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Elk River Blues

from Elk River Blues by Sweet Joe Pye

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about

Fiddle tune learned from Gerry Milnes, who learned it from West Virginia fiddler Ernie Carpenter (1907-1997). Carpenter wrote the tune written after his home was flooded and disappeared when the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers built the Sutton Dam on the Elk River in 1955.

From e-WV Encyclopedia:
Members of the Carpenter family were among the first white people to settle in what is now central West Virginia, and their descendants populate a wide area today. Family stories recount the arrival in the late 1700s of brothers Benjamin and Jeremiah, who, along with their mother, were the first settlers on the upper waters of the Elk River. With a few belongings, including a fiddle, tied to the backs of oxen, they followed creeks and Indian paths through the wilderness until they reached the mouth of Laurel Fork, later called Centralia (near the Braxton-Webster county line). They established homes there. Legend holds that the Elk River was named for an elk killed by Jeremiah Carpenter.

Lyrics by Annick Odom

lyrics

Oh, come with me, dear,
And we’ll make our way to the river.
Oh, where the water’s sweet and clear,
Our hearts can never grow bitter.

Oh, when we get there,
Down to our lovely Elk River,
A sadness hits, dear,
That our river’s gone forever.

Oh, how I kissed you,
In the summer shade of this river.
Oh, how I missed you,
In the coldness of mid-winter.

The memories stay, dear,
Of what was our lovely Elk River.
A sadness hits, dear,
What we loved is gone forever.

So I’ll play this tune here,
Thinkin’ of what was my old homeplace.
I’ll play it loud and clear,
Tryin’ to fill up this empty space.

And when we get there,
Down to our lovely Elk River,
A sadness hits, dear,
That our river’s gone forever.

credits

from Elk River Blues, track released May 23, 2019
Recorded and mixed by Doris Veldman
Recorded and mixed by Doris Veldman
Mountain Dulcimer & Voice: Annick Odom
Cello & Voice: Clara San José Casajús
Fiddle & Voice: Anna Jane Lester

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Sweet Joe Pye Morgantown, West Virginia

Sweet Joe Pye is
an old-time string band originally formed in The Netherlands (with members Anna Jane, Clara, and Annick). Current members are now split between Paris, and Morgantown, WV (Annick, Henri Colombat, and Lucas Henri). Sweet Joe Pye shares a mix of original songs with ballads and fiddle tunes hailing from the Appalachian region. ... more

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