Big Bend Killing: The Appalachian Ballad Tradition Liner Notes

BIG BEND KILLING:

T H E A P PA L A C H I A N B A L L A D T R A D I T I O N CD 1:

1 . B A R B R Y A L L E N (CAROL ELIZABETH JONES) 4 : 5 1 2 . T H O M A S T H E R H Y M E R (ARCHIE FISHER) 8 : 2 1 3 . TA M L I N (ARCHIE FISHER) 1 0 : 4 9 4 . L O R D T H O M A S A N D FA I R E L L E N D E R (SHEILA KAY ADAMS) 7: 4 0 5 . M AT H Y G R O V E S (DONNA RAY NORTON) 6 : 3 4 6 . E G G S A N D M A R R O W B O N E (JODY STECHER AND KATE BRISLIN) 4 : 3 5 7. T H E S H E F F I E L D A P P R E N T I C E (MARTIN SIMPSON, ANDY CUTTING, AND NANCY KERR) 4 : 0 2 8 . W I L L I E TAY L O R (MARTIN SIMPSON, ANDY CUTTING, AND NANCY KERR) 4 : 2 0 9 . T H E B O L D L I E U T E N A N T (ALICE GERRARD) 4 : 5 8 1 0 . L O R D B AT E M A N (CAROL ELIZABETH JONES) 4 : 4 9 1 1 . T H E FA R M E R ’ S C U R S T W I F E (DONNA RAY NORTON) 3 : 5 1 1 2 . M R . F R O G W E N T A - C O U R T I N ’ (BILL AND THE BELLES) 3 : 2 4 1 3 . B A R B A R A A L L E N (ROSANNE CASH) 3 : 2 9

CD 2:

1 . W I L D H O G I N T H E W O O D S (ALICE GERRARD) 3 : 3 7 2 . T H E B AT T L E S O N G O F T H E G R E AT K A N AW H A (TREVOR McKENZIE) 3 : 3 4 3 . D O L E F U L WA R N I N G (BRUCE GREENE AND LOY McWHIRTER) 2 : 5 1 4 . O M I E W I S E (HASEE CIACCIO, WITH KALIA YEAGLE) 3 : 2 2 5 . B A N K S O F T H E O H I O (DOYLE LAWSON) 2 : 4 9 6 . K N OX V I L L E G I R L (KRISTI HEDTKE AND CORBIN HAYSLETT) 5 : 3 6 7. P R E T T Y P O L LY (AMYTHYST KIAH, WITH ROY ANDRADE) 4 : 3 9 8 . T O M D U L A (LAURA BOOSINGER, WITH THE KRUGER BROTHERS) 5 : 1 5 9 . H I R A M H U B B A R D (CORBIN HAYSLETT) 5 : 4 2 1 0 . B I G B E N D K I L L I N G (ALICE GERRARD) 3 : 2 3 1 1 . O L D J O E D AW S O N (BOBBY McMILLON) 1 : 4 6 1 2 . O T T O W O O D T H E B A N D I T (DAVID HOLT) 3 : 0 2 1 3 . J O H N H E N R Y (AMYTHYST KIAH, WITH ROY ANDRADE) 2 : 4 2 14 . W R E C K O F T H E O L D 9 7 (CORBIN HAYSLETT) 4 : 5 3 1 5 . E X P L O S I O N I N T H E FA I R M O U N T M I N E S (JOHN LILLY) 3 : 0 3 1 6 . W E S T V I R G I N I A M I N E D I S A S T E R (ELIZABETH LaPRELLE) 3 : 3 8 17. T H E C Y C L O N E O F R Y E C O V E (DALE JETT AND HELLO STRANGER) 4 : 47 1 8 . I ’ V E A LWAY S B E E N A R A M B L E R (JOHN LILLY) 3 : 3 5 1 9 . T H E PA R T I N G G L A S S (ROSANNE CASH) 2 : 3 7

CA ROL EL IZ A BET H JONE S

A RCHIE F ISHER

SHEIL A K AY A DA MS

JODY ST ECHER & K AT E BR ISL IN

A L ICE GER R A R D

DOY L E L AWSON

A NDY CU T T ING , NA NC Y K ER R , & M A RT IN SIMPSON

BIL L & T HE BEL L E S K A L I A Y E AGL E

ROS A NNE CA SH

T R E VOR McK ENZIE

JOHN L IL LY

DONNA R AY NORTON

H A SEE CI ACCIO

ROY A NDR A DE

DAV ID HOLT

K R IST I HEDT K E

T HE K RUGER BROT HERS

DA L E J ET T & HEL LO ST R A NGER

A M Y T H YST KIAH

COR BIN H AYSL ET T

L AU R A BOOSINGER

BOBBY McMIL LON

BRUCE GR EENE & LOY McW HIRT ER

EL IZ A BET H L a PR EL L E

B IG B E N D K I L L I NG : T H E A P PA L AC H I A N B A L L A D T R A D I T ION

BY TED OLSON

Big Bend Killing celebrates the ballad tradition in Appalachia as it was practiced historically and as it endures in the present-day. Whether brought to the region by settlers from England, Scotland, or Ireland who emigrated to Appalachia in the eighteenth century, or created in the region by native-born Appalachians over the past two-and-a-half centuries, the ballads on this album are songs that tell stories of mystery and magic, pathos and passion, vision and violence, death and destruction, and love found and love lost. Collectively, these recordings evoke the place-based cultural values that infused the way of life of the people who traditionally sang them.

This two CD-set is intended to help people today better understand and appreciate the historical

and current roles of balladry in Appalachia. Ballads are songs that tell stories, and these recordings are by some of the finest contemporary ballad singers in the English-speaking world. Anyone wanting to visit mythic realms and encounter vividly rendered experiences from long ago, conveyed through the enchanting medium of song, need only heed the advice of many a ballad singer of yesteryear: sit down and listen up.

Released by the Great Smoky Mountains Association—a nonprofit organization dedicated to promoting deepened understanding of and appreciation for the Great Smoky Mountains National Park—Big Bend Killing seeks to explore the history and continuity of Appalachian balladry. An additional objective

of this album is to illustrate that the Great Smokies and adjoining sections of the Blue Ridge have long constituted fertile ground for the preservation of older ballads and the creation of newer ballads.

The musicians on Big Bend Killing shared their talents with this project because they believe in its goodwill mission: to generate funds to contribute to the maintenance and interpretation of Great Smoky Mountains National Park. Whether they enjoy local, regional, national, or international reputations, and regardless of their usual repertoire, these musicians all value songs that tell stories and recognize the importance of balladry as constituting a profoundly influential if often overlooked tradition. Presenting the first substantial exploration of historical and contemporary Appalachian balladry in the twenty-first century, Big Bend Killing seeks to foster deeper appreciation for Appalachia’s ballad legacy among a new generation of musicians and fans.

B A L L A D S : OL D A N D N E W

Among the most enduring artifacts (along with certain lined-out hymns that are traceable back to sixteenth century British churches) from the early days of European settlement in Appalachia, ballads are still in everyday use in some regional households and among certain performers, if largely outside the purview of the popular music industry. As evidenced in these contemporary renditions of ballads from both the Old and the New Worlds, the ballad tradition has reinvented itself over the years and has engaged new audiences along the way.

Many of the ballads on this album—some originating in the British Isles, others emerging in the New World—were at one time widely popular across Appalachia, and a few— especially “Barbara Allen,” “John Henry,” and “Pretty Polly”—are still frequently performed in the region. Some ballads heard here, though, were never widely disseminated. “The Battle Song of the Great Kanawha,” for instance, was limited to a section of central Appalachia; “Otto Wood The Bandit” was primarily associated with western North Carolina; while “Big Bend Killing” and “Old Joe Dawson” were both sung exclusively among a few families in the Smokies. Ironically, one of the most familiar ballads from Appalachia today—the late nineteenth century ballad “Tom Dula”—was only locally disseminated for generations before inadvertently becoming a huge hit on the pop charts in the late 1950s under the alternate title “Tom Dooley.”

Even if reduced in range and frequency of performance from their heyday during the preindustrial and early industrial eras, ballads remain relevant today, as they are gems of compact storytelling that communicate thematically timeless narratives. Some of the ballads on Big Bend Killing are older than the United States—older even than the American colonies—and tell of long-ago times in the Old World.

Other ballads on this album are more recent, documenting incidents and experiences in Appalachia from frontier times through the rise of Industrialization in the region. Each of these ballads—originally created after some worldly incident or circumstance sparked someone’s imagination into crafting a vivid

retelling—offers a compelling narrative told through lyrics that employ vernacular language and that are wedded to an affective melody (sometimes original to the ballad, sometimes borrowed from another ballad, song, or tune). After being sung by some singer (perhaps the person who originally wrote it), each of these ballads was recalled by other people and subsequently disseminated across the community in which it emerged, ultimately spreading into new communities. Because oral transmission is a form of communication subject to human memory and because memory is fluid rather than fixed in terms of the retention of details, many ballads entirely disappeared or were substantially truncated. But certain ballads, infused with thematic universality and a familiar music structure, endured, inspiring multiple variants and remaining relevant in other times and places.

CD #1 of this two-CD set focuses on ballads that predate the settlement of Appalachia; most of those ballads were originally composed by British balladeers as early as the Middle Ages. Precisely dating most British ballads is difficult because they emerged in the oral tradition. To be sure, some British ballads provide clues as to their origins, having been created in response to specific topical events and/or having descended from dated broadsides (commercial offerings of typeset or handwritten lyrics of ballads or songs on pieces of paper, to be sung to familiar melodies). Assuredly, many emigrants to the New World continued to sing Old World ballads, though in changed form because reinterpretation was

inevitable in an oral tradition. From colonial times into the early decades of nationhood, British balladry remained a beloved, familiar tradition through which listeners in close-knit rural communities were entertained and enlightened.

A new ballad tradition steadily emerged in Appalachia, part of a broad category of narrative songs called by folklorists “native American ballads.”

Despite the implications of that term, such ballads bore little or no connection to North American Indians; not simply variants of Old World templates, these “native American ballads” told uniquely American stories. CD #2 of Big Bend Killing showcases many of these. That CD also offers some markedly Appalachian versions of older British ballads as well as a few Appalachian ballads that were composed in the twentieth century.

Most Appalachian ballads evolved from British sources, yet some ballads reflected other cultural influences. Most notably, close cultural interaction between blacks and whites in the American South generally and in Appalachia specifically led to the emergence of a subgenre of ballads often referred to by folklorists as “blues ballads”—namely, ballads that, thematically and stylistically, reflected a strong African American influence. One renowned “blues ballad” with distinctive Appalachian connections is “John Henry.”

Whether called ballads, “ballits” (a phonetic spelling of the term as sometimes pronounced within Appalachia), or “love songs” (a regional nickname for the genre), the sung narratives celebrated on

this album were highly valued components of the traditional music repertoire within many Appalachian communities well into the twentieth century.

Some individual singers (such as Jane Gentry of Hot Springs, North Carolina, or Texas Gladden of Salem, Virginia) could recount from memory dozens of different ballads, while certain families (such as the Ritchie family of Viper, Kentucky; the Wallin/Chandler/Norton extended family in Madison County, North Carolina; or the Hicks family of Beech Mountain, North Carolina) knew, between various family members, hundreds of ballads.

