Ohio River Boat Song

(adapted from the traditional Scottish folk song Lach Tay Boat Song)

When it's time from work to go, and in my boat I row

'Cross the muddy Ohio, when the evening light is falling

And I look towards Floyd's Knobs, where the afterglories glow

And I dream on two bright eyes with a merry mouth below

She's my beauteous Katerina, she's my joy and sorrow too

Though I know she is untrue, oh but I cannot live without her

For my heart's a boat in tow and I'd give the world to know

If she means to let me go as I sing the whole day through

Katerina, your lovely hair has more beauty, I declare

Than all the tresses there from Smoke Town to Oldham County

Be it black, red, gold, or brown, let them hang to lengths below

They mean not as much to me as a melting flake of snow

And her dance is like a gleam of the sunlight on the stream

And the screeching blue jays seem to form her name when screaming

But my heart is full of woe, for last night she made me go

And tears begin to flow as I sing the whole day through