Album: America Remembers Johnny Horto

Sleepy-eyed John

Well way down yonder on Candy Creek
I whittled out a fiddle from a wagon seat.
I tune fiddle and I rub my bow.
Play a little tune wherever I go.

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Sleepy-eyed John, you better get yore britches on
Sleepy-eyed John better tie your shoe.
Sleepy-eyed John, you better goet your britches on.
Try to get to heaven 'for the devil gets to you.

Now Sleepy-eyed John he had a wooden leg.
The wooden leg was nothing but a little wooden peg.
With one shoe off and one shoe on
Do the double-shuffle 'till the cows come home.

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Over the hickory and down the pine
The racoon left and the old hound whined.
John said 'Sick 'em', and the racoon left.
They crossed Green River in a minute and a half.

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I took 20 dollars for to build a fence.
I took my money and I ain't worked since.
I sold my buggy and I sold my plow.
I wouldn't take a dollar for my journey now.

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