Rye Cove Cyclone
(A.P. Carter)

Oh listen today and a story I'll tell,
In sadness and tear rimmed eyes,
Of a dreadful cyclone that came this way,
And blew our schoolhouse away.

cho: Rye Cove (Rye Cove), Rye Cove (Rye Cove),
The land of my childhood and home,
Where life's early morn I once loved to roam,
But now it's so silent and lone.

When the cyclone appeared it darkened the air,
And the lightning flashed over the sky,
And the children all cried, don't take us away,
But spare us to go back home.

There were mothers so dear and fathers the same,
That came to this terrible scene,
Searching and crying each found their own child,
Dying on a pillow of stone.

Oh give us a home far beyond the blue sky,
Where storms and cyclones are unknown,
And there by life's strand we'll clasp the glad hand,
Our children in their heavenly home.

Note:The song is called The Cyclone of Rye Cove, and it's on
Carter Family CD, My Clinch Mountain Home (Rounder 1065
on the New Lost City Ramblers album Rural Delivery No.
According to the notes, A.P. Carter wrote the song shortly after
the disaster, but the record was not released until after the
event. CB

CB