Go Dig My Grave (1893 Luscomb banjo)

Learned this one from a recording of Jean Ritchie and Doc Watson from 1963. Played upstrum clawhammer on an 1893 Luscomb banjo with a big honkin’ tone ring in it on a chilly sunny late spring morning.

Lyrics:

“Oh, I be gone these lonesome days.
I return, these words I say,
go dig my grave both wide and deep,
place a marble stone at my head and my feet.

She come home and she went upstairs,
not a word to her mamas did she say.
Her mama she went up too,
saying daughter, what troubles you?

Oh mama, I can’t never tell,
That railroad boy that I love so well,
he courted me my love away,
and with me, he will not stay.

Oh lordie me, oh lordie me.

Her papa he come home from work,
saying where’s my daughter? She seemed so hurt.
Well he went upstairs just to give her hope,
and he found her hanging from a rope.

He took his knife and he cut her down,
in her dress, these words he found:
Go dig my grave both wide and deep.
Place a marble stone at my head and my feet,
and on my breast place a snow-white dove,
to tell this world that I died for love.”

#oldtimemusic #banjo #clawhammerbanjo #dropthumbsnotbombs #deathanddying