Get all 26 Jeni Hankins releases available on Bandcamp and save 20%.
Includes unlimited streaming via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality downloads of String Unraveller Demo May 2021, The American Dream (Harlis and Freda), Voice Memo Demo, I'm Letting Go of You – Kitchen Single, The Wondarium: Songs For Kids, A Body is a Delicate House, I Fell Into the Fire, The Loneliest Snowman, I Fell Into The Fire – Limited Edition Handprinted, and 18 more.
1. |
With Fond Affection
03:47
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With Fond Affection
You gave back my true love letters
And the picture I loved so well
In the town we meet as strangers
But I still can’t say farewell
Once you loved with fond affection
Once your thoughts were all of me
Now you’ve gone to seek another
And you care no more for me
I still have the ring you gave me
On a ribbon ‘round my throat
And this ring is all that’s left me
And false letters that you wrote
Once you loved with fond affection
Once your thoughts were all of me
Now you’ve gone to seek another
And you care no more for me
© 2009 Jeni Hankins & Billy Kemp, BMI
Based on the traditional song “Fond Affection”
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2. |
Single Girl
02:01
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Single Girl
Single girl, single girl
She’s going dressed so fine
O, she’s going dressed so fine
Married girl, married girl,
She wears just any kind
O, she wears just any kind
Single girl, single girl
She’s going where she please
O, she’s going where she please
Married girl, married girl,
Got a baby on her knees
O, got a baby on her knees
Single girl, single girl
She goes the store and buys
O, She goes the store and buys
Married girl, married girl,
She rocks the cradle & cries
O, she rocks the cradle & cries
Traditional, © 2010 arranged by Jeni & Billy
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3. |
Longing for Heaven
02:13
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Longing for Heaven
Based on Sacred Harp #384 “Panting for Heaven”
O, when will the period appear
When I shall unite in your song
I’m weary of lingering here and
I to your savior belong
I’m fettered and chained up in clay
I struggle and pant to be free
I long to be soaring away
My God and my Savior to see
Tune by S.M. Brown, 1869
Words by Maria DeFleury, 1791
© 2010 Arranged by Jeni & Billy
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4. |
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I Saw a Man at the Close of Day
I saw a man at the close of day, standing by a grocery store.
His lips were parched, his eyes were sunk, and I knew him o’er & o’er.
A little boy stood by his side, and unto him he said,
“Father, mother’s sick at home, and sister cries for bread.”
He turned around, walked from that store, staggered on into some bar
and unto the bartend said, “O, pour me one glass more.”
In about a year I passed thereby; a crowd gathered round that door,
I asked the reason, one replied, “The drunkard is no more.”
Just then a hearse rolled slowly by, no wife or children in view.
They’d gone and left this flowered earth and bid fond friends adieu.
Come all ye jolly dram drinkers, from this a lesson take,
and whisky overthrow my friends, before it is too late.
Traditional, © 2010 arranged and with additional lyrics by Jeni & Billy
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5. |
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The Ballad of Sally Kincaid
for Lee Smith
She was born up near Grundy in a coal mining camp.
She went to church one Sunday and came home a tramp.
It was an itinerant preacher man who spoiled her, they say,
with a gun and a Bible he bought on Good Friday.
He prayed with them on Easter, but all his prayers were lies.
And he stole their small offering and Sally for his bride.
Some say she went willingly and helped him with his crimes.
Some say she had a baby that took sick and died.
But the law found that preacher man in Bristol, Tennessee —
dead in a hotel room — strangled with a sheet.
With no evidence to hold her, they had to let her go,
and all she could think of was her old mountain home.
She showed up one Sunday at the back of the church
with the stolen offering, asking for work.
But hearts were hardened and eyes like glass,
and no one would take her in on account of her past.
She’d been places and seen things that no one could trust.
She was the child of the Devil, now, wild and cursed.
They called her a floozy and they called her a tramp,
but when she danced on the bar, she was like a lamp
that shone too brightly, like the queen of that town.
And with all the lust inside them, men laid their money down.
But beauty is not lasting, and flowers, sure to fade.
And the light crept slowly from Sally Kincaid.
She washed the ladies’ dresses and she used her needle, too.
She did most anything that they would have her do.
O, where has old Sally gone? O, don’t you understand?
She’s lying in this pine box with no offering in her hand.
She’s gone to her savior alone and penniless,
She’s buried up near Grundy on that mountain she loved best.
You’ll find her up near Grundy on that mountain she loved best.
