A story of misfortune when an innocent young man visiting Belfast meets up with a lovely young woman, they take a walk together, she picks a gentleman’s pocket, slips his gold watch into our young man’s hand… he then gets arrested for theft, brought before a judge, found guilty and shipped off to Van Diemen’s land (Tasmania) for a 7-year hard labor sentence. A typical Friday night out in Belfast I’d say… (only joking !!!).
The song has quite few versions, the one I first learned was really old-fashioned with words which people don't use anymore, with the result that when I sung it, no-one understood it. This one is much better - if you can understand it - you can also sing along easier... it's good for that too!
I play this fairly traditionally, breaking it up between verse and chorus, lifting the choruses with bass and banjo. I play the solo on the banjo and keep that going until the end where all instruments are in.
Instruments: 12-string guitar, banjo, bass, vocals
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