Jim & Jesse - 1976 - Knoxville Girl

[@MattRingressi]

Am I the only one who can't get enough of their harmonies? RIP Jim.

[@Joseph-dq5wb]

No I love this sound

[@eliwhite5548]

The harmonies sound like they just played Ira and Charlie's voices. It's extremely close.

[@tishajohansen-selby1826]

My mom was a folk singer, I was born n 65, she sang this song my whole life. Everytime she got her guitar out, all of us kids would beg her to sing this song...brings back great memories..

[@consolegamersimulatortimel8392]

im a cattle farmer and moved to city . this song remind me back at the farm and cattle whineing

[@jenniebartlett4397]

feel asleep many nights to my mama singing this to me as a lullaby. I also sang it to my children.

[@pegknife]

Are you sure ? didn't you/they have nightmares over it ?

[@tishajohansen-selby1826]

My mom also sang it to us kids when we were little. I love it

[@lesliemorris3914]

My grandmother sang this song to us when we were kids. And no we never had any nightmares. I think as small kids we never paid attention to the words.

[@charliemcgee9803]

Love to see the tradition of passing music down vocally is still alive

[@nana3491-w7b]

The best version but I love Jim and Jesse. Two of the nicest guys. Met them in '69 in Rome, GA. Such nice men.

[@simonne234]

now this is harmonizing..God I love them

[@randallhutchcraft5518]

Love the older songs

[@marythompson5458]

Love This When My Grandma Use Sing It To Me She Said It Was A True Story

[@Laurelstarlw]

my dad used to sing this all the time, among others like it, he is a bluegrass musician. I call them woman-killin' songs.

[@murphy2034]

what a great old song! Bluegrass rules

[@billlethco5631]

That’s. As good as it gets I know they are singing in heaven

[@AldabraJohn]

Jesse actually just passed this July. Theyre reunited and having a ball in heaven now🙏

[@dlowonthabeat]

Hopefully not singing this lol

[@vireogilvus]

I just love how he cracks up when he's explaining the plot. It is sooooo ridiculously violent and graphic. I suppose you'd better have a dark sense of humor if you're gonna sing murder-ballads.

[@murphy6700]

Jim MacRaynolds had a great sense of humor and used it in their act.

[@ed9492]

Banks of the Ohio has a very similar story and I think it's better than this.

[@andrewkohler3707]

@@ed9492 The narrative in this one kinda goes from 0 to 100 rather quickly. I'm now listening to "Banks of the Ohio," which I did not know previously, and at least there is a set up, motivation, and a scintilla of remorse. Even so, both songs are a bit, shall we say, cavalier regarding murdering one's intended partner.

[@andrewkohler3707]

Interesting to compare with the fittingly grisly Nick Cave version, to which a commenter below alerted me, and which has lyrics omitted from this performance: kzbin.info/www/bejne/fX2TemuPlth8Y7c

[@rabokarabekian409]

It is derived from the 19th-century Irish ballad "The Wexford Girl", itself derived from the earlier English ballad "The Bloody Miller or Hanged I Shall Be" (Roud 263, Laws P35) about a murder, in 1683, at Hogstow Mill, 12 miles (19 km) south of Shrewsbury. This ballad was collected by Samuel Pepys, who wrote about the murder of Anne Nichols by the Mill's apprentice Francis Cooper. Other versions are known as the "Waxweed Girl", "The Wexford Murder". These are in turn derived from an Elizabethan era poem or broadside ballad, "The Cruel Miller". Possibly modelled on the 17th-century broadside William Grismond's Downfall, or A Lamentable Murther by him Committed at Lainterdine in the county of Hereford on March 12, 1650: Together with his lamentation., sometimes known as The Bloody Miller.

[@USA24541]

As stated in the introduction, this song came from England then Ireland, then to America.

[@MrKbm3]

Great song, and I'm not just saying that cuz I'm related to Jim &Jesse McReynolds

[@jjportala]

Kenneth McReynolds my great grandpa Lawson grew up with them and was friends with them

[@phillipdewitt4454]

My high school football coach was Dewey McReynolds , there chousin .