Most Appalachian ballads evolved from British sources, yet some ballads reflected other cultural influences. Most notably, close cultural interaction between blacks and whites in the American South generally and in Appalachia specifically led to the emergence of a subgenre of ballads often referred to by folklorists as “blues ballads”—namely, ballads that, thematically and stylistically, reflected a strong African American influence. One renowned “blues ballad” with distinctive Appalachian connections is “John Henry.”

While older ballads generally originated from traditional practitioners whose names were never documented, certain broadside ballads are traceable to specific authors whose names appear on old broadsides (pieces of paper featuring transcribed lyrics).

The exact authorship of ballads, though, was not deemed significant until the twentieth century. By the 1920s, commercial recording companies began seeking out copyrightable material in order to in-

crease the profitability of their releases. To illustrate that trend, CD #2 features a few ballads attributed to a specific composer or arranger; reflecting an expectation for commercial salability, those particular ballads possess markedly compressed lyrical content.

Whereas older traditional ballads often bore a dozen or more stanzas, commercial renditions conform to the approximately 3-minute-long restrictions of 78 RPM records, and thus less resemble ballads than songs with truncated narrative exposition. Two examples of that phenomenon are Blind Alfred Reed’s “Explosion In The Fairmount Mines” and A. P. Carter’s “The Cyclone At Rye Cove.”

Illustration that the ballad tradition continues to influence contemporary songcraft can be heard in “West Virginia Mine Disaster” (on CD #2). The defining aspects of traditional balladry—form (the balancing of structure with memorable language) as well as social function (the communication of compelling stories)—continue to inspire the creation of new compositions in ballad form. Compared to the other material on this album, “West Virginia Mine Disaster” is of recent vintage, having been composed in the late 1960s by Jean Ritchie, a native of eastern Kentucky and arguably the leading American ballad singer during the urban folk music revival of the 1950s-1960s.

B A L L A D : F OR M A N D F U N C T ION

The term ballad has been used over the years in different ways for various purposes. In English-language literature over the past several centuries the term

“ballad” has been employed to describe certain lyric poems that emphasize narrative while utilizing variations on the ballad stanza. For instance, in the 1798 book Lyrical Ballads, one of the most influential collections of poetry in British literary history, William Wordsworth and Samuel Taylor Coleridge published original poems modeled on traditional ballads in terms of language (Wordsworth in his preface praised ballads for reflecting “the language really spoken by men”) and in terms of form (the best-known such poem from this volume is Coleridge’s “The Rime of the Ancient Mariner,” overtly modeled on traditional British balladry). Many other poets from the British Isles—Scotland’s Robert Burns and Sir Walter Scott, England’s Alfred Lord Tennyson and W. H. Auden, Ireland’s William Butler Yeats and Patrick Kavana­ugh, and Wales’ Dylan Thomas—all reinterpreted the ballad tradition in some of their works. Similarly, many American authors—ranging from Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, Robert Service, Robinson Jeffers, and Stephen Vincent Benét, to Langston Hughes—have been inspired by British and American balladry.

In relation to music, the word “ballad” is sometimes rather impressionistically used to describe the sort of slow-tempo, emotional non-narrative “torch song” sung by jazz singers. But the ballads on Big Bend Killing are associated with a distinctly different genre of music, being relics of traditional music that bear the principal motivation of telling a story by means of a series of verses built upon a repeated melodic structure. The ballads on this album, whether

sung historically from memory or read from lyrics written out on broadsides, are typically strophic in structure (in Greek poetry and drama, a “strophe” is a unit or series of lines; ballad verses are equivalent to stanzas in a poem). Verses in such ballads are generally (but not always) four lines in length. Sung ballads possess repeated patterns of rhyme, usually with every other line rhyming (the notation for which is ABAB) or with only the second and fourth lines rhyming (ABCB). Utilized within the series of verses in some ballads are regularly employed choruses (heard on this album on “Tom Dula”) or nonsense refrains (often called non-lexical vocables, heard herein on several ballads, including “Willie Taylor” and “Wild Hog in the Woods”).

In Appalachia, traditional ballad performance style has been characterized as impersonal, emotionally and physically restrained, with singers often closing their eyes and remaining still while singing.

Some observers have maintained that such passivity reflects a cultural notion within the region that a singer should not allow his/her own subjectivity to interfere with the intrinsic power of the ballad being sung (a singer’s family and neighbors, understanding the narrative trajectory of most ballads, might seemingly prefer that singers not over-interpret those stories). There are other explanations for such restraint addressed later in this essay.

Assuredly, though, some traditional singers in the early twentieth century—and many revivalist singers more recently—have animated their performances of ballads with vocal colorations and physical

gestures. Contemporary audiences unfamiliar with sung narratives and their accompanying melodies no doubt have appreciated more overtly demonstrative approaches to performance.

B A L L A D C OL L E C T I N G

The singing of ballads has declined in Appalachia as elsewhere across the English-speaking world, but fortunately ballad collectors active many years ago carefully documented historical ballad traditions across the region. Most responsible for broad-based understanding of British balladry was Francis James Child (1825-1896), a Harvard University-based scholar who identified and documented 305 British ballads (and multiple variants of those ballads) while compiling his groundbreaking work The English and Scottish Popular Ballads (published 1882-1898).

Significantly, Child did not collect ballads in the field, but instead interpreted manuscripts of ballads transcribed by others (by monks, clergymen, and lay collectors) gathered from the repertoires of traditional ballad singers living historically across the British countryside. While Child was far from the first scholar to collect ballads in the English-speaking world—Samuel Pepys (1633-1703) and Thomas Percy (1729-1811) compiled earlier collections of ballads— Child’s work was seminal to all subsequent ballad scholarship…so much so that individual British ballads studied by Child are categorized today by his last name and by the number he assigned to those ballads; the great British ballads are known collectively as the Child ballads.

Cecil Sharp and Maud Karpeles collecting ballads in Appalachia during World War I. The most important collector of ballads in Appalachia was Cecil Sharp (1859-1924), a prominent scholar of traditional English music and dance.

Shortly before World War I, observing that ballad singing had nearly disappeared across his native England, Sharp began collecting variants of British ballads in Appalachia. He had been encouraged to do so by Olive Dame Campbell—a New England-native who travelled in Appalachia with her husband John C. Campbell to conduct a social survey funded by the philanthropic Russell Sage Foundation; the Campbells had personally witnessed the widespread presence of British ballads in Appalachia, and Olive conveyed this fact to Sharp, who subsequently conducted four separate collecting trips in Appalachia between 1916 and 1919. Seeking out singers and documenting their ballads, Sharp visited several sections of Appalachia, including the rugged “Laurel

Country” just north of the Smokies along the border between North Carolina and Tennessee.

Sharp’s collecting work—much of it conducted with his assistant Maud Karpeles—yielded English Folk Songs from the Southern Appalachians. The 1932 edition of that groundbreaking book featured 274 ballads (along with 968 tunes with lyrics) collected across Appalachia. The less complete 1917 edition featured an essay in which Sharp related that he had found Appalachia to be teeming with ballads and ballad singers: “I found myself for the first time in my life in a community in which singing was as common and almost as universal a practice as speaking” (viii).

Sharp felt a kinship with the people he met across the region—and not simply because they had preserved beloved balladry traditions: he believed that “the present-day residents of this section of the mountains are the descendants of those who left the shores of Britain some time in the eighteenth century.” In harboring such a view, Sharp espoused a then-widespread, subsequently debunked theory that the British settlers in Appalachia had “for a hundred years or more been completely isolated and cut off from all traffic with the rest of the world” (iv). Some years later, Sharp’s perspective generated criticism from cultural historian David Whisnant, whose 1983 book All That Is Native & Fine took Sharp to task for being a cultural elitist; Whisnant chided the Englishman for focusing exclusively on material with either proven or assumed English origins and for overlooking ballads sung in the New World from other traditions (such as Scottish ballads) and for similarly ignoring “native

American ballads” and other genres of Appalachian music. Such a retrospective observation exposed conceptual shortcomings in Sharp’s field collecting efforts across Appalachia.

That said, Sharp’s collection of ballads from Appalachia, to scholar Bertrand Bronson, constituted the finest-ever collection of folk music from an American region. Sharp’s documentation was unassailable—it was painstakingly detailed. And it was timely, since by World War I the community-based, rural way of life in Appalachia that had safeguarded the ballad tradition for many generations had been transformed across the region by such factors as Industrialization (railroads, mining, logging, etc.) as well as by environmental impacts (overpopulation, overhunting, the chestnut blight, etc.).

Sharp insightfully recognized that the Appalachian ballad tradition was as much an artistic achievement as it was a social phenomenon. In writing that was both clear-eyed and analytical, Sharp in the 1917 edition of English Folk Songs from the Southern Appalachians assessed why ballads existed in multiple variants: “The fact that no two singers ever sing the same song in identically the same way is familiar to all collectors, and may be interpreted in either of two ways. The upholder of the individualistic theory of origin contends that these variants are merely incorrect renderings of some original, individual composition which, never having been written down, has orally survived in various corrupt forms.

On the other hand, there are those—and I count myself amongst them—who maintain that in these

minute differences lie the germs of development; that the changes made by individual singers are akin to the ‘sports’ in the flower or animal worlds, which, if perpetuated, lead to further ideal development and, perhaps, ultimately to the birth of new varieties and species” (xxviii). Sharp was ahead of his time in interpreting Appalachian ballads from a broadly holistic perspective. In keenly understanding the dynamic nature of traditional music dissemination, he was anticipating by some years the direction that folklore studies would ultimately move.

O T H E R C OL L E C T OR S A N D C OL L E C T ION S

Historically, while Child and Sharp have received much of the attention for cataloguing the ballads associated with Appalachia, many others have collected and studied ballads in the region, including Dorothy Scarborough, Bascom Lamar Lunsford, John Harrington Cox, Arthur Kyle Davis, Frank and Anne Warner, Alan Lomax, Joseph Sargent Hall, Herbert Halpert, Mildred Haun, Elizabeth Barnicle, Tillman Cadle, John Cohen, Mike Seeger, Peter Gott, and Bobby Fulcher, among others. That being acknowledged, the track-by-track notes below primarily focus on the Child and Sharp collections along with the work of American folklorist George Malcolm Laws (1919-1994) and contemporary British scholar Steve Roud; those four were responsible for the most widely acknowledged systematic efforts to catalogue Appalachia’s ballads and to categorize each ballad in conjunction with its variations.

Many of the ballads on Big Bend Killing (particularly those on CD #1) are customarily referred to as being part of the Child ballad collection, and to facilitate cross-referencing, category numbers for ballads from that collection are identified in the track-by-track notes below by a given ballad’s Child #. This album also highlights those ballads incorporated into the 1932 edition of English Folk Songs from the Southern Appalachians, and whenever relevant the notes below likewise list a particular ballad’s Sharp #.

As stated earlier, the notes include references to two other important ballad classification systems.

