Digital Tradition Mirror

On the Road to Fairfax County

(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

On the Road to Fairfax County
(David Massengil)

O once I loved an outlaw
He came and stole my heart,
O how I count the hours
Since we were torn apart.

     On the road to Fairfax County
     I spied a highwayman
     He wanted all my money
     My heart beat like a drum

I gave him all my money
And sweet he smiled at me,
His beauty I took pity
Beneath a black oak tree.

     We kissed but for an hour
     The sun was newly warm,
     The clouds were as the flowers,
     That bloom but for a morn.

He gave back all my money
And bowed most gallantly,
He promised for to meet me
That night beneath the tree.

     We'd flee to some far island
     And there we would be wed,
     And freely we would live there
     With no price upon his head.

One night I went to meet him
With my inheritance,
He kissed me 'neath the half moon
And joyful we did dance.

     O love betrays all secrets
     It whispers in the breeze,
     The sheriff he did follow
     With all his deputies.

Like hounds rushing to slaughter
The fox whose luck is run,
He stood erect and cursed them,
"Goddamn you, everyone!"

     They seized him in a fury
     And heeding not my plea,
     They hung him from the oak tree
     Where he made love to me.

O once I loved an outlaw
He came and stole my heart,
O how I count the hours
Since we were torn apart.

Copyright Bowser Wowser Music, 1980

Thanks to Mudcat for the Digital Tradition!