Darling Nelly Gray - Chris Barber's Jazz Band

There’s a low, green valley, on the old Kentucky shore

Where I’ve whiled many happy hours away

A-sitting and a-singing by the little cottage door

Where lived my darling Nelly Gray

Oh!

my poor Nelly Gray, they have taken you away

And I’ll never see my darling any more;

I’m sitting by the river and I’m weeping all the day

For you’ve gone from the old Kentucky shore

When the moon had climbed the mountain and the stars were shining too

Then I’d take my darling Nelly Gray

And we’d float down the river in my little red canoe

While my banjo sweetly I would play

One night I went to see her, but «She's gone!»

the neighbors say

The white man bound her with his chain;

They have taken her to Georgia for to wear her life away

As she toils in the cotton and the cane

My canoe is under water, and my banjo is unstrung;

I’m tired of living any more;

My eyes shall look downward, and my song shall be unsung

While I stay on the old Kentucky shore

My eyes are getting blinded, and I cannot see my way

Hark!

there’s somebody knocking at the door

Oh!

I hear the angels calling, and I see my Nelly Gray

Farewell to the old Kentucky shore

Oh, my darling Nelly Gray, up in heaven there they say

That they’ll never take you from me any more

I’m a-coming-coming-coming, as the angels clear the way

Farewell to the old Kentucky shore!