ARKANSAS BLUES
Anton Lada / Spencer Williams  1919

as rec by Mildred Bailey & her Oxford Greys  
March 16th 1939 New York

also rec by-
Tim Brymn & his Black Devil Orch '21
Lucille Hegamin & her Blue Flame Syncopaters '21
Lanin's Southern Serenaders '21
Miss Lee & her Jazz Boys '21
Sissle & Blake '21
Mamie Smith w Joseph Samuel & his Jazz Band '21
Mary Stafford w Charlie Johnson & his Orch '21
The Little Ramblers '24
Red McKenzie's Mound City Blues Blowers
The Goofus Five '27
The Varsity Eight (aka The California Ramblers) '27
Fred Elizalde & his Anglo American Band '28
Joe Daniel's Hotshots '38


Blues have overtaken me,
I'm so weary, days are full of gloom,
Homesickness has got me down in mind.
Way down in old Arkansas,
In old Dixie, my log cabin home,
Where the southern folks are good and kind, I find;

I see the right track,
I got my trunk packed,
And I have asked the good Lord to take the train back
That's headin' south;
Take me to Dardanelle,
Ain't got no time to lose!

I'm tired o' roamin,
I'm tired o' roamin,
I long to see my mammy and my home in
Old log cabin land, way down in the dell,
I've got the Arkansas blues!
Yes, I've got the Arkansas blues!

Blues just make me weep and cry,
I'm so lonesome, don't know what to do!
Miss the good old days that used to be.
Oh, what a fool am I
To be grievin', to be feelin' blue,
For my mammy's waitin' patiently for me.

I'm on the right track,
I've got my trunk packed,
And I have asked the good Lord to take the train back
That's headin' south;
Take me to Dardanelle,
Ain't got no time to lose!

I'm tired o' roamin,
I'm tired o' roamin,
I long to see my mammy and my home in
Old log cabin land, way down in the dell,
I've got those Arkansas blues, oh-ho!
Yes, I've got the Arkansas blues!





(Contributed by Peter Akers - January 2010)