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Red Haired Becky (3:43): Remember “Pretty Polly,” one of the countless women brutally murdered in the old ballads? She’s back. This time she’s got a rifle.

lyrics

Red haired Becky stepped out on a soft May morning
Rifle in her hand
Saying, I will walk these Allegheny Mountains
‘Til I find who stole my man
She went ‘til she came to a fresh cleared field
Stumps piled up by the side
And there she saw her own sweet Joseph
Talking with his new young bride

She leaned her rifle behind an oak
Stepped out on the fresh cleared land
Saying, How do you like your new built cabin
How do you like my man
Then Joseph spoke in a voice of anger
Edge as sharp as a knife
If you’ll take off that ring I gave you
I will give it to my new young wife

I will take off this ring you gave me
Though I will surely die
But I will go behind this oak
So she will not see me cry
She turned around with a look of sorrow
Went behind that tree
Then she stepped out with her red hair blazing
Rifle against her knee

Red haired Becky went from village to village
Saying, have you seen my Joe
Some say he’s gone to California
To dig the yellow gold
We have not seen your own sweet Joseph
He’s vanished into air
Perhaps he’s gone to the western country
To seek his fortune there

Red haired Becky sits on the porch of her cabin
Baby on her knee
Saying, how do you like this new plowed field
Some stranger cleared for me
There’s a deep dark hole in the bend of the river
Where the rapids rush by the creek
The trout swim by a rusting rifle
Whose voice will never speak

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Saro Lynch-Thomason North Carolina

Saro Lynch-Thomason is a ballad singer, song writer, folklorist, documentarian, and illustrator from Asheville, North Carolina. Her passion for traditional music, people’s struggles and Appalachian traditions calls her to perform, teach and produce media that tell the stories and songs of America’s social history. ... more

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