If Anybody Asks You About Me

Scott Ainslie

If anybody asks you about me,
If anybody asks you about me,
If anybody asks you about me,
Tell them I'm travelin' on.

Bossman yellin' hurry all the time,
Bossman yellin' hurry all the time,
Bossman ‘fraid he'll lose his job,
I'm afraid I can't lose mine.

So, meet me by the willow tree,
So, meet me by the willow tree,
So, meet me by the willow tree,
When the moon is dark.

And we'll make our way to a better land.
We'll make our way to a better land.
We'll make our way to a brighter land
Where no one will know we've gone.

Sitting on the couch with my new little David Beede gourd banjo, I realized that a tuning I'd learned from Sherman Hammons back in 1972, [e-E-A-B-D] was suited to the minor pentatonic scale [E-(G)-A-B-D]: a banjo tuning to make playing in this west African scale easy. So I set about trying to bring Kora rhythms out of the banjo and wrote new words for this traditional melody.