“Hang down your head, Tom Dooley
Hang down your head and cry
Hang down your head, Tom Dooley
Poor boy, you’re bound to die”
It was 1959 or 1960 when I first heard the Kingston Trio’s “Tom Dooley” on the jukebox in Grady’s Café in Boonville, North Carolina, population of around 600 souls. I don’t remember what I was eating, who I was with, or why I was there, but I recollect perfectly sitting in a booth, staring into space, and being mesmerized by that song.
And so began my lifelong love affair with American ballads.
My siblings, my friends, and I were already learning ballads and folk songs in elementary school or from children’s records. “I’ve Been Working on the Railroad,” “Oh! Susanna,” “On Top of Old Smoky,” and “Erie Canal” are just a few of these classics I recall singing in class. When I was 11, just before I abandoned my piano lessons, I dressed up like a cowpoke and performed “I’m a Poor Lonesome Cowboy” to an audience in our school auditorium. Thank heavens no one recorded that screechy performance for posterity….
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