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Logan Country Jail

from Love Call Me Home by Peggy Seeger

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Peggy's enjoys singing the hell out of this song and does so in most performances. In "What's New," (a yearly online personal update on her website) she recalls playing it with fiddler Eliza Carthy for her 70th birthday concert in Queen Elizabeth Hall, London (May 29, 2006): "Eliza and I sat there like two hoydens and whomped out Logan County Jail on fiddle and banjo." (a version which appears on her new CD, THREESCORE AND TEN). On this recording "Logan County Jail" appears in just as lively a rendition, but with Reyna Gellert on fiddle.

The song is a ballad of American origin that can be found in a variety of localized and related forms: "Dallas County Jail," "Sporting Cowboy," "Ramsey County Jail," "Seven Long Years in Prison," "Prisoner's Dream," "Hawkins County Jail," "Moundsville Prisoner," "Logan County Courthouse" etc. Peggy's version closely parallels the B version collected by John Harrington Cox in his Folksongs of the South (Cambridge: Harvard University press, 1925), and she tells us about a thief who leaves his sweetheart behind when he is sent to the state penitentiary in Moundsville, West Virginia (used as a prison from 1876 to 1995). As in most versions, we do not know what specific event landed the protagonist in jail.

G. Malcolm Laws Jr., in Native American Balladry (Philadelphia: American Folklore Society, 1964) classifies "Logan County Jail" as a ballad "despite its rambling emotionalism, " because it dramatizes "a single major event in the life of the narrator." (p. 76). He describes the song as having a loose construction a singer is likely to add onto or otherwise alter. He believes the song may be inspired by British broadsides and reminds us that Vance Randolph, the Ozark folksong collector, drew parallels between the prisoner's dream in "Logan County Jail" and a similar dream in "Van Diemen's Land," the great British and Irish transport ballad eventually modernized and rewritten by U2 (p. 79):

Oh! oft when I am slumbering,
I have a pleasant dream:
With my sweet girl I am sitting,
Down by some purling stream,
Through England I am roaming,
With her at my command,
Then waken, brokenhearted,
Upon Van Diemen's Land.

This particular tune for "Logan County Jail" is Peggy's own and underscores the wildness of a "bad boy" thoroughly enjoying every moment of his misspent youth.

" I rode along the highway, I learned to rob and steal
When I made a big haul, how happy did I feel."

For more information about the song, consult the Traditional Ballad Index
and, for recordings, search "Logan County Jail" in Jane Keefer's Folk Music Index.

lyrics

10 LOGAN COUNTY JAIL

words and music: traditional USA
5-string banjo tuning: Key of F#minor (modal tuning); 5th: high F#; 4th: low C#; 3rd: low F#; 2nd: low B; lst: C#

When I was a little boy, I worked on market Square
I used to pocket money, but I never did it fair;
I rode along the highway, I learned to rob and steal
When I made a big haul, how happy did I feel
How happy did I feel.

I used to wear the white hat, my horse and buggy fine,
I used to court a pretty girl, I always called her mine.
I courted her for beauty, her love to me was rare,
She'd throw her arms around me and kiss me unaware.
And kiss me unaware.

One night as I lay sleeping, I dreamed a mighty dream
I dreamed I was a merchant marching down the golden stream.
I woke all brokenhearted in Logan County Jail
Not a friend around me for to go my bail,
For to go my bail.

Down came the jailer after ten o'clock
With a bunch of keys all in his hand, he shoved 'em in the lock
Cheer up, cheer up, you prisoner, I thought I heard him say,
You're going around to Moundsville, seven years to stay,
Seven years to stay.

Down came my darling, ten dollars in her hand,
O my dearest darling, I've done all that I can.
May the lord be with you wherever you may go,
And the devil take the jury for sending you below,
For sending you below.

Sitting by the railroad, waiting for the train,
I'm going away to Moundsville to wear the ball and chain.
I'm going away to leave you, darling don't you cry,
Take a glass of whisky and let it all go by,
Let it all go by.

credits

from Love Call Me Home, released April 26, 2005

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Peggy Seeger Oxford, UK

Peggy is one of the most influential folk singers on either side of the Atlantic. She is Pete Seeger’s half-sister and Ruth Crawford Seeger’s daughter; her first life partner was the English songwriter Ewan MacColl, who wrote First Time Ever I Saw Your Face for her. She has made more than 22 solo recordings to date. Please check ewanmaccoll.bandcamp.com for other albums featuring Peggy. ... more

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