Subscribe
now to receive all the new
music
Highway 80 Stories creates,
including
13 back-catalog releases,
delivered instantly to you via the Bandcamp app for iOS and Android.
Learn more.
Matthew Knox was the first of his family to cross the mountains and enter Mississippi. The covered wagon he drove pulled a milk cow while two sows and a collie dog trailed along, and his wife sat in the back. Under the tarpaulin, among the farm implements, resting neatly next to a jug of clear whiskey medicine, was a small bible his grandfather, Jeremiah Knox, had given him in 1862 when he went off to fight in the Confederate War. Together Matthew and this bible had survived the war and would stay together throughout the tense aftermath.
This song tells the history of how Matthew’s Scots-Irish family came to America from Ulster, carrying with them the generations of Knox forebears as documented in the family bible.
Eventually Levi Hooper would be born, a distant relative of Nathaniel Knox.
Nathaniel Knox was an Ulster man
A staunch Presbyterian
Sold his labor for a six week voyage
With a wife and two small boys
Traced his line to 1621
To his great-great-grandad Tristan
They came to Ulster from County Galloway
Nathaniel Knox sailed away
It was a small thing that he took
A list of names in a holy book
Every Knox that’ll come along
Will write more names of his own
Nathaniel Knox went to Carolina
Took his grandson Jeremiah
Who was the first Knox American-born
In seventeen seventy-four
It was a small thing that he took
A list of names in a holy book
Every Knox that’ll come along
Will write more names of his own
It ain’t rained for six weeks now
Jeremiah watched his fields turn brown
One minute he’s cooking molasses from sugar cane
Then everything he’s built goes up flames
Matthew Knox was Jeremiah’s grandson
He left Carolina for Meridian
Mississippi soil is rich and dark
Matthew Knox has an Ulster heart
It was a small thing that he took
A list of names in a holy book
Every Knox that’ll come along
Will write more names of his own
Frank David Leone was born in Shreveport, Louisiana and has lived in the South his entire life with the exception of eight
years in NYC. Leone has also lived and worked at music in Dallas and Nashville. He currently resides in rural Tennessee with his wife and three cats.
His songs have been recorded by Lee Ann Womack, Chris Knight, Rebecca Lynn Howard, and Joy Lynn White, among others....more
Father and daughter team up to make pretty folk music inspired by the day she was born and the day she'll leave home. Bandcamp New & Notable May 5, 2015
Stirring Americana set to acoustic arrangements and topped by the legendary Alice Gerrard’s lovely, world-wise voice. Bandcamp New & Notable Oct 23, 2023
”Seawheel Acoustic” delivers captivating melodies and heartfelt lyrics in songs that are equal parts soothing and enchanting. Bandcamp New & Notable Jul 10, 2023
Tom Houston swings between heartfelt folk and quirky slice-of-life spoken word, augmented with electronics, on his latest LP. Bandcamp New & Notable Nov 15, 2022
The debut album from Leeds-based artist Jake Whiskin is full of atmospheric Americana tinged with hard-hitting classic rock. Bandcamp New & Notable Nov 10, 2022
Kieran Kane & Rayna Gellert offer up a stunning minimalist country record, conjuring huge emotions with little more than vocals & guitar. Bandcamp New & Notable Feb 13, 2022