Come My Love Come (Nancy Till) Down in d' canebrake Close by the mill There lives a colored girl Her name is Nancy Gill. I told her I loved her I loved her very long I'm gonna serenade her And this'll be my song: Cho: Come my love come My boat lies low She lies high and dry On the O-hi-o, Come my love come Won't you come along with me? And I'll take you down to Tennessee Down in d' canebrake Some happy day You'll hear the wedding bells A ringin' might gay There's gonna be a cabin And in a trundle bed There'll be a pickaninny And all because I said: Chorus: Down in d' canebrake That's where I'll stay 'Long side my Nancy Gill Till we are laid away And when I get to heaven And Peter lets us in I'll start my wings a flappin' And sing to her again: Chorus: Collected from the songs of Charles Edward Prewett, British Columbia Light Horse, minstrel shows, Vernon B.C,. Canada (ca. 1915). A version with similar first verse and chorus is in the Levy Sheet Music Collection under the title Nancy Till. Anne and Frank Warner, collected a fragment of this song from Eleazar Tillett of Wanchese, NC (Outer Banks) in 1951 and it was recorded by Jeff Warner and Jeff Davis as Come Love Come on the album Wilder Joy (Flying Fish 1986), a compilation of two songs Nancy Till and Dan Emmett's (Mt. Vernon, OH) "Boatsman Dance" of the 1840s Frank Brown of Duke Univ. also collected a version of this song in 1926 from Charles Tillett, Eleazar Tillett's husband. [Brown, Frank C. Folk Songs from North Carolina. Durham: Duke University Press, 1952. (Vol. III of the Seven vol. Frank C. Brown Collection of North Carolina Folklore, p. 491 MC apr00
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