KNOXVILLE GIRL
Created on 03/09/2002Latest update on 15/10/2020
Artist: Arthur Tanner
Author: traditional
Label: Paramount
Year: 1925
Gid Tanner's brother. Re-recorded with his brother for Columbia in 1927. American variation on 18th century British murder ballad: Wexford Girl, Oxford Girl or Ekefield Town depending on the singer's region. Story Of The Knoxville Girl, Lexington Murder, Export Gal and Never Let The Devil Get The Upper Hand Of You use the same melody. Cecil Sharp heard several versions from Missouri, Vermont and Maine, over the Appalachians, all the way to Georgia and Mississippi.
Covers:
- 1937:
Carter Family [as Never Let The Devil Get The Upper Hand Of You, situated in Lansome town]
- 1937:
Blue Sky Boys [as Story Of The Knoxville Girl]
- 1956:
Louvin Brothers [top 20 C&W]
- 1959:
Wilburn Brothers [top 20 C&W]
- 1960:
Harry Cox [as Ekefield Town]
- 1963:
- 1970:
Shirley Collins [as Oxford Girl]
- 1972:
- 1975:
Outlaws [same lyrics, different melody]
- 1976:
Albion Country Band [as Hanged I Shall Be]
- 1987:
Oysterband [own melody, same morality]
- 1996:
- 1996:
- 1996:
BR5-49 [Live At Robert's]
- 2003:
- 2004:
Waterson:Carthy [as Oxford Girl, Oxford Girl]
- 2005:
Sheila Kay Adams [American variation on Song Links 2]
- 2005:
John Kirkpatrick [as Ickfield Town on cd Song Links 2]
- 2007:
For real country murder ballads bathing in remorse, trust the accumulated canon of The Wilburn Brothers, The Louvin Brothers, The Carter Family and all individual members of the Skillet Lickers. In the Louvin's version a boy comes home from a night on the town. His mama wants to know where all that blood on his clothes comes from. A nosebleed, he lies, while he just killed his girlfriend out of pure sexual frustration. Typical for a mother to tax him lie and murder equal par.