The Laws # refers to the ballad index compiled by George Malcolm Laws, who after World War II specialized in cataloguing the “native American ballads” that Child and Sharp for the most part overlooked. The Roud # is intended to alert the listener to locating a given ballad in the Roud Folk Song Index, a comprehensive list, compiled in recent decades by Steve Roud, of British and American ballads and songs.

It is hoped that the listener will utilize those cross-references in order to compare and contrast the variants of ballads heard on this album with previously documented and earlier recorded versions of those same ballads. In doing so, one might learn the full complexity of the Appalachian ballad tradition, its roots and its branches.

A L I V I N G T R A D I T ION ?

The Appalachia in which (to quote Sharp again) “singing was as common and almost as universal a

practice as speaking” endured in some sections of the region into the Great Depression. As eastern Kentucky author Jesse Stuart wrote in a 1930 issue of The Kentucky Folk-Lore and Poetry Magazine: “The mountain ballad is still prevalent in the Appalachian Mountains regardless of the jazz phantasy that has swept our country in the last decade. It [the ballad] is still supreme to the mountain people, for they are the originators of the ballad and it is really a part of them . . . These ballads sing of Love, Freedom, Pity, Joy, and Forgiveness, but they are never satirical or ironical.”

But despite Stuart’s love for ballads and his belief in the continuity of the tradition, balladry rapidly declined in many Appalachian areas in the wake of massive regional and national changes wrought by Industrialization, which by World War II altered virtually every aspect of life in the region. The 1930s and 1940s brought widespread outmigration, as millions of people relocated from Appalachia to such cities outside the region as Chicago, Detroit, Cleveland, and Atlanta. As depicted in Harriette Arnow’s classic 1954 novel The Dollmaker, Appalachian people living in alien and alienating urban environments experienced difficulty practicing and preserving their traditions.

For those who remained in Appalachia, a homemade preindustrial community tradition like balladry had difficulty competing with such new forms of mechanized diversion as commercial records, radio, and television. When Appalachian performers began to record their music repertoire in the 1920s, ballads

were generally either ignored or were heavily revised and in most cases considerably reduced in length and narrative complexity (sometimes quite skillfully, by song arrangers like A. P. Carter, who, for instance, recast the long Scottish ballad “Lord Gregory” as the short Carter Family song “Storms Are On The Ocean”). This latter phenomenon has led some scholars to conclude—given Sharp’s view that the ballad tradition was dynamic and ever-evolving—that that tradition was transmogrified (or, depending how one looks at the matter, co-opted), with ballads infusing much popular music to and through the urban folk music revival.

To be sure, the ballad tradition as it was known in preindustrial Appalachia still exists among some families in certain Appalachian communities.

Among the singers featured on Big Bend Killing are representatives of two recognized ballad-singing families in Appalachia. Bobby McMillon learned ballads from his father’s family, who lived in Cocke County, Tennessee, as well as from his mother’s kin, who resided in Mitchell and Yancey counties, North Carolina. Sheila Kay Adams has proudly acknowledged learning much of her ballad repertoire from her extended family—the Wallins, Chandlers, Nortons, Ramseys, and Rays—who lived in or near the Sodom community in Madison County, North Carolina. Citing her great aunt Dellie Chandler Norton and her cousin Cas Wallin as two of her musical influences, Adams once explained why her extended family had long been united in the love for and preservation of ballads: “If you talk about Mad-

ison County preserving the love songs [i.e., ballads], it was mainly Sodom. Because people in Sodom stayed put. My however-many-greats-back grandfather Norton got a land grant in the eighteenth century and we’ve been right there ever since. People in other communities moved around, left Madison County, came back, whatever. In Sodom, people never moved.” As Adams’ cousin Donna Ray Norton told journalist Morgan Simmons, “Some people’s families are ballerinas or football players.

My family has been singing ballads for eight generations. This is what we do.”

Other observers are less optimistic about the future of balladry in Appalachia, including Thomas Burton, a leading contemporary scholar of the tradition and now Professor Emeritus at East Tennessee State University.

In the 1960s and 1970s, Burton collected ballads in the area encompassing upper east Tennessee, northwest North Carolina, and southwest Virginia, and his several publications about balladry—especially his 1978 book Some Ballad Folks and his 1996 scholarly article “The Lion’s Share: Scottish Ballads in Appalachia”—are among the more influential studies of the region’s ballad tradition from the past half-century. In a 2016 interview, Burton assessed the predicament of balladry in the twenty-first century: The influence of mass media, TV, movies, and urban culture all had a great impact upon the singing of traditional ballads. And those factors have even greater impact today with the explosion of public media. The external stimuli for reinforcing the singing of ballads have been decreased.

The family social context in which there are multiple traditional singers and occasions of singing their songs has almost completely changed. Families aren’t cherishing the songs of their older folk by learning, singing, or copying them. There are not many folklorists going around encouraging people to recollect, amalgamate, and record the versions of ballads of their family and kinfolk. And there is no folksong revival and few folk festivals that include ballad singers. There’s an ever-increased interest in contemporary commercial music.

And even in those situations where ballads are being sung, the instances in which they are being learned in the oral tradition are seemingly very small.

When Ambrose Manning [Burton’s longtime colleague at East Tennessee State University] and I were collecting ballads, a constant factor that we found was that the individuals we were recording, young and old, were interested in preserving their heritage. The old songs, the love songs [i.e., ballads], and the others were very important to them—they represented something about their family history, their growing up, their region, and the social traditions they were a part of. They wanted those traditions to be preserved. We didn’t go

about hiring people to sing for us.

(Although we did find occasionally some who greatly mistakenly thought we were going to make a lot of money out of recording their songs.) But for the most part, our informants wanted to contribute to preserving that cultural tradition, that part of their heritage. And I think there is an entirely different general attitude at present.

For the reasons summarized by Burton, it may be unrealistic to expect that ballads will return to commonplace status in the lives of many people across Appalachia. Indeed, it may well be that ballads will make only occasional appearances in the repertoires of regional singers. For a widespread revival of balladry to occur in Appalachia, people would need to acknowledge the fact that ballad-singing is a difficult tradition to master.

As an art-form, balladry combines coherent narrative development with the steady accretion of subtle musical detail; the performance of a ballad requires a deep level of commitment on the part of both performer and listener. To effectively sing a ballad, singers need to remember an often quite lengthy text and, equally importantly, to enter the imaginative realm of that ballad and remain there, no matter how familiar or remote the story that that ballad tells. And whether or not a singer chooses to accompany a ballad with some sort of instrumentation, the singing of ballads is like a high-wire act—there is a thin line between a true performance of a ballad and a desecration. “Ballad singing can be scary,” said Donna Ray Norton. “If you mess up, there’s no safety net.” A technique utilized by Norton during a ballad performance echoes the traditional practice of yesteryear when ballad singers closed their eyes while singing: “[W]hen I close my eyes, I can visualize the story, and the words just fall into place.”

T R AC K-B Y-T R AC K N O T E S

BY TED OLSON

C D #1 : O L D W O R L D B A L L A D S 1 . B A R B R Y A L L E N — C A R OL E L I Z A B E T H JON E S

Carol Elizabeth Jones: vocals Recorded: October 2015, Lexington, Virginia Tracking engineer: Roy Andrade; mixing engineer: Ben Bateson Child 84; Sharp I24; Roud 54 The ballad most commonly known as “Barbara Allen” has flourished in the English-speaking world for more than 500 years, and scholars have identified nearly 100 different versions. Probably emerging in the oral tradition during the fifteenth century, the ballad was first documented in 1666 when English diarist Samuel Pepys in a diary entry referred to a “little Scotch song of Barbary Allen” he heard sung at a social event. Between 1688 and 1692,

lyrics to the ballad were published in London as a single-page broadside illustrated with woodcuts (that version bore a descriptive, lengthy title: “Barbara Allen’s cruelty: or, the young-man’s tragedy. With Barbara Allen’s lamentation for her unkindness to her lover, and her self ”).

According to ballad scholar Thomas Burton, “Barbara Allen” has long been the most popular and widely dispersed British ballad in Appalachia. The first of two versions of this ballad included on Big Bend Killing was sung a cappella by Carol Elizabeth Jones, who pays homage to the iconic version associated with eastern Kentucky native Jean Ritchie, a leading luminary of the 1950s and 1960s urban folk music revival. Throughout her long career, Ritchie performed and recorded many traditional ballads she learned from her “singing family of the Cumberlands” (as she called her kin in a 1955 memoir). She also composed and recorded powerful original songs and ballads, yet her signature piece was always her version of “Barbara Allen” (Ritchie’s 1960 recording of the ballad was titled “Barbary Allen”; the present version is spelled phonetically “Barbry Allen”).

A songwriter and an acclaimed singer with many albums and collaborations to her credit, Lexington, Virginia-based Carol Elizabeth Jones has taken traditional Appalachian music around the world, having toured in Africa and in Southeast Asia as a cultural ambassador for the U.S. Information Agency.

All in the merry month of May When the green buds they were swelling, Young William Green on his deathbed lay For the love of Barbry Allen.

“Oh yes, you’re low, you’re very low, And death is on you dwelling; No better, no better you’ll never be, For you can’t have Barbry Allen.

He sent his servant to the town, To the place where she was dwelling, Saying “Master’s sick and he sent for you, If your name be Barbry Allen.”

“Don’t you remember in yonder town, In yonder town a’drinking, You passed your glass to the ladies all around, And you slighted Barbry Allen.”

So slowly, slowly she got up And slowly she drew nigh him, And all she said when she got there, “Young man I think you’re dying.”

“Oh yes, I’m low, I’m very low, And death is on me dwelling; No better, no better I’ll never be, If I can’t have Barbry Allen.”

“Oh yes, I remember in yonder town, In yonder town a’drinking, I gave my health to the ladies all around, But my heart to Barbry Allen.”

He turned his pale face to the wall, For death was on him dwelling: “Adieu, adieu, you good neighbors all, Adieu sweet Barbry Allen.”

As she was going across the field, She heard those death bells knelling, And every stroke did seem for to say “Hard-hearted Barbry Allen.”

“Oh Mother, oh Mother, go make my bed, Make it both long and narrow, For Young William’s died for me today, And I’ll die for him tomorrow.”

Oh she was buried ‘neath the old church tower And he was buried a’nigh her, And out of his bosom grew a red, red rose, Out of Barbry’s grew a green briar.

They grew and grew in the old churchyard ‘Til they could grow no higher; They locked in tight in a true lover’s knot, Red rose grew ‘round the briar.

2 . T HOM A S T H E R H Y M E R—A RC H I E F I S H E R

Archie Fisher: vocals, guitar Recorded: previously unreleased BBC Radio 3 performance, 1998 Tracking and mixing engineers: unknown Child 37; Roud 219 While Barbara Allen was likely a mythic character, the protagonist of the ballad “Thomas The Rhymer” was an actual person—a laird (land-owning aristocrat) who lived in the Scottish Borders region during the thirteenth century. Thomas hailed from the village of Erceldoune (present-day Earlston), and the accordingly named Thomas of Erceldoune was also reputedly a prophet. After allegedly being carried off to Elfland by the Queen of that mystical kingdom, Thomas returned to the human world, where he now bore the gift/burden of prophecy and the inability to tell a lie. And he possessed the skill to compose and recite verse, an attribute that gave rise to the sobriquet Thomas the Rhymer. About 1400, this fantastic tale began circulating around the Scottish Borders countryside as a medieval verse romance; by 1700 “Thomas The Rhymer” had become popular as a sung ballad. In the early nineteenth century, Sir Walter Scott revised this traditional ballad, adding new story elements learned from local legend; Scott also wrote a sequel ballad that mentioned prophecies ascribed to Thomas and that added an epilogue.

