Darling Nelly Gray
Benjamin Russell Hanby
1.
There's a low green valley
on the old Kentucky shore
There I've whiled many happy
hours away,
A sitting and a singing
by the little cottage door
Where lived my darling Nelly Gray.
Chorus:
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.
2.
When the moon had climb'd 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.
(Chorus)
3.
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.
(Chorus)
4.
My canoe is under water and
my banjo is unstrung,
I'm tired of living any more,
My eyes shall look downward and
my songs shall be unsung
While I stay on the old Kentucky shore.
(Chorus)
5.
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.
Chorus: (to the last verse.)
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.