Likely source: The Carter Family, Bluebird (RCA) B-8947, 14 Oct 1941,
via Tom Paley's rendition on "Folk Songs From The Southern Appalachians" (ELEKTRA, 1954; reissued on "O Love Is Teasin'" box-set, 1985).
The Greenbriar Boys derived their name from this song.
Transcribed by Manfred Helfert
'Twas in the year of '82,
In the springtime of the year,
I left my mother and a home so dear
All for that girl on the greenbriar shore.My mother, she says, "Son, don't go.
Don't leave me here alone.
Don't leave your mother and a home so dear.
Never trust a girl on the greenbriar shore."But I was young and reckless too,
And I craved a reckless life.
I left my mother and a home so dear
And I took that girl to be my wife.Her hair was dark and curly too
And her lovin' eyes were blue;
Her cheeks were like the red red rose
That girl I loved from the greenbriar shore.The years rolled on and the months rolled by;
She left me all alone.
Now I remember what my momma said,
"Never trust the girl on the greenbriar shore."