Digital Tradition Mirror

Girl of Constant Sorrow

(This score available as ABC, SongWright, PostScript, PNG, or PMW, or a MIDI file)
Pennywhistle notation and Dulcimer tab for this song is also available

Girl of Constant Sorrow
  by Sarah Ogan Gunning

I am a girl of constant sorrow
I've seen trouble all my days
I bid farewell to old Kentucky
The state where I was born and raised

My mother, how I hated to leave her
Mother dear who now is dead
But I had to go and leave her
So my children could have bread

Perhaps, dear friends, you are wondering
What the miners eat and wear
This question I will try to answer
For I'm sure that it is fair

For breakfast we had bulldog gravy
For supper we had beans and bread
The miners don't have any dinner
And a tick of straw they call a bed

Well, we call this Hell on Earth, friends
I must tell you all goodbye
Oh I know you all are hungry
Oh, my darling friends, don't cry

see also Man of Constant Sorrow for original
recorded by Sarah ogan Gunning
SOF

Thanks to Mudcat for the Digital Tradition!