Charlie Poole with the North Carolina Ramblers - The Highwayman (1926)

Columbia 15160-D

Fiddle – Posey Rorer

Guitar – Roy Harvey

Vocals, Banjo – Charlie Poole

September 20, 1926

Charlie Poole and his band (the North Carolina Ramblers) were from the cotton-mill town of Spray (now combined with Leaksville and Draper to form the town of Eden) on the North Carolina/Virginia border south of another cotton-mill town, Danville, that was the site of the wreck of the old 97.

Charlie worked in the mills when he was very young.

Charlie learned the traditional music around him.

As I went down to the old depot
To see the trains roll by,
I think I see my dear old girl
Hang her head and cry.

The night was dark and stormy,
It surely looked like rain;
Not a friend in this whole wide world,
No one knew my name.

Nobody knew my name, poor boy,
No one knew my name;
Not a friend in this whole wide world,
And no one knew my name.

"Wait, Mister Judge, oh, wait, Mister Judge,
Wait a little while;
I think I saw my dear old girl,
She's walked for miles and miles."

"Dear girl, have you brought me silver?
Dear girl, have you brought me gold?
Have you walked these long, long miles
To see me hanged upon a hangman's pole?"

"Dear boy, I've brought you silver,
Dear boy, I've brought you gold;
I have not walked these long, long miles
To see you hanged upon a hangman's pole."

She saved me from the scaffold,
She untied my hands;
Tears rolled down that poor girl's cheeks,
"I love that highwayman."