© 2003 Jeni Hankins, BMI, & 2006 Billy Kemp, BMI
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6. |
Cecil Roberts' Hand
02:36
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Cecil Roberts' Hand
for UMWA President Cecil Roberts
Send us the fire in Cecil Roberts’ hand
Send us the fire in his hand
Send us the fire in Cecil Roberts’ hand
And a holy union we will stand
Like the rock of ages
Send us the dream of Martin Luther King
Send us the dream of Dr. King
Send us the dream of Martin Luther King
And a holy union we will sing
Like the rock of ages
Send us the peace of Jesus, King of Kings
Send us the peace of The King
Send us the peace of Jesus, King of Kings
And a holy union we will bring
Like the rock of ages
Send us the flowers in Cecil Roberts’ Hand
Send us the flowers in his hand
Send us the flowers in Cecil Roberts’ Hand
For the miner who has left this land
Whose name is on the pages
Where no storm rages
O, the rock of ages
© 2009 Jeni Hankins & Billy Kemp, BMI
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7. |
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While I Stay at Home and Weep
All I wanted was to kiss you
to hold you close and call you mine
All my dreams, well, they died with you
When you left our home behind
Somewhere across the bitter ocean,
over mountains black and steep
You’re a-wandering and a-roaming,
while I stay at home and weep
You promised that you’d always love me
You held me close as I wished
Little did I know that morning
I’d received your parting kiss
Somewhere across the bitter ocean,
over mountains black and steep
You’re a-wandering and a-roaming,
while I stay at home and weep
Prayhaps I’ll take to roaming,
I’ll seek you in a foreign land
And if you find me not at home,
Prayhaps you’ll understand
Somewhere across the bitter ocean,
over mountains black and steep
You’re a-wandering and a-roaming,
while I stay at home and weep
© 2006 Jeni Hankins, BMI
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8. |
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Father Will You Meet Me in Heaven
for Jack Cash, Johnny’s brother
Father will you meet me in Heaven?
For me the die has been cast.
Tell me you’ll meet me, O father,
and walk with Jesus at last.
A blade is a terrible master.
For brother it meant his life.
As he stretched across the table,
he did not mind the knife.
For brother death was a-calling.
I thought he’d breathed his last,
but as our father wept o’er him,
I heard my brother ask . . .
Father will you meet me in Heaven?
For me the die has been cast.
Tell me you’ll meet me, O father,
and walk with Jesus at last.
Pride is a terrible master
and father was often it’s slave.
He had no love for Jesus
and said he’d ne’er be saved.
But he knelt as brother lay dying
and he felt as ne’er before.
He heard the words of dear brother
and gave his heart to the Lord.
Father will you meet me in Heaven?
For me the die has been cast.
Tell me you’ll meet me, O father,
and walk with Jesus at last.
© 2008 Jeni Hankins & Billy Kemp, BMI
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9. |
On a Hill Lone & Grey
02:37
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On a Hill Long and Grey
On a hill lone and grey
in a land far away
in a country beyond the blue sea
Where beneath that far sky
Went a man forth to die
for the world and for you and for me
O, it bows down my heart
and the teardrops do start
When in memory that grey hill I see
It was there on its side
Jesus suffered, yes he died
to redeem a poor sinner like me
Hark I hear the dull blow
of a hammer swung low
They are nailing my Lord to the tree
On that cross he upraised
while the multitudes gazed
He ascended that hill lone and grey
O, it bows down my heart
and the teardrops do start
When in memory that grey hill I see
It was there on its side
Jesus suffered, yes he died
to redeem a poor sinner like me
Shout aloud, then, my soul
Let the glad tidings roll
From the land to the edge of the sea
Where beneath that far sky
went a man forth to die
For the world and for you and for me.
For the world and for you and for me.
Traditional,
© 2010 arranged by Jeni & Billy
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10. |
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If I Ever Get Ten Dollars
for Jim Lauderdale, with thanks.
If I ever get ten dollars
gonna buy me a three piece suit and
gonna buy you a diamond ring
gonna marry you
If I ever get ten dollars
gonna find us a piece of land and
build a house with a picket fence
with my own two hands
If I ever get ten dollars
gonna quit this railway car and
hang up my walkin’ shoes and
stay right where you are
If I ever get ten dollars
gonna buy me a three piece suit and
gonna buy you a diamond ring
gonna marry you
©2008 Jeni Hankins & Billy Kemp, BMI
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Jeni Hankins London, UK
Jeni Hankins grew up in the coalfields of Appalachian in Southwest Virginia among a family of miners, moonshiners, and
journalists. Her writing pulls the grit, gumption, and keen sense of observation out of that heritage like drawing water from her grandmother’s well.
In every song, Jeni’s “true sense of place shines through – old as the hills, but brand new at the same time.”
... more
Jeni Hankins recommends:
For me, this is the best of folk music, what it's all meant to be. After years of listening to Rebecca & Ken, I still get shivers up my spine when I hear them together.
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