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Thinking Tonight of My Blue Eyes

from Folk Songs For Old Times' Sake by Nicholas Edward Williams

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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.

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about

Thinking Tonight of My Blue Eyes (The Carter Family)

The first family of country music, The Carter Family, spent their career turning old-time songs, spirituals, traditionals, and hillbilly music into a formidable and valuable commodity. AP Carter and a local Clinch Mountain African American bluesman named Lesley Riddle spent many days scouring the region for songs on front porches, in churches, at dances and picnics, then would bring the songs back to make their own with cousins Sara and Maybelle Carter. One such tune was “I’m Thinking Tonight of My Blue Eyes”, undoubtedly traced to melodies from the British Isles. In AP’s consistent absence, his wife Sara found solace in his cousin Coy, and an affair ensued. The extended family wildly disapproved of this, and Coy’s parents moved him to California. While The Carter Family was performing under contract at XERA radio on the Mexican border, Sara dedicated “I’m Thinking Tonight of My Blue Eyes,” to Coy on air. He was listening, and drove over 1,600 miles to the station, where they got married just days after arriving. The Carter Family would split a few years later in 1943, though they provided the template for country music’s future.

lyrics

Would be better for us had we never
In this wide and wicked world never met
For the pleasures we've both have seen together
I am sure, love, I'll never forget

Oh, I'm thinking tonight of my blue eyes
Who is sailing far over the sea
Oh, I'm thinking tonight of my blue eyes
And I wonder if she ever thinks of me

And you told me once, dear, that you loved me
You swore that we never would part
But a link in the chain has been broken
Leaves me with a sad and aching heart

When that cold, cold grave shall enclose me
Will you come, dear, and shed just one tear
And say to the strangers around you
A poor heart you have broken lies there

credits

from Folk Songs For Old Times' Sake, released November 2, 2021
Nicholas Williams - Guitar, Vocals
Jade Watts - Upright Bass, Harmony
Emma Dubose - Fiddle, Harmony

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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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