[@MrLamar-vs6el]

i like their version better than any other....

[@Grahamgusbull]

Here in the U.K., I bought the Louvin’s 45 in the late fifties!

[@rickyball5165]

I first heard this from a really old women over 30 yrs ago.

[@edwiles5258]

My mon used to play this for me back in the 50s. It was done by the Wilburn Brothers. Mon was a cousin to the boys and they came from our hometown of Hardy, Arkansas. I remember they came by to see her a couple of times while I was living at home. Always drove a big black caddy. They did a couple of homecomign shows here and were a real class act. I love this version just as well

[@andrewkohler3707]

I hope you don't love it "well" in the sense of how the protagonist of the song loved the Knoxville girl....

[@eliwhite5548]

That's why most people, like me, love this song

[@leonolanofficial4581]

It is actually an Irish song, originally "Wexford Girl".

[@davidsheridan1974]

I saw them one night in 1987 or 88 in a show in maine

[@briartlaw]

Thanks for the right version ..

[@driverboots1]

My favorite song

[@bcg911]

It don't get much better than that!

[@katrinaaustin5543]

beautiful song but sad I remember hearing this song growing up

[@col-t-walters]

one of the first songs i ever learnt to play cords to and i still love it

[@mosrite60]

J&J played the best bluegrass music ever. Harmonies superb

[@killgazmotron]

Most metal american folk song award goes too...

[@jazzamk]

The song is based on an old English ballad, with the town setting sometimes being Oxford. To my knowledge, it is not a true story. Hope I helped!

[@dreadnought45]

I first heard this song when it was recorded by the Louvin Bros. around 1957 when I was growing up in Toronto. Also, first heard 'In The Pines' by the Louvin's as well. Jim and Jesse were always great when they were members of the WWVA Wheeling Jamboree in the 50's. Ken, Toronto

[@jackiegrooms2557]

love it by them and by Jimmy Maton

[@veronicamatchett8227]

this reminds me of 2 other songs from the 70s but not by Bobbie Gentry, both had to do with murder - one was 'Knoxville Girl' and one was 'Hang Down Your Head Tom Dooley'

[@wavehead11]

Dark lyrics but beautiful nonetheless!

[@andrewkohler3707]

"[L]oved his girl so well" - I know Otello says in his last monologue that he "loved not wisely but too well," but I question the word "well" both by Jim & Jesse and by Otello.

[@bcg911]

She shouldn't have told him she didn't like Bluegrass music!

[@royearlbanister]

@vireogilvus with your comment,i live in the logwoods in s.e.,okla.there was a drunk passed out in the south bound lane of the hi-way.this was way before daybreak.the log truck driver topped over a small grade,straddled the poor boy.the undercarriage of the truck caught his clothing and drug him to death.that was the laugh of our town for many a months.i think of the story and i still tell it,we still get a laugh out of it today.even though this happened in the early '70's.

[@barbaracurrence6712]

SAD SAD SONG

[@d20g]

got here by looking for the nick cave version, where he sounds like he really just got back from beating a girl to death... interesting to hear it with cheery sounding bluegrass harmonies. never knew the song had so much history.

[@andrewkohler3707]

Thanks for calling my attention to the Nick Cave version, which is extraordinary (especially juxtaposed with a mugshot of the singer, the origin of which I do not know). I dare say it is rather more appropriate: kzbin.info/www/bejne/fX2TemuPlth8Y7c Note that Jim & Jesse here cut the part about his mother questioning asking about the blood and the vision of the Devil pointing at him in accusation. Their harmonization is magnificent, but I have no idea why they are giving such an upbeat account of such a grisly and frankly psychopathic song.

[@TruegrassBoy]

What did Jim die of anyway? I never heard. Same with Garland Shuping, I heard he was dead, too. Way too bad. What did he die of?

