Walk On Boy

The song is the life story of a boy named John Henry Brown, told in his own voice. He is born on a rainy morning and leaves his mother and father at about the age of ten for a job on the levee, carrying water to the men who do the heavy work. His father’s advice is to find a good woman and be good to her. In the last verse he tells anyone who asks about the fellow named Brown that he is the boy who beat the steam drill down, borrowing the contest at the heart of the John Henry legend.

Doc Watson recorded it for Southbound (Vanguard, July 1966), with Merle Watson and John Pilla on guitars and Russ Savakus on bass. He came back to it on Two Days in November with Merle (Poppy, 1974) and on Third Generation Blues with his grandson Richard Watson (Sugar Hill, 1999). Bluegrass bands were taking it up as well: Don Reno, Bill Harrell and the Tennessee Cut-Ups included it on a Jalyn LP in 1968, and the Bray Brothers and Red Cravens on Rounder in 1976. Tony Rice sang it on The Rice Brothers 2 (Rounder, 1994), made with his brothers Ron, Larry and Wyatt.