The Knoxville Girl


"The Knoxville Girl" is an Appalachian murder ballad.

Origins

It is derived from the 19th-century Irish ballad "The Wexford Girl", itself derived from the earlier English ballad "The Bloody Miller or Hanged I Shall Be" about a murder, in 1683, at Hogstow Mill, south of Shrewsbury. This ballad was collected by Samuel Pepys, who wrote about the murder of Anne Nichols by the Mill's apprentice Francis Cooper. Other versions are known as the "Waxweed Girl", "The Wexford Murder". These are in turn derived from an Elizabethan era poem or broadside ballad, "The Cruel Miller".
Possibly modelled on the 17th-century broadside William Grismond's Downfall, or A Lamentable Murther by him Committed at Lainterdine in the county of Hereford on March 12, 1650: Together with his lamentation., sometimes known as The Bloody Miller.

Lyrics


I met a little girl in Knoxville, a town we all know well
And every Sunday evening, out in her home, I'd dwell
We went to take an evening walk about a mile from town
I picked a stick up off the ground and knocked that fair girl down
She fell down on her bended knees, for mercy she did cry
"Oh Willy 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 within her blood did flow
I took her by her golden curls and I drug her round and around
Throwing her into the river that flows through Knoxville town
Go down, go down, you Knoxville girl with the dark and roving eyes
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
Saying "Dear son, what have you done to bloody your clothes so?"
I told my anxious mother I was bleeding at my nose
I called for me a candle to light myself 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

Recordings

YearArtistReleaseNotes
1924Riley Puckett & Gid Tanner"Knoxville Girl"Earliest recording
1937The Carter Family"Never Let the Devil Get the Upper Hand of You"
1938The Blue Sky Boys"In My Little Home In Tennessee/The Knoxville Girl"
1947Cope BrothersKnoxville Girl / She Sleeps Beneath The Norris DamKING 589
1956The Louvin BrothersTragic Songs of Life
1959The Wilburn Brothers"The Knoxville Girl/Which One Is To Blame"
1961Kevin Shegog?
1963John Duffey and the Country GentlemenHootenanny – A Bluegrass Special
1969Jim & JesseSaluting The Louvin Brothers
1972Osborne BrothersBobby and Sonny
1974Dave LogginsApprentice
1975OutlawsOutlaws
1978Jimmy MartinMe 'N Ole Pete
1996BR5-49Live From Robert's
1996The LemonheadsCar Button Cloth
1996DQEMove into the villa villakula
1996Nick Cave"Henry Lee/Knoxville Girl"
2002Pine Valley Cosmonauts w/Brett SparksThe Executioner's Last Songs
2003The Handsome FamilySmothered and Covered
2005Okkervil RiverBlack Sheep Boy
2005SweetwaterThe Ballads
2005Roger Alan WadeAll Likkered Up
2006The Singing Hall SistersSearching for the Wrong-Eyed Jesus
2008Rachel BrookeRachel Brooke
2009The Fox HuntAmerica's Working So We Don't Have To
2008The BoxmastersThe Boxmasters
2013VandaveerOh, Willie, Please...
2014Beaches In BoiseAutocantata
2015The Ghosts Of Johnson CityAm I Born To Die?

Samples

  • Plan B in the bootleg mash-up "Paint It Blacker" as a reference to violent music existing before modern rap.

Parodies

Uses in other media

The song features prominently in If Ever I Return, Pretty Peggy-O, the first book in the Ballad mystery series by Sharyn McCrumb.