A thumbnail sketch of the ballad as performed by Archie Fisher underscores the magical nature of many early British ballads. While laying outside on Huntley bank, a young man named Thomas encounters a woman on a white horse who announces that she is Queen of Elfland. She gains power over Thomas by means of a kiss, and she insists that he ride with her on horseback. She shows him three paths—one covered with thorns that leads to heaven, one broad path that heads to hell, and one vegetated path that courses to where the fairies live.

The Queen of Elfland implores Thomas not to speak for seven years, and for seven years Thomas is not seen on earth.

Archie Fisher, a resident of the Scottish Borders and one of Scotland’s most beloved singers of traditional ballads and songs, recorded this version of “Thomas The Rhymer”—and of the next ballad, “Tam Lin”—for a BBC Radio 3 special program on balladry. Broadcast once on radio in the UK circa 1998, these performances of two of Scotland’s older and most mysterious traditional ballads were not heard again—until donated by Fisher for inclusion on this album.

A native of Glasgow, Scotland, Fisher grew up in a musical family, and he has played important roles in celebrating and promoting Scottish musical heritage through the media (via acclaimed albums as well as via radio and television work). For his service to traditional music, Fisher was named a Member of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire (MBE) and has been inducted into the Scottish Traditional Music Hall of Fame.

True Thomas lay on Huntley bank, A fairlie he spied wi’ his e’e, And there he saw a lady bright Come riding doon by the eildon tree.

“Betide me weal, and betide me woe, That weird shall never daunten me.”

Syne he has kissed her rosy lips All underneath the eildon tree.

Her skirt was o’ the grass-green silk, Her mantle o’ the velvet fine, At ilka tett o’ her horse’s mane Hung fifty siller bells and nine.

“Now, ye maun gang wi’ me,” she said, “True Thomas, ye maun gang wi’ me, And ye maun serve me seven years Through weal or woe, as chance to be.”

True Thomas, he pulled off his cap And louted low down on his knee: “Hail, to thee Mary, Queen of Heaven!

For thy peer on earth could never be.”

She mounted on her milk-white steed, And she’s taen True Thomas up behind, And aye whene’er her bridle rang, The steed gaed swifter than the wind.

“Oh no, oh no, Thomas,” she said, “That name does not belong tae me; I’m but the Queen of fair Elfland, But I’m hither come tae visit thee.

Oh they rade on, and further on— The steed gaed swifter than the wind— Until they reached a desert wide And living land was left behind.

“Harp and carp, Thomas,” she said, “Harp and carp along wi’ me, And if you dare to kiss my lips, Sure of your body I will be.”

“Light down, light down, True Thomas,” she said, “And lean your head upon my knee, Abide ye there a little space And I will show you fairlies three.

“Oh see you not yon narrow road, So thick beset with thorns and briars?

That is the path of righteousness Though after it but few enquires.

“And see ye not yon braid braid road That lies across the lily leven?

That is the path of wickedness, Though some call it the road to Heaven.

“And see ye not yon bonnie road That winds about the fernie brae?

That is the road to fair Elfland Where thou and I this night maun gae.

“But Thomas, ye shall hold thy tongue Whatever ye may hear or see, For speak ye a word in Elfin land You’ll ne’er wen back to your ain country.”

Oh they rade on, and further on, And they waded rivers aboon the knee, And they saw neither sun nor moon, But they heard the roaring o’ the sea.

3 . TA M L I N —A RC H I E F I S H E R

It was murk murk night, there was nae starlight, They waded through red blood to the knee, For all the blood that is shed on earth Runs through the springs o’ that country.

Syne they came to a garden green, And she’s pu’d an apple frae a tree: “Take this for thy wages, True Thomas, It will give ye the tongue that can never lee.”

“I don’t neither speak to prince or peer Nor ask of grace from a lady fair.”

“Now hold thy peace, Thomas,” she said, “For as I say, so must it be.”

He has gotten the coat of the even cloth And a pair of shoen o’ the velvet green, And ‘til seven years were gane and past True Thomas on earth was never seen.

Archie Fisher: vocals, guitar Recorded: previously unreleased BBC Radio 3 performance, 1998 Tracking and mixing engineers: unknown Child 39; Roud 35 Like “Thomas The Rhymer,” “Tam Lin” emerged in the Scottish Borders, with the latter ballad dating back at least to 1549. A publication from that year, The Complaynt of Scotland, recounted a Medieval romance, “The Tale of the Young Tamelene”; in this tale, which likely inspired the ballad “Tam Lin,” the character Tamelene is rescued from the Queen of the Fairies by his true love.

Ballad collector Francis James Child, who included 14 variants of “Tam Lin” in The English and Scottish

Popular Ballads, believed that the ballad had traditionally served as a cautionary fable admonishing listeners to be wary of the fate of mortals who saw fairies, as they might lose their vision (the taking out of eyes was a common notion in European folklore).

Given the complexity of this ballad and the presence of Scots vernacular in the lyrics, a brief synopsis of the plot of this ballad might enhance appreciation of Archie Fisher’s tour-de-force performance. Tam Lin, an elven creature who guards the woods at Carterhaugh, requires payment of all maidens who enter those woods—either the surrender of some material possession or their virginity. Janet, whose father bequeathed Carterhaugh to her, enters the woods and picks a rose, at which point Tam Lin emerges and asks why she is there. Janet states that she owns Carterhaugh. After she returns home to her father’s house, her father notices that she is pregnant, and she confesses that her lover is elven and not one of her father’s knights. She returns to Carterhaugh and meets Tam Lin again, who tells Janet that he is a mortal man who was captured by the Queen of Fairies and that the Queen may sacrifice him as a tithe to Hell. Tam Lin implores to Janet that she can save him by undergoing a trial on Halloween. She would need to pull him from a horse as the fairies move through the woods, hold on to him while he is transformed into a succession of beasts, and drop him into the well when he is on fire. At the moment Tam Lin regains his mortal form, Janet must cloak him in a green mantle, at which point he will be free to be her mate.

This ballad was revived during the 1960s urban folk music revival, with perhaps the best-known version by the British folk rock band Fairport Convention, led by singer Sandy Denny. For his part, Fisher in his version of “Tam Lin” displays his remarkable gifts as an interpreter of traditional ballads, combining evocative vocals supported by his eloquent finger-style guitar accompaniment.

Oh I forbid you, maidens a’, That wear gowd on your hair, To come or gae by Carterhaugh, For young Tam Lin is there.

Janet has kilted her green mantle A little aboon her knee, And she has braided her yellow hair A little aboon her bree.

There’s nane that gae by Carterhaugh But maun leave to him a wad, Either gold rings, or green mantles, Or else their maidenhead.

And when she come to Carterhaugh She gaed beside the well, And there she found a steed standing, But away was he himsel’.

For up then spake her fair Janet, The fairest o’ her kin: “I’ll come and gang to Carterhaugh And I’ll ask nae leave o’ him.”

She had na pu’d a red red rose, A rose but barely three, ‘Til up and starts a wee wee man At Lady Janet’s knee.

“Why pu’ the rose, Janet?

What gars ye brack the tree?

And why come ye to Carterhaugh Without the leave o’ me?”

“Carterhaugh it is mine ain, My daddy gave it me.

I’ll come and gang to Carterhaugh And I’ll ask nae leave o’ thee.”

He’s ta’en her by the milk-white hand, Among the roses red, And what they did I cannot say, But she’s ne’er returned a maid.

But when she came to her father’s hall, She lookit so pale and wan.

They thought she’d grie’ed for some sair sadness Or else she’d been laying wi’ a man.

And up spake her faither, her faither dear, And he spake both meek and mild: “And nevertheless my sweet Janet For I fear you gae with child.”

“If I be with child, Faither, Myself maun bear the blame.

There’s ne’er a knight about your hall Shall ha’ the bairnie’s name.

“And if I be with child, Faither ‘Twill prove a wondrous birth, For will I swear I’ve nowhere been To any man on earth.

“If my love were an earthly knight As he is an elfin gray,

I wouldna gi’ my ain true love For any lord that you ha’.”

She prinked hersel’ and preened hersel’ By the auld licht o’ the moon, And she’s awa to Carterhaugh To speak wi’ young Tam Lin. “The truth you’ll tell to me, Tam Lin, A word you maunna lee, Ken ere ye was in holy chapel Or sain’d in Christentie?”

“The truth I’ll tell to thee, Janet, Ae word I winna lee; A knight got me, and a lady me bore, As well as they did with thee.

“When I was a boy just turned of nine My uncle sent for me To hunt and hawk and ride wi’ him And keep him company.

“But there came a wind out o’ the north, A sharp wind and a snell, And a deep deep sleep came over me And frae my horse I fell.

“The Queen o’ Fairies keppit me In yon green hill to dwell.

And I am a fairy lithe of limb, Fair lady view me well.

“I quit my body when I please Or run to it repair.

I can inhabit at my ease In either earth or air.

“But ay at every seven years We pay the tiend to hell; I am sae young and fair o’ flesh I’m fear’d ‘twill be mysel’.

“And then I’ll be your ain true love, I’ll turn to a naked knight.

Then cover me wi’ your green mantle And cover me out o’ sight.”

“This night is Halloween, Janet, And the morn is Hallowday; And gin you dare, your true love win Wi’ any time to stay.

About the dead hour o’ the night She heard the bridles ring, And Janet was as glad o’ that As any earthly thing.

“Just at the murk and midnight hour The fairy folk will ride, And they that will their true love win At Miles Cross they maun bide.

Their oaten pipes blew wondrous shrill, The hemlocks small blew clear, The louder notes frae hemlock large And bog-reeds struck the air.

“And first let pass the black, Lady, And syne let pass the brown; But quickly run to the milk-white steed, And pu’ ye his rider down.

And first gaed by the black black steed, And next gaed by the brown; But fast she grippit the milk-white steed And pu’d the rider down.

“And they’ll turn me in your arms, Lady, To an esk and a vile adder, But hold me fast and fear me not For I am your bairn’s father.

And when they changed him in her arms Into a naked man, She’s thrown her mantle him abune And her true love she has won.

“They’ll turn me to a bear sae grim, Then to a lion bold, But hold me fast and fear me not As ye shall love your child.

But then spak’ the Fairy Queen, And an angry woman was she: “She’s ta’en awa’ the bonniest knight In a’ my company.

“And again they’ll turn me in your arms To a red-hot gaud o’ iron, But hold me fast and fear me not For I’ll do to you no harm.

“And had I kend, Tam Lin,” she said, “A lady wad borrow thee, I wad a ta’en out thy twa grey een For the twa o’ the wood o’ the tree.

“And last they’ll turn me in your arms Into the burning gleed, Then throw me into well water, Oh throw me in wi’ speed.

