Alan Lomax Archive | Mike Maybank and group: Right Down Here (1937) @AlanLomaxArchive | Uploaded June 2020 | Updated October 2024, 2 days ago.
A ditchers' work-song led by Mike Maybank with John White, Francis Gadsden, and Esau Sands. Recorded by John A. Lomax on the lawn of Genevieve Chandler's house, Murrells Inlet, South Carolina, January 1937.

Aaron McCollough provides this context:

Mike Maybank led the crew that paved Highway 17 through Murrells Inlet in 1934 and also the Works Progress Administration ditching crew responsible for excavating a network of ditches to drain the inland swamps of Waccamaw Neck. Draining the formidable Mission Swamp of Murrells Inlet was one of the ditchers’ primary tasks. The ditches Maybank’s crew dug for the W.P.A. are still in use, draining into the creek. (From the CD "Deep River of Song: South Carolina," Rounder Records, 2002.)

Right down here,
Oh, right down here.
Oh, we got this work to do
Right down here.
Fellas,
Right down here.
Oh sisters,
Right down here.
Oh, we got this work to do,
Right down here.
Tell the truth,
Right down here.
Oh yes,
Right down here.
Oh yes,
We got this work to do,
Right down here.
Do right,
Right down here.
All right,
Right down here.
Oh yes,
We got this work to do,
Right down here.
Pray right,
Right down here.
Oh yes,
Right down here.
Oh yes,
We got this work to do,
Right down here.
On the cross,
Right down here.
On the cross,
Right down here.
Oh, we got this work to do,
Right down here.
Take me down,
Right down here.
Oh, take me,
Right down here.
Oh, we got this work to do,
Right down here.
Charlie and David,
Right down here.
Oh, yes,
Right down here,
We got this work to do,
Right down here.
My mother,
Right down here.
She’s gone,
Right down here.
Oh, yes,
We got this work to do,
Right down here.