Sometimes I'm in This Country

DESCRIPTION: "Sometimes I'm in this country, sometimes I'm in this town." The singer asks his love if she will be true; she replies that she has a new sweetheart. He considers drowning himself, but the water might "deceive" him; he decides to travel the wide world
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1951 (recorded from Lee Monroe Presnell)
KEYWORDS: love rejection drowning travel
FOUND IN: US(SE)
ST RcSIITCo (Partial)
Roud #16400
RECORDINGS:
Lee Monroe Presnell, "Sometimes I'm in This Country" (on USWarnerColl01)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Goodnight, Irene" (floating lyrics)
cf. "Willy, Poor Boy" (floating lyrics)
NOTES [79 words]: The Warners claim that they could find out nothing about this song. Their informant Presnell thought it was a "sea song." And yet, the kinship to "Goodnight Irene" is clear. If Presnell is right about its sea origin, my guess is that it and "Goodnight Irene" split off from a common original sometime in the nineteenth century, and this went to sea and the other version went to Lead Belly. Since then, they have evolved enough that they can be considered separate songs. - RBW
File: RcSIITCo

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