“And had I kend, Tam Lin,” she said, “Before you come frae hame, I wad hae ta’en out your heart o’ flesh, Put in a heart o’ stane.”

4 . L OR D T HOM A S A N D FA I R E L L E N D E R— S H E I L A K AY A DA M S

Sheila Kay Adams: vocals Recorded: April 2015 at the ETSU Recording Lab in Johnson City, Tennessee; tracking and mixing engineer: Ben Bateson Child 73; Sharp I19; Roud 4 This ballad—also known as “Lord Thomas And Fair Annet,” “Fair Ellen And The Brown Girl,” “Lord Thomas’s Wedding,” “The Brown Bride,” and “The Brown Girl”—probably originated in England during the late seventeeth century. Exploring the tragic theme of unrequited love in the face of class privilege, the ballad was similar in theme to a number of Norse and other European stories and ballads. Heartbreak-induced death was a theme of several other traditional British ballads—“Barbara Ellen,” “Fair Margaret And Sweet William,” and “Lord Lovel,” among others; while these ballads were distinct, they sometimes shared certain verses (termed by folklorists “floating verses”).

“Lord Thomas And Fair Ellender” was a favorite of Sheila Kay Adams’ ballad-singing ancestors in her rural Madison County, North Carolina, community. Indeed, her extended family there has for seven generations continued to maintain their family tradition of unaccompanied singing of ballads brought to Appalachia by early Scots/Irish and English settlers.

Born and raised in Madison County’s Sodom Laurel community, Adams learned ballads from several of her relatives, including Dellie Chandler Norton and Cas Wallin. Having received the prestigious National Endowment for the Arts Heritage Fellowship and the North Carolina Heritage Award, Adams—in addition to being one of the most recognized living ballad singers—is an accomplished banjo player, storyteller, and author.

“Oh Mother, Oh Mother, come riddle my sport, Come riddle it all in one, Must I marry Fair Ellender Or bring the Brown Girl home, Or bring the Brown Girl home?”

“The Brown Girl has both house and lands, Fair Ellender she has none, And my advice would be for thee To bring the Brown Girl home, To bring the Brown Girl home.”

He dressed himself in scarlet red, And wore a vest of green, And every town that he rode through They took him to be some king, The took him to be some king.

He rode up to Fair Ellender’s gate, He jingled at the ring, And none was so proud as Fair Ellender To arise and bid him come in, To arise and bid him come in.

“What news, what news,” Fair Ellender cried, “What news do you bring to me?”

“I’ve come to invite you to my wedding day, ‘Twill be sad news for thee, Twill be sad news for thee.”

He took her by the lily-white hand And led her across the great hall; He sat her down in a golden chair In amongst the ladies all, In amongst the ladies all.

“Oh Mother, Oh Mother, come riddle my sport, Come riddle it all in one; Must I go to Lord Thomas’ wedding Or stay at home and mourn, Or stay at home and mourn?”

“Is this your bride, Lord Thomas?” she cried, “I see that she is quite brown; And you could have married the fairest maiden That ever the sun shined on, That ever the sun shined on.”

“There may be hundreds of your friends, But thousands more of your foes, And my advice would be for thee To tarry this day at home, To tarry this day at home.”

The Brown Girl had a little penknife, It was both keen and sharp; Betwixt the long rib and the short, She pierced Fair Ellender’s heart, She pierced Fair Ellender’s heart.”

“There may be hundreds of my friends, Ten thousand more of my foes, But if it’s the last thing that I ever do To Lord Thomas’ wedding I’ll go, To Lord Thomas’ wedding I’ll go.”

“Oh what is wrong?” Lord Thomas, he said, “With makes you turn so pale?

You used to be the fairest maiden That ever the sun shined on, That ever the sun shined on.”

She dressed herself in a gown of red And wore a cloak of green, And every town that she rode through They took her to be some queen, They took her to be some queen.”

“Oh, are you blind Lord Thomas?” she cried, “Or can you not very well see, Can’t you see my own heart’s blood That’s a-twinkling down my knee, That’s a-twinkling down my knee?”

She rode up to Lord Thomas’ gate And jingled at the ring, And none was so proud as Lord Thomas himself To arise and bid her come in, To arise and bid her come in.

He took the Brown Girl by the hand And led her across the hall; He pulled out his sword and he cut off her head, And he kicked it against the wall, And he kicked it against the wall.”

He placed the point against his breast, The handle against his wall, Said, “Here ends the story of three young lovers, God take them one and all, God take them one and all.”

“Oh Mother, Oh Mother, go dig my grave And dig it wide and deep, And bury Fair Ellender in my arms And the Brown Girl at my feet, And the Brown Girl at my feet.”

5 . M AT H Y G RO V E S —D ON N A R AY N OR T ON

Donna Ray Norton: vocals Recorded: November 2015 in Asheville, North Carolina; tracking engineer: Roy Andrade; mixing engineer: Ben Bateson Child 81; Sharp I23; Roud 52 This seventeenth century ballad from England—also known as “Matty Groves,” “Little Mattie Groves,” and “Little Musgrave And Lady Barnard”—concerns an adulterous relationship between an aristocratic woman and a commoner man (“Mathy”); the woman’s husband (the laird known as Lord Dannell) discovers the tryst and kills both of them. The ballad was first mentioned in Beaumont and Fletcher’s 1613 play The Knight of the Burning Pestle, and sometime before 1641 the lyrics of the ballad were printed in a broadside credited to Henry Gosson. During one of his World War I-era collecting trips in western North Carolina, Cecil Sharp encountered this ballad as “Little Musgrave And Lady Barnard,” sung by the great Madison County, North Carolina, ballad singer Jane Gentry. A century later, this ballad remains a favorite among many ballad singers in the same section of Appalachia, including Donna Ray Norton, a younger cousin of Sheila Kay Adams.

Oh holiday, oh holy day, The first day of the year, Little Mathy Groves to church did go, Some holy words to hear, hear, Some holy words to hear.

She stepped up to little Mathy Groves, Her eyes cast on the ground, Said, “Please oh please come with me stay As you pass through this town, town, As you pass through this town.”

The first come down was dressed in red, The next come down in green, The next come down was Lord Dannell’s wife, As fine as any queen, queen, Fine as any queen.

“I cannot stay, I dare not stay, For I fear ‘twill cost my life For I can tell by your finger rings That you are Lord Dannell’s wife, wife, You are Lord Dannell’s wife.”

“Lord Dannell’s in some distant land, He’s left me for to roam, He’s taken all his merry men And I am quite alone, lone, And I am quite alone.”

“If what you say is not the truth And false as false can be, I’ll build a scaffold tower so high And hanged you will be, be, Yes, hanged you will be.”

“Oh please, oh please come with me stay, I’ll hide thee out of sight, I’ll pleasure you beyond compare And I’ll sleep with you the night, night, I’ll sleep with you the night.”

“If what I say is not the truth And false as false can be, You need not build a scaffold tower, Just hang me from a tree, tree, Just hang me from a tree.”

Her little footy page was a-standing nearby, Was a-hearing every word was said, He said before the sun goes down Lord Dannell know what’s said, said, Lord Dannell know what’s said.

Lord Dannell called his merry men And bid them with him go, But warned them not a word to speak And not a horn to blow, blow, Yes, not a horn to blow.

He ran along the King’s Highway, He swam against the tide, And before the sun went down that night, He was standing at Dannell’s side, side, Was standing at Dannell’s side.

But riding with his merry men Was one who’d wish no ill; He put his bugle to his mouth And he blew it loud and shrill, shrill, He blew it loud and shrill.

“What news, what news, my little footy page, What news do you bring to me?

My tenants wronged, my castle burned, My wife with a baby, -by, My wife with a baby?”

“What’s this, what’s this,” cried little Mathy Groves, As he sat up in bed; “I fear it is your husband’s men And I will soon be dead, dead, And I will soon be dead.”

“No harm has come to your house or lands While you have been away, But little Mathy Groves is a-hugging and a-kissing On your fair lady gay, gay, On your fair lady gay.”

“Oh lay back down little Mathy Groves And keep my back from cold; It’s nothing but my father’s men A-calling their sheep to fold, fold, A-calling their sheep to fold.”

So little Mathy Groves he laid back down And soon fell off to sleep; When he woke up Lord Dannell Was standing at his bed feet, feet, Was standing at his bed feet, Saying, “How do you like my snow-white pillow?”

Saying, “How do you like my sheet?”

Saying, “How do you like my pretty little woman That’s a-laying in your arms asleep, -sleep, Laying in your arms asleep?”

“Very well do I like your snow-white pillow, Very well do I like your sheet; Much better do I like this pretty little woman That’s a-laying in my arms asleep, -sleep, A-laying in my arms asleep.”

“Get up, get up,” Lord Dannell cried, “And go put on your clothes; In England it shall never be said That I killed a naked man, man, That I killed a naked man.”

“I won’t get up, I can’t get up, For I fear twill cost my life, For you have got two bitter swords And I ain’t got no knife, knife, And I ain’t got a knife.”

“I know I’ve got two bitter swords, They cost me deep in purse; I’ll give to you the best of them And I will keep the worst, worst, And I will keep the worst.”

The first swing that little Mathy made He hurt Lord Dannell sore; The next swing that Lord Dannell made Little Mathy hit the floor, floor, Little Mathy hit the floor.

“Get up, get up, my pretty little bride And come sit on my knee, And tell me which you like the best, Little Mathy Groves or me, me, Little Mathy Groves or me.”

She looked up in Lord Dannell’s face And saw his jutting chin, Said, “I wouldn’t trade Little Mathy Groves For you and all your kin, kin, For you and all your kin.”

He took her by her lily-white hand And he led her across the hall; Then he pulled out his sword and he cut off her head And he kicked it against the wall, wall, He kicked it against the wall.

“Go dig me a grave both wide and deep To bury these two in; Just kick little Mathy Groves over the side But lower my sweet wife in, in, Yes, lower my sweet wife in.”

6 . E G G S A N D M A R R OW B ON E —JODY S T E C H E R A N D K AT E B R I S L I N

Jody Stecher: vocals, banjo Kate Brislin: harmony vocals Recorded: July 2015 at 25th Street Recording Studio in Oakland, California; tracking and mixing engineers: Bob Shumaker and Scott Bergstrom Sharp I55; Laws Q2; Roud 183 Probably English in origin, “Eggs And Marrowbone” concerns a wife’s blinding and attempted murder of her husband; the ballad culminates in the husband outsmarting his wife. Other versions of the ballad include “Woman From Yorkshire” (English); “The Wily Auld Carle” (Scottish); “The Old Woman Of Wexford” (Irish); and “The Old Woman From Boston” (American). A more recent version originating in the U.S. (without reference to “marrow bones”) is “Johnny Sands.” In 1916 Cecil Sharp collected a version in western North Carolina titled “The Rich Old Lady.” Previously recorded by folk music revivalist performer Richard Dyer-Bennet, “Eggs And Marrowbone” is here interpreted by the San Francisco-based duo Jody Stecher and Kate Brislin, who are among the most insightful practitioners of the old-time Appalachian music repertoire.

There was a rich old lady, In London she did dwell; She loved her old man dearly And another man twice as well.

The doctor wrote a letter And he signed it with his hand; He sent it to the old man So to let them understand.

