I KNOW YOU RIDER

“I Know You Rider” is a traditional woman’s blues song. Well-known versions include

those by Janis Joplin, James Taylor (as “Circle Around the Sun”, on his first album), and

Hot Tuna. Joan Baez recorded a version on her 1961 album “Joan Baez, Vol. 2”. Some of

the lines is this song, such as “Sun gonna shine in my back door someday” date back a

long way. But it seems that the song as we know it has its origins in a version included in

Alan Lomax’s book “American Ballads and Folk Songs” in 1934.

The notes to the song say “An eighteen-year old black girl, in prison for murder, sang the

song and the first stanza of these blues.” Alan Lomax added a number of floating verses

from other sources and named it ‘Woman Blue.’

Well I know you rider, gonna miss me when I’m gone

You gonna miss your mama from rolling in your arms

Well I know my baby he’s bound to love me some

He throws his arms around me like a circle round the sun

Well I laid down and I tried to take my rest

I laid down and I tried to take my rest

but my mind it just kept wandering like some wild geese in the west

I’m going down the road where I get better care

I believe I’ll go babe, I just don’t feel welcome here

Just as sure as the bird fly in the sky above

Life ain’t worth living if you ain’t with the man you love

The sun’s gonna shine in my back door some day

The wind’s gonna rise and blow my blues away

To love you baby, it’s easy as falling off a log

Wanna be your baby but I sure won’t be your dog

Banjo Mountain