Thinking it might interest me, Brandon sent some cassette interviews Billy Adkins had conducted with his father Bill years earlier. The first one was dated circa 1982 and mostly featured Bill singing “What Shall I Do With the Baby-O”, “The Preacher and the Bear”, “Wild Hog”, “The Arkansas Song”, “Roman Crocodile”, and “The Old Miller”. The last song on the tape was “Noble Boatsman”, a tune that Lawrence Haley had partially remembered his mother singing. Bill learned it from his uncle Samp Davis.

There was a noble boatsman and noble he did well.

He had a loving wife and she loved the tailor well.

The boatsman went away on a board ship cruise.

Away she went for to let the tailor know.

Said, “My husband’s gone on a board ship crew

And this very night I’ll frolic with you.”

So the boatsman returned about three hours in the night,

Knocked at the door and said, “Strike me up a light.”

She began to slip and slide seeking out a place for the tailor to hide.

She put him in the chest and bid him lay still.

Told him he’s as safe as a mousey in the mill.

Then she jumped up and wide open the door

In stepped the boatsman with three or four.

Said, “I never come to rob you or disturb you of your rest.

I’ve come to bid you farewell and take away my chest.”

The boatsman being very stout and strong

Picked up his chest and went a marching along.

He hadn’t got more than half through the town

Till the weight of the tailor caused his steps to slow down.

He said, “My load’s a gettin’ heavy and I’ll put you down to rest

I believe to my soul they’s a devil in my chest.”

Then he set his chest down and throwed open the door

And there laid the tailor like a piggy in the floor.

Said, “I’ll throw you overboard and I’ll serve the Lord our king

And I’ll put an end to your night’s frolicking.”

Toward the end of the interview, Billy asked his father about general life around Harts Creek in the early part of the century. He said he first saw a car when he was eight or nine years old “right down there in a ferryboat. The river was kind of up a little bit then. The road went along the edge of the river. Somebody put it in the ferryboat, brought it out here and landed it. It climbed the bank over there. Seen them start it up. It was a T-Model Ford.”

What about the first radio?

“Watson had one up here operated by battery. Didn’t have no electric then.”

When did electricity come through here?

“1938, I believe.”