[@lionjwd]

Hylo Brown had a slightly different version kzbin.info/www/bejne/gXuWm41vf8qsmbc The Louvin Brothers version by Charlie Louvin had at least two extra verses I started back to Knoxville, got there about midnight My mother, she was worried and woke up in a fright Saying "dear son, what have you done to bloody your clothes so?" I told my anxious mother I was bleeding at my nose I called for me a candle to light myself to bed I called for me a handkerchief to bind my aching head Rolled and tumbled the whole night through, as troubles was for me Like flames of hell around my bed and in my eyes could see

[@shannonburns6724]

Actually this was written by the Loudermilk Brothers. They recorded under their stage names, Louvin. John D. was their cousin.

[@Destiny4511]

It was apparently rough being a Bluegrass Woman. According to this, "Banks Of The Ohio" and "Down In The Willow Garden", you had to watch out because when a guy really loved you, he proved it by proposing marriage then murdering you in some gruesome fashion! In "Down In The Willow Garden", he loved her so much that he poisoned her, and ran her thru with a saber. Then to make sure, he threw her in the river to drown! Ya can't love a girl more than THAT, now can ya?

[@andrewkohler3707]

Well, if you define "love" as "feel a psychopathic possessiveness for," then yes.

[@TheRonnie63]

this is music!!! not American idol

[@mehall89]

hey this was posted a day after my birthday and I live in knoxville! and I'm a girl! um... creepy.

[@57hms19]

If you know where these folks are from Coeburn,Va.People in them parts have vanished for lesser issues than dark and wanderin' eyes.Just sayin'.

[@brandondvorak8349]

want this in a horror film

[@valerie3955]

For the life of me I cannot fathom a song about beating an innocent girl to death became a hit. :(

[@be8nice]

There are a lot of old songs of this theme. Before an execution in old Britain and Ireland, songwriters would go through the crowd with the lyrics to a song about the crimes of the condemned man. Since killing a girlfriend or ex-girlfriend was not an unknown crime, there were a lot of murder ballads known collectively as Pretty Polly ballads. This one has been around for a very long time under different names. In Ireland, it's known as the "Wexford Girl," but there are many versions. It probably became a hit again because of the vocal harmonies.

[@valerie3955]

@@be8nice Were they written from the POV of the murderer, as this one is?

[@be8nice]

@@valerie3955Often, yes. Weird, I know. You couldn't get away with that in country music nowadays, although a woman can take a Louisville slugger to a man's car. If we let men get away with writing violent songs about women, I'm afraid there'd be no end to it. But I figure turnabout is fair play. There were so many songs about men killing women for so long -- enough, already. Listen to "On the Banks of the Ohio," by anybody. So it goes.

[@pkdavis1739]

Written by Ted Bundy?

[@missyscarbrough4112]

Really???? He would have eaten that stick!!!

[@Tennessee608]

Missy Scarbrough That was a true story

[@missyscarbrough4112]

I know ....I'm from Tennessee! I was just saying....I know the original place wasn't Knoxville

[@missyscarbrough4112]

Like your name! My favorite NASCAR MAN

[@Tennessee608]

He is my favorite too

[@Tennessee608]

Years ago I saw Tracey Byrd in Lexington,Ky & I have not seen him since then Wonder what happened to him? He sung that song do the water melon craw

[@500SmithandWesson]

Sucks to be me? LOL I don't think so. I hardly think I'm squeemish and I enjoy life more than most. It's just that unlike you I don't need to go around porking floozies then murdering them to enjoy life. As I said I am a big fan of Jim and Jesse and enjoy bluegrass overall but enjoying fanticies of murder is simply sick!

[@scottyspaceboots9]

wow. how disturbing haha

[@scottyspaceboots9]

this song is fucked up. damn.

[@Skitzobilly]

No! This is American song! Knoxville is city in Tennessee!

[@5thcorps]

She became pregant

[@bobwasson2504]

5thcorps y

[@500SmithandWesson]

I am a great fan of Jim and Jesse, but I despise this song. It's positively sick and depressing.

[@bobwasson2504]

500SmithandWesson u