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.
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.
