We’ve updated our Terms of Use to reflect our new entity name and address. You can review the changes here.
We’ve updated our Terms of Use. You can review the changes here.
/

about

A song that Jeni penned which is an imagining of the girl character from the traditional song, The Butcher's Boy, praying to be delivered from the temptation of hanging herself.

lyrics

The Hoot Owl
© Jeni Hankins

Oh, Jesus, this is Janey,
a’ calling to you now.
I need for you to hear me,
so I’m praying right out loud.

Mama’s ten years dead
and Daddy’s got so poor.
I’m the only one to tend him
since brother’s killed at war.

The blackest of all sinners,
I stand before you plain,
shamed by the miller’s boy
who I’ll not see again.

He promised me we’d marry,
but a soldier, now, is he
and I but one poor Christian girl,
disgraceful though I be.

Oh, Jesus, there’s a hoot owl.
At night he cries my name
and tempts me to the rafters
where I should hang for shame.

If this bird be a devil,
then I’m a devil’s maid
and false to your own precious blood
by which my sin was paid.

If this bird be an angel
then he’s Lucifer himself –
a fallen angel come to carry
fallen me to hell.

Oh, Jesus move my hand
from round this length of rope,
unbind the slippery knot
that tightens round my throat.

Though I should swing like Judas
from the crimson gallows tree,
oh, Jesus, ain’t there hope
for a broken girl like me.

Sweet Jesus make that bird
into the whitest dove
and make his cry into the song
of your redeeming love.

Sweet Jesus make his cry
into a young girl’s prayer
that she may live another day
beyond the Devil’s snares.

Oh, Jesus, this is Janey,
a’ calling to you now.
I need for you to hear me,
so I’m praying right out loud.

credits

from Live in LA with the Big Picnic Band, track released May 1, 2015
© Jeni Hankins
Jeni Hankins, Vocal
Billy Kemp, guitar
Craig Eastman, strings

license

all rights reserved

tags

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.”
... more

contact / help

Contact Jeni Hankins

Streaming and
Download help

Shipping and returns

Redeem code

Report this track or account

Jeni Hankins recommends:

If you like Jeni Hankins, you may also like: