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  • Record/Vinyl + Digital Album

    Nearly five years ago, I had my first in depth experience diving into music history with my late mentor Joan Crane. This new record "Folk Songs For Old Time's Sake" is a culmination of what she taught me, and harbors mostly traditional material revisited and rearranged that Joan inspired in me. Some of the songs are by pioneers such as Elizabeth Cotten, The Carter Family, Mississippi John Hurt and Jimmie Rodgers, with the mindset of preserving their legacy and exposing their history to my generation and its successors. After starting the music history podcast "American Songcatcher", my desire for preservation has become a mission, and inside the liner notes of the limited edition vinyl gatefold resides a summary of the song or artists history behind the 14 tracks. This installment is the first of many to come honoring the legacy of American roots music.

    Includes unlimited streaming of Folk Songs For Old Times' Sake via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality download in MP3, FLAC and more.
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about

Cotton Mill Girls (Traditional)

First recorded by the Lee Brothers Trio in 1930 as “Cotton Mill Blues” and later popularized by folk singer Hedy West, the melody and structure of “Cotton Mill Girls” is thought to have been adapted from Appalachian old time, with lyrics that stem from the turn of the century. The song depicts the awful conditions of cotton-production in the Southern states, particularly central Georgia, where The Lee Brothers and Hedy West are from. In the late 1800’s, the textile industry was booming as more women and children between 10-15 years old worked in the mills, making up 65% of the workforce performing a seventy-hour workweek to earn about $2.50, $73.95 in today's money. Poor whites who worked in these mills developed a unique subculture that gave rise to songs like “Cotton Mill Girls”.

lyrics

I worked in the cotton mill all my life,
I ain't got nothin' but a Barlow knife.
And it’s hard time cotton mill girls,
Hard time everywhere.

(Chorus)
And it's hard times cotton mill girls,
Hard times cotton mill girls,
Hard times cotton mill girls,
Hard times everywhere.

Nineteen-fifteen I heard it said
Go to cotton country and get ahead
But it's hard times, cotton mill girls,
Hard times everywhere.

Gilmer to Barlow's a long long way
Down Ellijay to Cartecay.
It's hard times, cotton mill girls,
Hard times everywhere.

Us kids worked twelve hours a day
For fourteen cents of measly pay
Hard times, cotton mill girls,
Hard times everywhere.

When I die, don't bury me at all,
Just hang my body on the spinning room wall,
Pickle my bones in alcohol,
It's hard times cotton mill girls.

credits

from Folk Songs For Old Times' Sake, released November 2, 2021
Nicholas Williams - Guitar, Vocals
Owen Grooms - Banjo

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Nicholas Edward Williams Chattanooga, Tennessee

Host of the music history podcast
"American Songcatcher", Nicholas is a 37 year-old multi-instrumentalist and storyteller who is dedicated to playing it forward by preserving the songs and styles that have shaped America: ragtime, Piedmont blues, traditional folk, old time and early country. He's opened for Taj Mahal and The Wood Brothers.

“Beautifully uplifting and rootsy…” - Folk Radio UK ... more

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