Story Behind The Song

This song hearkens back to the murder ballads my mother use to sing to me: "The Knoxville Girl," "Banks of the Ohio," and "Pretty Polly." The song gains power from its gallows humor and remains one our most requested tunes.

Song Description

The speaker winds up in a loveless marriage after bargaining for his bride in a horse-swap. His sorrowful thoughts turn murderous after Jessica vows she will never love him. Promising to take her up to the still, the speaker takes his bride to the branch and murderers her there. He leaves her skull, but claims her heart for his own. As a final victory, he grinds her bones to meal for his bread.

Lyrics

I married darlin' Jessica when she was just fifteen,
When her daddy traded her for a horse he'd never seen.
For fifteen years she shared with me my house upon the hill,
But she said she'd never loved me and she swore she never will.

That broke my heart, and I thought I'd die,
And I stared that Ol' Grim Reaper in the eye,
But my heart grew cold and I plotted my revenge
And I promised him another by-and-by.

I said to darlin' Jessica, "I'm gettin' quite a chill,
Let's go up on the mountain, fetch a jar down from the still,
And bring your woolen coat for there's a storm a-comin' in."
But she knew she wouldn't need it for she wouldn't be back again.

She looked at me, she said, "You lie."
For a moment there I thought that I might cry.
But I fixed my hat and turned my collar to the wind,
For I knew this pretty woman had to die.

On every branch above us sang the mournful whippoorwill,
As I dragged my darlin' Jessie to the branch there by the mill.
And there we bowed our heads and asked for blessings from above,
The night my darlin' Jessica was nigh consumed by love.

And I kept her heart, for it was mine,
But I left her bloody skull there in the pines.
And I bake my bread with the flour from the mill
Where the bones of darlin' Jessie were ground fine.