From the recording The Dealer
Lyrics
Sweet Nancy
(A tragic tale for my sister Nancy, a fair beauty, now gone…)
She was the fair blonde-haired daughter
Of a poor humble hillside farmer
A flower in May, a flower in June
But all flowers fade with the first frosted moon
Fated to fall back to the earth
Life is a riddle, death a curse
Known as Sweet Nancy, a beauty to savor
Many came courting but none found her favor
Some offered gold, others glory
Sangs her songs so dear and adoring
But she cast them off like chaff in the wind
Dreamed of another and not of them
Oh-o-oh, Sweet Nancy, there on the hillside
See her dancing, all alone in the pale moonlight
Dreaming of the one she loves
On an old plow horse, he came a’riding
Dressed in homespun, strong and abiding
He said to her father, “I harvest and sow
“Just hardscrabble land, but I will cherish ‘n hold”
His eye caught hers, in her heart she knew
Smiled to her father and said, “I do…”
And oh-o-oh, Sweet Nancy, there on the hillside
See her dancing, no longer alone in the pale moonlight
Arm in arm with the one she loves
Her love to him, that was her dowry
They rode as one leaving the valley
But a jealous suiter raged in the night
Hid by the roadside to take his life
The fatal bullet fired in the dark
He falls from his saddle ‘n dies in her arms
Oh-o-oh, Sweet Nancy, vows to him her love everlasting
The winter clouds cover the moonlight
The snow falls and blankets her love
And oh-o-oh…
She runs howling into the wind
Baring her flesh in sorrow for him
Up to the high hills she answers the call
Where the wolves stand waiting, there she falls
A tender flower lost to the snow
Where went Nancy, no one knows
And oh-o-oh…
She was the fair blonde-haired daughter
Of a poor humble hillside farmer