

Knoxville Girl

Here's another "murdered girl" song, with definitely the most gruesome description yet. I find the chord progression here really sweet, and it's the song for which I first learned to play the boom-chuk-chuk of waltz time. The version I learned is from the Louvin Brothers, although the song comes from England originally.

I met a little girl in Knoxville

| D | D | D | D |

A town we all know well

| G | G | D | D |

And every Sunday evening

| D | D | D | D |

Out in her home I'd dwell

| E | E | A7 | A7 |

We went out for an evening walk

| D | D | D | D |

About a mile from town

| G | G | D | D |

I picked a stick up off the ground

| D | D | D | D |

And knocked that fair girl down

| A7 | A7 | D | D |

She fell down on her bended knee

For mercy she did cry

Oh, Willie dear, don't kill me here

I'm unprepared to die

She never spoke another word

I only beat her more

Until the ground around me

With her blood did flow

I grabbed her by her golden curls

And I drug her around and around

Threw her into the river

That flows through Knoxville town

Go down, go down, you Knoxville girl

With the dark and roving eye

Go down, go down, you Knoxville girl

You can never be my bride

I started back to Knoxville

Got there about midnight

My mother she was worried

And woke up in a fright

Dear son, dear son, what have you done

To bloody your shirt so?

I told my anxious mother

I was bleeding at my nose

I called for me a candle

To light my way to bed

I called for me a handkerchief

To bind my aching head.

Rolled and tumbled the whole night through

As troubles was for me

Like flames of hell around my bed

And in my eyes could see

They carried me down to Knoxville

And put me in a cell

My friends all tried to get me out

But none could go my bail

I'm here to waste my life away

Down in this dirty old jail

Because I murdered that Knoxville girl

The girl I loved so well

Jealous-Hearted Me

When I decided to learn the chords to this song, I didn't know how to play a bar-F chord, which played heavily in the tab I could find online. So I made it up. I think it is awesome. This version is heavily influenced by the Ma Rainey version, which predates the Carter Family recording, so I've listed both in the tags.

It takes a rocking chair to rock

| A - E |

Takes a rubber ball to roll

| A - E |

Takes the man I love to satisfy my soul

| A - E | A7 |

Because I'm jealous, jealous

| D |

Jealous-hearted me

| D | A |

I said I'm jealous

| E |

Jealous as I can be

| E | A |

You can have my money

You can have my home

But for god's sake women leave my man alone

[chorus]

I got a stove in the kitchen

And it bakes it nice and brown

But I need a papa to turn my damper down

[chorus]

I'm gonna buy me a bulldog

To watch him while he sleeps

Watch that man of mine on his midnight creep

[chorus]

[repeat verse 1]

[chorus]

Bluegrass, Old-Time, and Jug Band

• "Jealous-Hearted Me," Carter Family
• "Winding Stream," Carter Family
• "Stormy Waters," Jimmy Martin
• "Dark and Stormy Weather," Carter Family
• "Fifty Miles of Elbow Room," Carter Family
• "I Ain't Gonna Marry," a la Kweskin Jug Band
• "Bury Me Beneath The Willow Tree," Carter Family
• "Sugar Babe," a la Kweskin Jug Band
• "Going To The West"
• "What Was I Supposed To Do?"
• "Rose Of My Heart"
• "I Wish I'd Stayed In The Wagonyard"
• "Fan It," Texas Sheiks
• "Under The Chicken Tree"

Stormy Waters

My mother, as a bluegrass musician, talks about de-Jesus-ifying songs, replacing Jesus with something more secular. This is one song she never really did that with, probably because it felt too awkward. It's from the singing of Jimmy Martin, but I'll always hear it in the key my mom sings it in. There's a beautiful counterpoint harmony on the chorus, which I've provided in parentheses. Where parentheses are absent, the lyrics are in unison.

Capo 3

Though pilgrim on earth I may journey alone

| D | D | G | D |

Knowing not what the future may hold, may hold

| D | D | A7 | A7 |

I'd rather have Jesus and sing a sweet song

| D | D | G | D |

Than to covet their silver and gold

| D | A7 | D | D |

Stormy waters around me

(stormy cold waters drift all around me)

| G | G | D | D |

And the tempest and fury may roll

(tempest... roughly may roll)

| D | D | D | D |

But I have my dear Saviour

(but I still have... Jesus my saviour)

| G | G | D | D |

How he helps me nobody can know

(helps me... no one can know)

| D | D | A7 | A7 |

When it seems I'm forsaken

(Often it seems... I am forsaken)

| D | D | D | D |

And my earthly friends misunderstand

(Earthly... friends... misunderstand)

| G | G | G | G |

Stormy cold waters can drift all around me

(Stormy waters around me)

| D | D | D | D |

As I hold to god's unchanging hand

| D | A7 | D | D |

Angry billows may toss me and cause me to fear

Stormy waters around me may roll, may roll

I'll hold to the hand of my Saviour so dear

He's the shepherd that's keeping my soul

[chorus]

Though I have disappointments so often I sigh

And my cabin is humble and bare, and bare

Someday I'll inherit a mansion on high

Where the beauties of heaven I'll share

[chorus]

Winding Stream

I've never actually heard the original Carter Family version of this song; I grew up listening to my mom sing it with her friends. I looked up the chords online, then tweaked them when I realized the tune I sang was slightly different.

Oh, give to me a winding stream

| D | D | D | D |

It must not be too wide

| D | D | A | A |

With waving leaves of maple trees

| A | A | A | A |

That reach from either side

| A | A | D | D |

The waters must be deep enough

| D | D | D | D |

To float a small canoe

| D | D | G | G |

With no one else but you

| A | A | D | D |

Do not disturb my waking dream

| D | D | D | D | D | D | A7 | A7 |

The splendor of that winding stream

| A7 | A7 | A7 | A7 | A7 | A7 | D | D |

Flow'r in my canoe

| D | D | D | D |

Her eyes they looked me through

| D | D | G | G |

A maiden fair with golden hair

| G | G | D | D |

Looks very much like you.

| A | A | D | D |

The sparkling trout beneath the bank

Doth leave his hiding place

Kingfisher from the bough above

So eager to give chase.

The spreading branches overhead

The sun was peeking through

While looking, dear, at you.

[chorus]

Down In The Willow Garden; or, Rose Connely

This is a traditional song we Amurricans get from the English, and these are the words I sing. I don't care if no one knows about innkeepers drugging their guests back in the day; it makes more sense than "burgundy" wine--what other than sleeping drugs would there be for his true love not to know?

Down in the willow garden

|C |C |C |Am

Where me and my love did meet

|C |C |Am

'Twas there while we were courting

|C |C |C |Am

My love dropped off to sleep.

|C |G |C

I had a bottle of the burglar's wine

|Am |Am |C |Am

Which my true love did not know,

|C |C |Am

And there I murdered my own true love

|C |C |C |Am

Down on the banks below.

|C |G |C

I drew my saber through her

It was a bloody knife

Threw her into the river

Which was a dreadful sight

My father often told me

That money would set me free

If I'd but murder that pretty little miss

Whose name was Rose Connely

Now he waits at his cabin door

Wiping his tear-dimmed eye

And watches as his only son

Climbs up the scaffold high

My race is run beneath the sun

Low hell is waiting for me

For I did murder my own true love

Whose name was Rose Connely.