"St. James Infirmary Blues" | Silk Road Ensemble + Rhiannon Giddens

(Music)

I went down

to St. James Infirmary

To see my baby there

She was lying on a long wooden table

So cold, so still, so fair

I went up to see the doctor

"She's very low," he said

I went back to see my baby

Good God

she's lying there dead

I went down to old Joe's bar room

On the corner of the square

They were serving drinks as per usual

And the usual crowd was there

To my left stood Old Joe McKennedy

His eyes were bloodshot red

He turned to the crowd around him

And these are the words he said

"Let her go, let her go, God bless her

Wherever she may be

She can search this whole wide world all over

But she'll never find another man like me

She can search this whole wide world all over

And she'll never find

another man

like me

When I die, please God, bury me

In my ten-dollar Stetson hat

Put a twenty-dollar gold piece on my watch chain

So my friends know I died standing pat

Get six gamblers to carry my coffin

And six choir girls to sing me a song

Stick a jazz band on my hearse wagon

To raise hell as I go along

Now that's the end of my story

Let's have another round of booze

And if anyone should ask you

Just tell them I got

the St. James Infirmary

blues

(Applause)