#144 - Darling Nelly Gray

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• Composer:
  • Benjamin Russell Hanby (1833-1867), 1856
  • The entry for this cob in this Cobography previously gave the date of the piece as 1863. This is clearly incorrect, however, as there is a copy of sheet music for the piece with a copyright date of 1856 in the Historic American Sheet Music Collection in the Duke University Digital Collections. This copy may be viewed online at repository.duke.edu. (Corrected by R.D., 4/3/21)
• Title variations:
  • Nelly Gray
  • Nellie Gray
• Early Arrangements
• Photos
• MIDI | show
  
• Incipit: 7122327651234543222327546
• Condensed Incipit: 7123276512345432327546
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• Lyrics:
  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 a sitting by the river
  And I'm weeping all the day,
  For you've gone from the old Kentucky shore.
  
  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.
  
  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 anymore;
  My eyes shall look downward
  And my songs 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 someone knocking at my door;
  Oh! I hear the angels calling
  And I see my Nelly Gray
  Farewell to the old Kentucky shore.
  
  chorus:
  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.
  
  
  • Benjamin Russell Hanby (1833-1867), 1856