“One morning, one morning, one morning in May
I overheard a married man to a young girl say
“Go dress you up, Pretty Katie, and come along with me
Across the Blue Mountains to the Allegheny.
“I’ll buy you a horse, love, and a saddle to ride
I’ll buy myself another to ride by your side
We’ll stop at every tavern
We’ll drink when we’re dry
Across the Blue Mountains goes my Katie and I”
Then up spoke her mother, and angry was she then
“Bright daughter, oh dear daughter, he is a married man
Besides, there’s young men plenty more handsome than he
Let him take his own wife to the Allegheny”
“But mother, oh dear mother, he’s the man of my own heart
And wouldn’t it be a dreadful thing for me and my love to part
I’d envy every woman who ever I did see
Who Crossed the Blue Mountains to the Allegheny”
Well the last time I saw him, he was saddled to ride
With Katie, his darling, right there by his side
A laughing and a singing and thankful to be free
To cross the Blue Mountain to the Allegheny
They left before daybreak on a buckskin and a roan
Past tall shivering pine trees where mockingbirds moan
Past dark cloudy windows where eyes may never see
Across the Blue Mountains to the Allegheny
One morning, one morning, one morning in May
I overheard a married man to a young girl say
“Go dress you up, Pretty Katie, and come along with me
Across the Blue Mountains to the Allegheny.”
Traditional folk song. As recorded by an americana folk band called Rising Appalachia on their record “The Sails of Self,” April 22 2010.