There's a low, green, valley on the old Kentucky shore

Where I've whiled many happy hours away,

Just a sitting and a singing by the little cottage door

Where lived my darling Nellie Gray

When the moon had climbed the mountain, and the stars were shining too

Then I'd take my darling Nellie Gray

And we'd go floatin down the river in my little red canoe

While my banjo sweetly I would play

One night I went to see her, but she's gone the neighbors say

And the white man had bound her with his chain

They have taken her to Georgia for to wear her life away

As she toils in the cotton and the cane

Oh, my poor Nellie Gray, they have taken you away

And I'll never see my darling, anymore

I'm sitting by the river and a weeping all the day

For you've gone from the old Kentucky shore

Now my canoe is under water, and my banjo is unstrung

I am tired of living, anymore

My eyes shall be cast downward, and my songs will be unsung

While I stay on the old Kentucky shore

Now I'm getting old and feeble, and I cannot see my way

I can hear someone knocking on my door

I can hear the angels singing, and I see my Nellie Gray

So farewell to the old Kentucky shore

Oh, my darling Nellie Gray, up in heaven, so they say

And they'll never take you from me, anymore

I'm coming, coming, coming, as the angels clear the way

So farewell to the old Kentucky shore