6/8, tempo 50, Blues Mo Slo, harmonika C
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1. By the banks of the river, where the willows hang down
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and the wild birds all warble with a low moaning sound,
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down in the hollow, where the waters run cold,
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it was there I first listened to the lies that she told.
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2. Now I lay on my bed and I can see her sweet face,
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the past I remember, time can not erase.
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The letter you wrote me, it was written in shame
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and I know that your conscience still echoes my name.
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3. Now the nights are so long, your sorrows run deep
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and nothing is worse, than a night without sleep,
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I’ll walk out alone and look at the sky,
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to empty to sing, to lonesome to cry.
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4. If the ladies were blackbirds and the ladies were thrushes
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I’d lie there for hours, in the chilly cold marshes,
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if the ladies were squirrels, with a high bushy tails
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I’d fill up my shotgun with rock salt and nails.