Misc Traditional – Joe Bowers (Guitar)

   D
My name Is Joe Bowers,

     A             D
I've got a brother Ike,

  D
I came here from Missouri,

                      A
Yes, all the way from Pike.

     G
I'll tell you why I left there

    D            A
And how I came to roam,

     D
And leave my poor old mammy,

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So far away from home.

  D
I used to love a gal there,

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Her name was Sallle Black,

  D
I asked her for to marry me.

    A
She said it was a whack.

    G
She says to me, "Joe Bowers,

   D                 A
Before you hitch for life.

    D
You ought to have a little home

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To keep your little wife."

     D
Says I, "My dearest Sallle,

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O Sallle, for your sake,

     D
I'll go to California

    A
And try to raise a stake."

     G
Says she to me, "Joe Bowers,

    D               A
You are the chap to win,

     D
Give me a kiss to seal the bargain,"

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And I throwed a dozen in.

     D
I'll never forget my feelings

       A            D
When I bid adieu to all.

D
Sal, she cotched me round the neck

    A
And I began to bawl.

     G
When I begun they all commenced,

    D               A
You never heard the like,

         D
How they all took on and cried

    A              D     A D
The day I left old Pike.

       D
When I got to this here country

  A             D
I hadn't nary a red,

  D
I had such wolfish feelings

  A
I wished myself most dead.

   G
At last I went to mining.

    D             A
Put in my biggest licks.

     D
Came down upon the boulders

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Just like a thousand bricks.

  D
I worked both late and early

   A                D
In rain and sun and snow.

    D
But I was working for my Sallie

   A
So 'twas all the same to Joe.

  G
I made a very lucky strike

       D               A
As the gold itself did tell.

          D
For I was working for my Sallie,

    A               D     A D
The girl I loved so well.

        D
But one day I got a letter

        A                  D
From my dear, kind brother Ike;

   D
It came from old Missouri,

     A
Yes, all the way from Pike.

   G
It told me the goldarndest news

     D            A
That ever you did hear,

   D
My heart it is a-bustin'

   A                  D    A D
So please excuse this tear.

     D
I'll tell you what it was, boys,

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You'll bust your sides I know;

    D
For when I read that letter

    A
You ought to seen poor Joe.

   G
My knees gave 'way beneath me,

      D                  A
And I pulled out half my hair;

    D
And if you ever tell this now.

    A                  D      A D
You bet you'll hear me swear.

   D
It said my Sallie was fickle,

    A               D
Her love for me had fled.

     D
That she had married a butcher,

      A
Whose hair was awful red;

   G
It told me more than that,

     D                 A
It's enough to make me swear,

   D
It said that Sallie had a baby

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And the baby had red hair.

         D
Now I've told you all that I can tell

 A               D
About this sad affair,

      D
'Bout Sallie marrying the butcher

        A
And the baby had red hair.

    G
But whether it was a boy or girl

    D            A
The letter never said.

   D
It only said its cussed hair

    A              D
Was inclined to be red