Sing-me-yon-doe-lay-o-carry-me-away.

Sing-me-yon-doe-lay-o-carry-me-away.

She went to the doctor To see if she could find Some old thing or other To make her old man blind.

She fed him eggs and marrowbone And he did sup them all; He said, “I’m so doggone blind That I can’t see you at all.”

Sing-me-yon-doe-lay-o-carry-me-away.

Sing-me-yon-doe-lay-o-carry-me-away.

“Feed him eggs and marrowbone And have him sup them all; If that won’t make him stone blind, I’m the biggest liar of all.”

He said, “I’d go and drown myself But I might go astray.”

She said, “I’ll go along, dear, And show you the way.”

Sing-me-yon-doe-lay-o-carry-me-away.

Sing-me-yon-doe-lay-o-carry-me-away.

“But if I were to drown myself, It’d surely be a sin; Perhaps you would assist me And kindly push me in?”

Sing-me-yon-doe-lay-o-carry-me-away.

She led him to the river, She led him to the shore; He said, “My dearest darling, Would you kindly shove me o’er?”

Sing-me-yon-doe-lay-o-carry-me-away.

Sing-me-yon-doe-lay-o-carry-me-away.

“She began to holler, And she began to bawl; He said, “I’m so doggone blind That I can’t see you at all.”

Sing-me-yon-doe-lay-o-carry-me-away.

Eggs, eggs and marrowbone May make your old man blind, But if you want to shove him in Creep up from behind.

She took a few steps backwards And ran to push him in; He took a half-step sideways And she went headlong in.”

7. T H E S H E F F I E L D A P P R E N T IC E —M A R T I N S I M P S ON , A N DY C U T T I NG , A N D N A N C Y K E R R

Martin Simpson: vocals, banjo; Andy Cutting: melodeon; Nancy Kerr: fiddle Recorded: October 2015, The Silk Mill, Newcastle-Under-Lyme, UK Tracking and mixing engineer and session producer: Andy Bell Sharp II97; Laws O39; Roud 399 The plot of “The Sheffield Apprentice”—concerning a wealthy lady who frames a young servant as a thief after he spurns her advances—was possibly taken from English novelist Henry Fielding’s 1742 novel Joseph Andrews. By the nineteenth century “The Sheffield Apprentice” had emerged as a broadside ballad and was subsequently incorporated into published songbooks, becoming popular across the British Isles and in the New World. The first recorded version dates from 1908, when Australian composer and pianist Percy Grainger made a cylinder recording of the ballad in Lincolnshire, England, as sung by Joseph Leaning. One of the more influential recordings of “The Sheffield Apprentice”—based on a version collected in North Carolina by Cecil Sharp in 1918—was by Hedy West (1967). A folk revivalist musician from north Georgia who spent part of her music career performing in the UK, West was influential to British musicians, bringing a number of British ballads

back to their original home from Appalachia.

Martin Simpson, a star on the contemporary British folk scene, often performs American folk music. This lively rendition of “The Sheffield Apprentice” features Simpson on vocals and banjo, Andy Cutting on melodeon, and Nancy Kerr on fiddle. A 2015 album featuring the Simpson-Cutting-Kerr trio, Murmurs, was among the more acclaimed releases of British folk music in recent memory.

I was brought up in Sheffield, a place of high degree; My parents they adored me, had no child only me; I ripped, I roved, I rambled, where e’er my fancies led, ‘Til I become apprentice, then all my joys they fled.

The man that I was bound to, he did not use me well; I formed a resolution, with him not long to dwell; Unbeknownst to my poor parents, from him I ran away, I steered my course to London, and cursèd be the day.

There was a lady in London, she chanced to spy me there, She offered me fine payment to stay with her one year; Her kind words and promises, with them I did agree To go with her in London and stay with her one year.

I had not been in London but six months and one day Before my foolish mistress grew very fond of me;

Her gold and silver, her houses and her land, If I’d consent to marry her, would be at my command.

Oh no, dear honored mistress, I cannot wed with you, For I have made a promise, likewise a solemn vow, To wed no one but Betsy, my beauteous honored maid; Forgive me, my dear mistress, she has my heart betrayed.

One morning as I walked out to take the pleasant air, My mistress followed after to view the lilies fair; Gold rings from off her fingers as she did pass me by, She slipped them in my pocket, and for them I must die.

Oh the sheriff he has taken me, it was useless to say; He took me up to justice, tried me before the mayor, He took me up to justice, and to the gallows tree; Oh Lord, forgive my mistress, she surely has wronged me.

The people all come flocking to see me end my life; There stood my pretty Betsy, my own intended wife; Farewell to sin and sorrow, I bid this world adieu, Farewell my darling Betsy, I die for loving you.

8 . W I L L I E TAY L OR—M A R T I N S I M P S ON , A N DY C U T T I N G , A N D N A NC Y K E R R

Martin Simpson: banjo, lead vocals; Andy Cutting: melodeon; Nancy Kerr: fiddle, harmony vocals Recorded: October 2015, The Silk Mill, Newcastle-Under-Lyme, UK Tracking and mixing engineer and session producer: Andy Bell Sharp I61; Laws N11; Roud 158 Another ballad that Percy Grainger recorded in 1908 in Lincolnshire, England (from the repertoire of legendary traditional singer Joseph Taylor, born in 1832), “Willie Taylor”—sometimes known as “William Taylor,” “Bold William Taylor,” or “The Female Lieutenant”—was once, according to Cecil Sharp, “a favourite song with folksingers all over England”; the ballad was also popular in Scotland, Canada, and the U.S., and a comedic Cockney version called “Billy Taylor” was formerly performed on the English stage. In 1967 Hedy West recorded a version of “Willie Taylor” learned from folklorist Vance Randolph’s 4-volume book Ozark Folk Songs (1946-1950), and in 1985 British singer June Tabor reinterpreted West’s version with guitar accompaniment from Martin Simpson. The newly recorded version featured here showcases the vocal and instrumental chemistry between Simpson, Andy Cutting, and Nancy Kerr (who adds perfect harmonies to Simpson’s lead vocals).

Willie Taylor, youthful lover, Full of love and loyalty, Just as he was about to be married Pressed he was and sent to sea.

Polly dressed herself in men’s apparel, Went by the name of Richard Carr, Pretty little fingers red and rosy Adorned with pitch and tar.

Ride-the-ring-rattle-di-o-rattle-diddleday-ti-rattle-diddle-day.

Ride-the-ring-rattle-di-o-rattle-diddleday-ti-rattle-diddle-day.

One day in the heat of battle, Shot and shell are flying there, A silver button flew off her waistcoat, Left her lily-white breast quite bare.

Ride-the-ring-rattle-di-o-rattle-diddleday-ti-rattle-diddle-day.

Then up and spoke a bold commander, He says, “Fair maid, what brought you here?”

“I come in search of Willie Taylor, Who was pressed from me last year.”

Ride-the-ring-rattle-di-o-rattle-diddleday-ti-rattle-diddle-day.

“Well, if you come in search of Willie Taylor, Willie Taylor is not here; I do hear he lately got married To some lovely lady fair.

Ride-the-ring-rattle-di-o-rattle-diddle-day-tirattle-diddle-day.

“If you rise early in the morning Just before the break of day, There you’ll see Willie Taylor Walking out with a lady gay.”

Ride-the-ring-rattle-di-o-rattle-diddleday-ti-rattle-diddle-day.

So she early rose the very next morning Just before the break of day, There she saw Willie Taylor Walking out with a lady gay.

Ride-the-ring-rattle-di-o-rattle-diddleday-ti-rattle-diddle-day.

She called for a sword and a brace of pistols, They were brought at her command; She fired and shot Willie Taylor And the bride at his right-hand.

Ride-the-ring-rattle-di-o-rattle-diddleday-ti-rattle-diddle-day.

She was highly recommended For the wicked deed that she had done; They made her head and chief commander For the ship called Yulianne.

Ride-the-ring-rattle-di-o-rattle-diddleday-ti-rattle-diddle-day.

One day she fell in the deepest study, She cries, “Oh Lord, what can I do?”

Her comrades tried but they could not help her, Overboard herself she threw.

Ride-the-ring-rattle-di-o-rattle-diddleday-ti-rattle-diddle-day.

Willie got shot, Polly was drownéd, All true lovers they must part, All young men be very cautious How you treat your own sweethearts.

Ride-the-ring-rattle-di-o-rattle-diddleday-ti-rattle-diddle-day.

9. T H E B OL D L I E U T E N A N T—A L IC E G E R R A R D

Alice Gerrard: vocals Recorded: April 2015 at the ETSU Recording Lab in Johnson City, Tennessee; tracking and mixing engineer: Ben Bateson Sharp I66; Laws O25; Roud 396 Alice Gerrard learned this ballad from the singing of Doug Wallin, one of several twentieth century masters of balladry from Madison County, North Carolina. Known by several other names, including “The Faithful Lover” and “The Lions’ Den,” “The Bold Lieutenant” was first published as a broadside printed in London and Birmingham, England, circa 1819-20.

Gerrard, based in Durham, North Carolina, has been among the most influential musicians in the oldtime music revival of the past half-century, having performed and recorded in a groundbreaking duo with Hazel Dickens and having launched The Old-Time Herald, a leading publication dedicated to promoting and celebrating old-time music.

Down in Carlisle, there lived a lady; She was so beautiful and gay, And she determined to live a lady, No young man could her betray.

She called for her a span of horses, And they were ready at her command; And then together these three did wander ‘Til they came to a lion’s den.

But soon she met two loving brothers, They came to her from afar; And there upon those loving brothers This lady cast her heart’s desire.

And there they stopped, and there they halted, While these two brothers roamed all around; ‘Twas for the space of half an hour, This young lady lay speechless on the ground.

One of them was a bold lieutenant, A bold lieutenant and a man of war; The other was a bold sea-captain, Belonged to a ship called the Colonel Carr.

And when at last she did recover, She threw her fan down in the lion’s den, Saying, “Which of you, to gain a lady, Will return her fan again?”

Then up spoke this handsome lady, Saying, “I can’t be but one man’s bride, But meet me here tomorrow morning And on this case we will decide.”

Then up spoke this bold sea captain; He raised his voice so loud and bold, Said, “Madam, I’m a man of honor, But I would not lose my life for love.”

And then up spoke this bold lieutenant; He raised his voice so loud and high, Saying, “Madam I’m a man of honor, I will return your fan or die.”

And when she saw her true love coming And unto him no harm was done, She threw herself upon his bosom, Saying, “Here, young man, is the prize you won.”

To the lion’s den he boldly ventured, Where the lions looked so fierce and grim; He whooped and ranged all in among them Until at last he did return.

And then up spoke that bold sea-captain, Like a man all troubled with a wondering mind, Saying, “Through these lonely woods I’ll ramble Where no man can ever me find.”

