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The Ballad of Sally Kincaid

from Longing for Heaven by Jeni & Billy

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  • Compact Disc (CD) + Digital Album

    Duet partners Jeni & Billy have brought impressive measures of inspiration, artistry, and austerity to this minimalist collection of old-time ballads, heartsongs, and spirituals. Hankins is the soulful wellspring of this collaboration. Born and raised in Virginia coal country, she brings a writer’s and singer’s finely nuanced ear to the cadences and imagery of her native Appalachia. – Bluegrass Unlimited, USA

    Comes in a four panel eco-friendly wallet, designed by Jeni, featuring family photos. A 20-page booklet includes all lyrics and credits.

    Includes unlimited streaming of Longing for Heaven via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality download in MP3, FLAC and more.
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      $15 USD

     

  • Streaming + Download

    Includes unlimited streaming via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality download in MP3, FLAC and more.
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  • Full Digital Discography

    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. , and , .

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lyrics

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

credits

from Longing for Heaven, released January 1, 2010

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all rights reserved

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about

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.”
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