{"id":800,"date":"2016-04-13T07:00:43","date_gmt":"2016-04-13T11:00:43","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.elijahwald.com\/songblog\/?p=800"},"modified":"2021-03-14T10:25:54","modified_gmt":"2021-03-14T14:25:54","slug":"omie-wise","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.elijahwald.com\/songblog\/omie-wise\/","title":{"rendered":"Omie Wise (Doc Watson\/the murder)"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Omie Wise\" width=\"474\" height=\"267\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/ihn9irHWEa8?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>Another I got from Doc Watson&#8217;s first LP, this murder ballad was apparently widespread through much of the South, but Doc seems to have learned it directly from local sources.<img data-recalc-dims=\"1\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignleft wp-image-801 size-full\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.elijahwald.com\/songblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/03\/Doc-Watson-by-river.jpg?resize=230%2C225&#038;ssl=1\" alt=\"\" width=\"230\" height=\"225\" \/> The murder took place in 1808, in Deep River, North Carolina, and Doc gave the basic story in his songbook:<\/p>\n<p><em>Naomi Wise, a little orphan girl, was being brought up by Squire Adams, a gent who had a pretty good name in the community as a morally decent human being. Omie, however, was seeing a ne&#8217;er-do-well named John Lewis, who never meant anything about anything serious, except some of his meanness. John Lewis courted the girl, seemingly until she became pregnant, and he decided that he&#8217;d get rid of her in some secret sort of way. He persuaded her to skip off with him and get married, then pushed her into the water and drowned her. Everyone knew that he had been mean to Omie, and when the body was taken out of the water, there was evidence that she had been beaten quite a lot.<\/em><\/p>\n<p>According to various sources, the facts of the murder were somewhat more complicated &#8212; for one thing, Naomi Wise apparently had two children already when she was murdered, and for another, John Lewis escaped from jail, was apprehended several years later, and then was found not guilty, though <img data-recalc-dims=\"1\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-802 size-full alignright\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.elijahwald.com\/songblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/03\/Omie-Wise-grave.jpg?resize=143%2C151&#038;ssl=1\" alt=\"\" width=\"143\" height=\"151\" \/>the evidence was apparently strong against him. The song is thus a blend of fact and formula &#8212; the theme of a young man betraying and murdering a girl he had impregnated was popular in southern balladry, and I&#8217;ll be singing a similar story, &#8220;Banks of the Ohio,&#8221; shortly.<\/p>\n<p>When I learned this, I didn&#8217;t really appreciate it, but Doc&#8217;s songbook provided tablature and it was a relatively simple arrangement, so I learned it mostly for the guitar accompaniment. Forty years later, I&#8217;ve forgotten that accompaniment, but still remember the song, and it&#8217;s one of the few southern mountain ballads that have stuck with me pretty much in their entirety. Such are the vagaries of memory.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Another I got from Doc Watson&#8217;s first LP, this murder ballad was apparently widespread through much of the South, but Doc seems to have learned it directly from local sources. The murder took place in 1808, in Deep River, North Carolina, and Doc gave the basic story in his songbook: Naomi Wise, a little orphan &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/www.elijahwald.com\/songblog\/omie-wise\/\" class=\"more-link\">Continue reading <span class=\"screen-reader-text\">Omie Wise (Doc Watson\/the murder)<\/span> <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":true,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-800","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.4 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Omie Wise (Doc Watson\/the murder) - Old Friends: A Songobiography<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.elijahwald.com\/songblog\/omie-wise\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Omie Wise (Doc Watson\/the murder) - Old Friends: A Songobiography\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Another I got from Doc Watson&#8217;s first LP, this murder ballad was apparently widespread through much of the South, but Doc seems to have learned it directly from local sources. The murder took place in 1808, in Deep River, North Carolina, and Doc gave the basic story in his songbook: Naomi Wise, a little orphan &hellip; Continue reading Omie Wise (Doc Watson\/the murder) &rarr;\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.elijahwald.com\/songblog\/omie-wise\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Old Friends: A Songobiography\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2016-04-13T11:00:43+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2021-03-14T14:25:54+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/www.elijahwald.com\/songblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/03\/Doc-Watson-by-river.jpg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Elijah Wald\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@ElijahWald\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@ElijahWald\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Elijah Wald\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\\\/\\\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.elijahwald.com\\\/songblog\\\/omie-wise\\\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.elijahwald.com\\\/songblog\\\/omie-wise\\\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Elijah Wald\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.elijahwald.com\\\/songblog\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/20e4f69f2f284ea0ff728a9d1b7720a9\"},\"headline\":\"Omie Wise (Doc Watson\\\/the murder)\",\"datePublished\":\"2016-04-13T11:00:43+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2021-03-14T14:25:54+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.elijahwald.com\\\/songblog\\\/omie-wise\\\/\"},\"wordCount\":361,\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.elijahwald.com\\\/songblog\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/20e4f69f2f284ea0ff728a9d1b7720a9\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.elijahwald.com\\\/songblog\\\/omie-wise\\\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.elijahwald.com\\\/songblog\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2016\\\/03\\\/Doc-Watson-by-river.jpg\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.elijahwald.com\\\/songblog\\\/omie-wise\\\/\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.elijahwald.com\\\/songblog\\\/omie-wise\\\/\",\"name\":\"Omie Wise (Doc Watson\\\/the murder) - 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I like a lot of his other work, liked seeing him live, loved interviewing him the one time I got to do it, and Peter Keane and I used his version of \"Blue Railroad Train\" as the theme song to\u2026","rel":"","context":"Similar post","block_context":{"text":"Similar post","link":""},"img":{"alt_text":"Doc Watson","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.elijahwald.com\/songblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/03\/Doc-Watson-300x299.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":5089,"url":"https:\/\/www.elijahwald.com\/songblog\/stackolee-furry-lewis\/","url_meta":{"origin":800,"position":1},"title":"Stackolee (Furry Lewis)","author":"Elijah Wald","date":"March 13, 2024","format":false,"excerpt":"As I've explained in an earlier post, I first heard \"Stagolee\" from Woody Guthrie, then from Mississippi John Hurt, then Dave Van Ronk... and eventually from Dave's source, Furry Lewis. 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I learned my version off Tom Rush and Dave Van Ronk, both of whom\u2026","rel":"","context":"Similar post","block_context":{"text":"Similar post","link":""},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.elijahwald.com\/songblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/03\/Harry-Duncan-drawing.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":5104,"url":"https:\/\/www.elijahwald.com\/songblog\/ella-speed\/","url_meta":{"origin":800,"position":5},"title":"Ella Speed (A New Orleans murder ballad)","author":"Elijah Wald","date":"April 6, 2024","format":false,"excerpt":"\u00a0 This is a new one in my repertoire, worked up in the course of researching my book, Jelly Roll Blues: Censored Songs and Hidden Histories. I had heard other versions of the song from Lead Belly, who recorded it several times, and Mance Lipscomb, and the Kweskin Jug Band,\u2026","rel":"","context":"Similar post","block_context":{"text":"Similar post","link":""},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.elijahwald.com\/songblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/06\/Jellycover-e1710359243890.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]}],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.elijahwald.com\/songblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/800","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.elijahwald.com\/songblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.elijahwald.com\/songblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.elijahwald.com\/songblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.elijahwald.com\/songblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=800"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/www.elijahwald.com\/songblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/800\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4381,"href":"https:\/\/www.elijahwald.com\/songblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/800\/revisions\/4381"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.elijahwald.com\/songblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=800"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.elijahwald.com\/songblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=800"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.elijahwald.com\/songblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=800"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}