10. L OR D B AT E M A N — C A R OL E L I Z A B E T H JON E S

Carol Elizabeth Jones: vocals Recorded: October 2015 in Lexington, Virginia; tracking engineer, Roy Andrade; mixing engineer: Ben Bateson Child 53; Sharp I13; Roud 40 “Lord Bateman” no doubt existed for some years prior to its first documentation, under the title “Lord Beigham,” on a nineteenth century broadside published in Glasgow, Scotland. Percy Grainger made two wax cylinder recordings of this ballad in Brigg, England, in 1908—one by Joseph Taylor and another by a “Mr. Thompson”; these—along with the previously mentioned Grainger recordings—are among the earliest recordings of English-language folk songs. Existing under such alternate names as “Lord Baker,” “Young Beichan,” and “Young Bekie,” this ballad was based on a widely dispersed European folk tale that had also spawned similarly themed ballads in Norway, Italy, and Spain. “Lord Bateman” was masterfully sung by Jean Ritchie for her classic Folkways album British Traditional Ballads in the Southern Mountains (1960). Carol Elizabeth Jones perfectly captures the inherent sweetness in “Lord Bateman,” which unlike many traditional ballads ends in happiness for all concerned.

Lord Bateman was a noble soldier, He thought himself of high degree, But he would not rest nor be contented Until he’d sailed the old salt sea.

The Turk he had a lovely daughter, And she was fair as she could be; She stole the key to her father’s prison, And swore Lord Bateman, she’d set free.

Oh he sailed to the east and he sailed to the westward, He sailed all over to the Turkish shore; There he got caught and put in prison, Never to be released anymore.

She took him down to the deepest cellar, Gave him a drink of the strongest wine; She threw her loving arms around him And said, “Lord Bateman, if you were mine.”

They made a vow, they made a promise, For seven long years to make it stand, That he would marry no other woman And she would marry no other man.

Now seven long years had rolled around, Those seven long years seemed like twenty-nine; She packed up all her gay young clothing And swore Lord Bateman she’d go find.

She sailed to the east and she sailed to the westward, She sailed all over to the English shore; She rode ‘til she came to Lord Bateman’s castle And summoned a porter to the door.

“Oh, is this not Lord Bateman’s castle, And is his lordship not within?”

“Oh yes, oh yes,” said the gay young porter, “He’s just now bringing his new bride in.”

“Go tell him to bring me a piece of bread, Go tell him to bring me a glass of wine, And not to forget the Turkish lady Who freed him from his close confines.”

“What news, what news, my gay young porter, What news, what news brings you to me?”

“There stands a lady outside your castle, The finest lady you ever did see.

“She has gold rings on every finger, And on some fingers she has three; She has enough gold around her middle To buy Northumberland from thee.”

Then up and spoke the new bride’s mother, She was often known to speak so free, Said, “What’s to become of my only daughter, Who’s just become a bride to thee?”

“No harm will come your only daughter, She is none the worse for me; She came to me with a horse and saddle And she’ll go home with a coach and three.”

Lord Bateman pounded his fist on the table, He broke it into pieces one two three, Said “I’ll not forsake my Turkish lady Who saved me from my slavery.”

1 1 . T H E FA R M E R ’ S C U R S T W I F E —D ON N A R AY N OR T ON

Donna Ray Norton: vocals Recorded: November 2015 in Asheville, North Carolina; tracking engineer: Roy Andrade; mixing engineer: Ben Bateson Child 278; Sharp I275; Roud 160 This unique ballad became popular in the British Isles after appearing on a nineteenth century broadside titled “The Sussex Farmer” (though the concept of a wife overpowering the Devil dates back at least to Geoffrey Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales in the late fifteenth century). Many traditional ballads have explored what

is sometimes called “the battle of the sexes,” but this ballad uniquely balanced seriousness and high satire in its evocation of an unconventional “love triangle.” Cecil Sharp documented the popularity of “The Farmer’s Curst Wife” in World War I-era Appalachia, and the ballad was also popular in parts of the northern U.S. and in Canada. A 1929 recording of the ballad (titled “The Old Lady And The Devil”) made by the husband-wife duo Bill and Belle Reed in Johnson City, Tennessee, was one of the 78 RPM releases from the early years of the record industry to be included on the influential Anthology of American Folk Music, an album from 1952 often credited with inspiring the urban folk music revival of the 1950s and 1960s. During the mid-twentieth century the ballad was recorded by such respected singers as Pete Seeger, Horton Barker, Texas Gladden, and Jean Ritchie (who recorded it as “Little Devils”).

There was an old farmer lived over the hill, And if he ain’t dead he’s a-living there still.

A-singing fie fie diddle eye fie diddle eye diddle all day.

Well, the devil stepped up to the man at plow, Said, “One of your family I’m a-taking right now.”

A-singing fie fie diddle eye fie diddle eye diddle all day.

Well, the farmer said, “I’ve come undone, You’ve come to get my only son.”

A-singing fie fie diddle eye fie diddle eye diddle all day.

“Well, it ain’t your son nor your gal I crave, But your old scolding wife, and her I’ll take.”

A-singing fie fie diddle eye fie diddle eye diddle all day.

“Well, welcome sweet Satan from the bottom of my heart; I hope you and her never more shall part.”

A-singing fie fie diddle eye fie diddle eye diddle all day.

Well, he stuffed her down in an old tote sack, And he looked like a camel with a hump on his back.

A-singing fie fie diddle eye fie diddle eye diddle all day.

Well, he carried her down to the forks of the road, Said, “Get down woman, you’re a hell of a load.”

A-singing fie fie diddle eye fie diddle eye diddle all day.

Then he carried her down to the gates of hell, Said, “Poke up the fire, boys, we’ll roast her well.”

A-singing fie fie diddle eye fie diddle eye diddle all day.

‘Long come a little demon a-dragging its chain; She grabbed it up, and she smattered out his brains.

A-singing fie fie diddle eye fie diddle eye diddle all day.

There’s six little devils a-sitting on the wall, She picked up a poker and she thrashed them all.

A-singing fie fie diddle eye fie diddle eye diddle all day.

Well, she grabbed old Satan by the hair of the head, Said, “I’d a-done killed you if you weren’t done dead.”

A-singing fie fie diddle eye fie diddle eye diddle all day.

Well, the littlest demon stepped up and said, “You better take her back daddy or we’ll all be dead.”

A-singing fie fie diddle eye fie diddle eye diddle all day.

Well, the farmer saw ‘em coming and he bite his tongue, And he broke for the woods in a flat-out run.

A-singing fie fie diddle eye fie diddle eye diddle all day.

And he was heard to say as he run o’er the hill, “The devil won’t have her I’ll be damned if I will.”

A-singing fie fie diddle eye fie diddle eye diddle all day.

Well, here’s your ma’am and she sure is well, But I’ll tell you what, she’s tore up hell.

A-singing fie fie diddle eye fie diddle eye diddle all day.

Well, the children said, we sure is cursed For she’s been to hell and she’s come back worst.

A-singing fie fie diddle eye fie diddle eye diddle all day.

Now this just goes to show that women are better than the men, For we can go to hell and come back again.

A-singing fie fie diddle eye fie diddle eye diddle all day.

Well, I’ve been the devil for all of my life, But I never been to hell ‘til I met your wife.

A-singing fie fie diddle eye fie diddle eye diddle all day.

1 2 . M R . F RO G W E N T A - C O U R T I N ’—B I L L A N D T H E B E L L E S

Kris Truelsen: vocals, guitar; Kalia Yeagle: fiddle, harmony vocals; Grace Van’t Hof, banjo; Karl Zerfas, bass Recorded: December 2015 at the ETSU Recording Lab in Johnson City, Tennessee; tracking and mixing engineer: Ben Bateson Sharp II220; Roud 16

Often discounted as simply a children’s song, “Froggie Went A-Courtin’” (“Mr. Frog Went A-Courtin’” in the version on this album) is in fact a sophisticated satirical ballad. First appearing in Robert Wedderburn’s The Complaynt of Scotland (1549) as the Scots language tale “The Frog Came to the Myl Dur,” this narrative likely alluded to a situation from 1547 when Mary of Guise, the Scottish Queen Consort, tried to outwit English King Henry VIII by attempting to marry her daughter Princess Mary, who was later known as Mary Queen of Scots (referred to in the ballad as “Miss Mouse”), to the French Prince Louis (“Mr. Frog”). (As used in the ballad, the term “Frog” may be British slang for a Frenchman.) Its lyrics were first documented in a 1580 publication Stationers’ Register as “A Moste Strange Weddinge of the Frogge and the Mouse.”

Some scholars have speculated that the ballad chronicled another royal courtship, perhaps between France’s Francois, Duke of Anjou, and England’s Elizabeth I. That courtship, however, occurred in 1579, thirty years after the publication of the Wedderburn text. It is possible that the text of the ballad was changed in 1580 (when the ballad was recorded in the Stationers’ Register) to reflect widespread disapproval in England of that particular royal courtship. Today, “Froggie Went A-Courtin’” flourishes more than four centuries after the political crisis that spawned the ballad. The version heard on Big Bend Killing, performed by the Johnson City, Tennessee-based band Bill and the Belles, was inspired by a 1930 78 RPM recording of the ballad, titled “The Frog Went A-Courtin’,” sung by Anna and Juliet Canova.

Mr. Frog went a-courtin’, and he did ride, uh-huh, Mr. Frog went a-courtin’, and he did ride, Sword and a pistol by his side, uh-huh.

He rid up to Miss Mousie’s door, uh-huh, He rid up to Miss Mousie’s door, He knocked so hard that he made it roar, uh-huh.

“Oh, Miss Mousie, are you within? uh-huh, Oh, Miss Mousie, are you within?”

“Yes, kind sir, I darn and spin,” uh-huh.

“Oh, Miss Mousie, will you marry me? uh-huh, Oh, Miss Mousie, will you marry me?”

“Yes, kind sir, just wait and see” uh-huh.

“Where shall the wedding be? uh-huh, Where shall the wedding be?”

“Way down yonder in the holler tree,” uh-huh.

“What shall we have for the wedding supper? uh-huh, What shall we have for the wedding supper?”

“Black-eyed peas and bread and butter,” uh-huh.

First guest was Mr. Bumbly Bee, uh-huh, The first guest was Mr. Bumbly Bee, He danced all night with a little black flea, uh-huh.

Frog went swimming across the lake, uh-huh, Mr. Frog went swimming across the lake, He got swallowed by a big black snake, uh-huh.

This puts an end to the one two three, uh-huh, This puts an end to the one two three, The frog and the flea and the bumbly bee, uh-huh.

1 3 . B A R B A R A A L L E N —R O S A N N E C A S H

Rosanne Cash: vocals John Leventhal: all instruments Recorded: May 2015 at Studio 22, New York City Tracking and mixing engineer and session producer: John Leventhal Recording Courtesy of Adriana Trigiani Thanks to Danny Kahn Rosanne Cash appears courtesy of Blue Note Records/Capitol Music Group Child 84; Sharp I24; Roud 54 Exploring another side of “Barbara Allen” than heard in the stark a cappella rendition by Carol Elizabeth Jones, Rosanne Cash here stresses the ballad’s wistfulness by singing the narrative with a major-keyed melody set to an elegant instrumental arrangement from John Leventhal. Grammy Award winner Cash has long been interested in traditional material—for instance, in 2001 she contributed a version of “Fair And Tender Ladies” to the soundtrack album for the movie Songcatcher. This recording of “Barbara Allen” originally appeared on the soundtrack for Big Stone Gap, the 2015 movie set in the mountain town of the same name in Virginia.

