"Wise County Jail" Performance
Added 2020-08-04 12:44:19 +0000 UTCgCGBD relative (fB♭FAC actual) known as "Two-Finger C tuning."
"Dock put this song together about 1928 after an incident in which an overbearing lawman broke into his home and caught him enjoying music and liquor with some friends during prohibition times. Dock ejected the officer, and left Virginia within hours for Kentucky to avoid arrest. He stayed there working in the mines until about the time the officer was shot to death a few years later.” - Mike Seeger, Dock Boggs: His Folkways Years 1963-1968 (Smithsonian Folkways Recordings)
Wash up your face boys comb up your head
Now get ready for your coffee and bread,
Hard times in Wise County Jail
It's hard times I know!
Piece of cold meat and cold cornbread
It's so cold it's heavy as lead...
It almost makes my stomach ache
When they bring them potatoes in the old tin plate...
When you're in jail it is so nice
Among the dirt and the body lice...
The Wise County Jail's no jail at all
The haints and bugs are walking the wall...
When you're in jail it's so complete
About one-half enough to eat...
It almost brings me to my knees
When I hear that jailer ring them keys...
Cops around Norton is a dirty old crew
They'll arrest a poor man they'll look him plumb through,
His pockets they'll pick his clothes they'll sell
For 25 cents they'll send him to Hell...
