Historic Sheet Music Collection
Title
Document Type
Score
Links to Recordings at the Internet Archive
https://archive.org/details/78_12923-Darling-Nelly-Gray https://archive.org/details/78_2268-Darling-Nelly-Gray https://archive.org/details/78_darling-nelly-gray_alma-gluck-orpheus-quartet-b-r-hanby_gbia0017814a
Publication Date
1857
Lyrics
1. There's low green valley on the low Kentucky shore, There I've whiled many happy hours away, A sitting and a singing by the little cottage door Where lived my darling Nelly Gray. CHORUS: Oh! my poor Nelly Gray, they have taken you away And I'll never see my darling any more, I'm sitting by the river and I'm weeping all the day, For you've gone from the old Kentucky shore. 2. When the moon had climb'd the mountain and the stars were shining too, Then I'd take my darling Nelly Gray, And we'd float down the river in my little red canoe, While my banjo sweetly I would play. 3. I went to see her but "she's gone!" the neighbors say, The white man bound her with his chain, They have taken her to Georgia for to wear her life away, As she toils in the cotton and the cane. 4. My canoe is underwater and my banjo is unstrung, I'm tired of living any more, My eyes shall look downward and my songs shall be unsung While I stay on the old Kentucky shore. 5. My eyes are getting blinded and I cannot see my way, Hark! there's somebody knocking at the door Oh! I hear the angels calling and I see my Nelly Gray Farewell to the old Kentucky shore. CHORUS: Oh! my darling Nelly Gray, up in heaven there they say, That they'll never take you from me any more, I'm a coming coming coming, as the angels clear the way, Farewell to the old Kentucky shore.
Recommended Citation
Hanby, Benjamin Russel and Bishop, Thomas Brigham, "Darling Nelly Gray" (1857). Historic Sheet Music Collection. 47.
https://digitalcommons.conncoll.edu/sheetmusic/47
Included in
The views expressed in this paper are solely those of the author.
Comments
To Miss A.C. Walker; Boston: Published by Oliver Ditson & Co 277 Washington St.; C.C. Clapp & Co., Boston; Beck & Lawton, Philad.; Truax & Baldwin, Cincinnati; S.T. Gordon, N. York.; Arranged for the guitar by T. Brigham Bishop
Some of these resources may contain offensive language or negative stereotypes. Such materials should be seen in the context of the time period and as a reflection of the attitudes of the time. The items are part of the historical record, and do not represent the views of the libraries or the institution.