“In Seventeen Ninety-Five”

Description

Singer comes into the country in 1795; considers himself lucky just to be alive. He knocks at a girl's door; she lets him in and says not to ramble any more. They marry and live happily, "And the stars sang a banjo tune/When she said that she'd be mine"

Notes

Thieme learned the first verse from Louis Marshall "Grandpa" Jones, added the second verse several years later. Despite a few similarities to "In Eighteen Forty-Nine," the song and its gestalt are sufficiently different that I've classified them separately. - PJS

Cross references

• cf. "In Eighteen Forty-Nine" (lyrics)
• cf. "The Backwoodsman" (lyrics)

Recordings

• Art Thieme, "In 1795" (on Thieme06)