my baby's gone and i don't know why
she let out this morning
like a rusty shot in a hollow sky
left me without warning
sooner than the dogs could bark
and faster than the sun rose
down to the banks in an old mule car
she took a flatboat across the shallow
left me in my tears to drown
she left a baby daughter
now the water's wide and deep and brown
she's crossing muddy waters
tobacco standing in the fields
be rotten come november
and a bitter heart will not reveal
a spring that love remembers
when that sweet brown girl of mine
her black eyes are ravens
we broke the bread and drank the wine
from a jug that she'd been saving
baby's crying and the daylight's gone
that big oak tree is groaning
in rush of wind and river of song
i can hear my sweetheart moaning
crying for her baby child
or crying for her husband
crying for that river's wild
to take her from her loved ones