Acknowledging this as her favorite among the many versions of “Barbara Allen,” Big Stone Gap director, writer, and co-producer Adriana Trigiani enthusiastically granted permission to include Cash’s recording on Big Bend Killing, believing the recording would be well served if heard in affiliation with other traditional ballads.

‘Twas in the merry month of May When green buds all was swelling, Sweet William on his deathbed lay For love of Barbara Allen.

When he was dead and laid in grave She heard the death bells knelling, And every stroke to her did say “Hard-hearted Barbara Allen.”

So slowly, slowly she got up And slowly she drew nigh him; The only words to him did say “Young man, I think you’re dying.”

“Oh Mother, Mother dig my grave, Make it long and narrow; Sweet William died of love for me, And I will die of sorrow.”

He turned his face unto the wall, Death was in him welling: “Good-bye, good-bye, to my friends all, Be good to Barbara Allen.”

She was buried in the old churchyard, Sweet William was beside her; Of William’s heart there grew a rose, Out of Barbara Allen’s a brier.”

They grew and grew in the old churchyard ‘Til they could grow no higher; At the end they formed a true lover’s knot, And the rose grew round the brier.

‘Twas in the merry month of May When green buds all was swelling; Sweet William on his deathbed lay For love of Barbara Allen, For love of Barbara Allen.

CD #2: NEW WORLD BALL ADS 1 . W I L D HO G I N T H E WO OD S —A L IC E G E R R A R D

Alice Gerrard: vocals, fiddle Roy Andrade: banjo Recorded: April 2015 at the ETSU Recording Lab in Johnson City, Tennessee; tracking and mixing engineer: Ben Bateson Child 18; Sharp I9; Roud 29 Although sounding prototypically Appalachian as sung and played by Alice Gerrard alongside Roy Andrade’s fretless banjo accompaniment, the ballad “Wild Hog In The Woods” (not to be confused with the similarly titled fiddle tune) evolved from the Old World ballad “Sir Lionel.” The protagonist of the original British version was a gallant yet low-born knight Sir Lionel, a minor Arthurian character, who fights a voracious wild boar. The ballad perhaps descended from the Mabinogion, a cycle of Arthurian legends transcribed from the oral tradition as prose narratives by medieval Welsh scribes during the twelfth and thirteenth centuries.

Another possible source for the ballad was the medieval British romance from the mid-fourteenth century, Sir Eglamour of Artois; in the latter narrative, Eglamour, to win the hand of the aristocratic woman he loves, must pass several challenges placed on him by the woman’s father: fighting giants, a dragon, and a wild boar. “Wild Hog In The Woods” and its variants (such as “Old Bangum”) are New World versions of “Sir Lionel,” with the original narrative stripped down to one core event—the fight with the boar.

There is a wild hog in the woods, Quill o’quay, quill o’quay There is a wild hog in the woods, Oh, quill o’quay There is a wild hog in the woods, Kills a man and drinks his blood.

Quill o’quay, cut him down, Kill him if you can.

Old Bangum made him a wooden knife, Quill o’quay, quill o’quay Old Bangum made him a wooden knife, Oh quill o’quay Old Bangum made him a wooden knife, For to take that wild hog’s life.

Quill o’quay, cut him down, Kill him if you can.

Here comes that wild hog cutting and a slash, Quill o’quay, quill o’quay Here comes that wild hog cutting and a slash, Oh quill o’quay Here comes that wild hog cutting and a slash, Tearing down hickory, white oak, and ash.

Quill o’quay, cut him down, Kill him if you can.

Old Bangum drew his wooden knife, Quill o’quay, quill o’quay Old Bangum drew his wooden knife, Oh quill o’quay Old Bangum drew his wooden knife, There he took that wild hog’s life.

Quill o’quay, cut him down, Kill him if you can.

They followed that wild hog to his den, Quill o’quay, quill o’quay They followed that wild hog to his den, Oh quill o’quay They followed that wild hog to his den, There found the bones of a thousand men.

Quill o’quay, cut him down, Kill him if you can.

2 . T H E B AT T L E S ONG OF T H E G R E AT K A N AW H A — T R E V OR M c K E N Z I E

Trevor McKenzie: vocals, fiddle Recorded: June 2016 at the ETSU Recording Lab in Johnson City, Tennessee; tracking and mixing engineer: Ben Bateson Laws dA31 (appendix II); Roud 4029 Among the earlier ballads to emerge entirely within Appalachia (rather than evolve from an Old World prototype), “The Battle Song Of The Great Kanawha”—also known as “The Battle Of Point Pleasant”—is an historical ballad composed in response to an October 1774 battle that was part of the larger conflict known as Dunmore’s War. Depicting events that occurred in the western section of the Virginia colony (in present-day West Virginia), the ballad chronicles military actions directed by then-Virginia Colonial Governor John Murray, fourth Earl of Dunmore, in which Colonel Andrew Lewis (a cousin of explorer Meriwether Lewis) suppressed an Indian uprising led by the chief Cornstalk at Point Pleasant. Taking place where the Kanawha River flowed into the Ohio River, this battle was fiercely fought, with many casualties on both sides.

At the end of the battle, Lewis’ Virginians held the field. While “The Battle Song Of The Great Kanawha” disappeared from oral tradition, Trevor McKenzie, a musician from Wythe County, Virginia, who works as an archivist at Appalachian State University in Boone, North Carolina, recently revived the ballad after finding a version of the lyrics on a website maintained by Ferrum College’s Blue Ridge Institute & Museum. Not knowing the ballad’s original melody, McKenzie set his interpretation of the lyrics to a tune borrowed from the ballad “Texas Rangers” (Laws A08). Like other balladeers before him, McKenzie took poetic license with the story, suggesting that Colonel Lewis died on the battlefield (Lewis in fact lived until 1781). Initially balking at the prospect of recording a lyric with so much carnage, McKenzie decided to record “The Battle Song Of The Great Kanawha” for this album because he thought that such a ballad might help contemporaries better understand American history in all its complexity.

Ye daughters and sons of Virginia, incline Your ears to a story of woe, And I’ll sing of a time when your fathers and mine Fought for us on the Ohio.

So they marched through the untrodden wilds of the west And mountains and rivers also, And they pitched at the Point their bodies to rest On the banks of the Ohio.

In seventeen hundred and seventy-four, In the month of October we know, An army of the Indians two thousand or more Were encamped on the Ohio.

The army of the Indians in battle array Under Cornstalk and Elnipsicow Was met by the forces of Lewis that day On the banks of the Ohio.

The Shawnee and the Wyandotte, Delawares And tribes of Mingo, Invaded our lands and citizens slew On the south of the Ohio.

The sons of mountains renowned of old All volunteered freely to go And conquer the army our country to save Or fall by the Ohio.

And they brought the battle at the break of day, And like heroes they slaughtered their foe, ‘Til two hundred Indians or more, they say, Were slain on the Ohio.

The army of the Indians did mourn and weep; As for Saul and his host on Gilbow.

We’ll mourn Colonel Lewis and the heroes that sleep On the banks of the Ohio.

3 . D OL E F U L WA R N I N G —B RU C E G R E E N E A N D L OY MC W H I R T E R

Bruce Greene: vocals Loy McWhirter: vocals Recorded: October 2015 at Bruce Greene/Loy McWhirter’s house in South Toe River, North Carolina; tracking engineer: Roy Andrade; mixing engineer, Ben Bateson Laws G21; Roud 711 “Doleful Warning,” also known as “An Awful Warning,” is related to “Silver Dagger” (a ballad associated with Joan Baez, who recorded it as the first track on her first album) and “Katy Dear” (memorably recorded by The Blue Sky Boys and The Louvin Brothers). The close harmony version of “Doleful Warning” heard on this album was sung before a single microphone by husband-and-wife Bruce Greene and Loy McWhirter. Having sung together since 1975, the duo in 2006 released Come Near My Love, an album showcasing their unaccompanied duet harmony singing style on a range of ballads and songs. Greene and McWhirter pride themselves in their instinctive—rather than formal or studied—performance technique, as revealed in their rendition of “Doleful Warning.” For instance, they at times select different words with which to deliver their doleful story—such as at :51 seconds when Greene sings “took” while McWhirter simultaneously sings “pulled.” Such an approach introduces an atmosphere of spontaneity and uncertainty to this haunting ballad.

Young people all come pay attention To these few lines I’m going to write; A youth, a youth to you I’ll mention, For once I courted a pretty fair maid.

Soon as her parents came to know it, They strove to part us both day and night, They strove to part me and my own true lover Who in all this world’s my heart’s delight.

She wandered away all broken-hearted, She wandered away and left the town, She wandered away across the broad river And under the shade of a tree sat down.

She took [pulled] out a silver weapon And she pierced it through her snow-white breast, Saying, “Let this be a doleful warning To all young lovers, I’m going to rest.”

Her true love was not far behind her, And he heard her make her sad sweet groan; He come running up like one distracted, He cried, “Oh Lord, I’m left alone.”

Her true blue eyes to him were opened, Saying, “Oh true love, I’m gone to rest, For yonder lies a silver dagger, I’ve pierced it through my wounded breast.”

He picked up the bloody weapon And he pierced it through his wounded heart, Saying, “Let this be a doleful warning To all young lovers who have to part.”

4 . OM I E W I S E —H A S E E C I AC C IO, W I T H K A L I A Y E A G L E

Hasee Ciaccio: vocals Kalia Yeagle: fiddle Recorded: April 2016 at the ETSU Recording Lab in Johnson City, Tennessee; tracking and mixing engineer: Ben Bateson Laws F4; Roud 447 One of the older “native American ballads” (ballads that emerged entirely in the New World), “Omie Wise” chronicles the tragic death of Naomi Wise (her dates were possibly 1789–1808), who lived in Randolph County, North Carolina. According to oral tradition, Naomi was a teenaged orphan who lived in the household of an upstanding couple named William and Mary Adams; eventually Omie (as she was called) fell in love with a local ne’er-do-well, Jonathan Lewis (1783-1817). Omie apparently got pregnant by John (as he was called), and in April 1808 John lured her to a desolate place under the pretext of their getting married. Instead, he beat her and threw her into a river near Randleman, North Carolina. This was essentially the account of events presented in Braxton Craven’s 1851 publication Naomi Wise: The Wrongs of a Beautiful Girl.

A recently discovered manuscript titled “A true account of Nayomy Wise” [sic] (from a commonplace notebook once owned by Mary Woody, who was born in 1801) suggests that Omie was not a teenager at the time of her death but in fact was older than John Lewis; this document even asserts that Omie had had two children out of wedlock. In a 2003 scholarly study, Eleanor R. Long-Wilgus speculated that the Woody manuscript explains why in the ballad John Lewis was going to give Omie Wise money “or other fine things”—in that era, unwed mothers might agree during courtroom proceedings to name another man responsible for her children (other than the actual biological father) if a financial arrangement was made. Perhaps Omie believed that, by meeting John surreptitiously, he would make such an arrangement to find a home for a child the two might have conceived together. But, “deluded by John Lewis’ lies,” Omie was murdered and later was buried in Randolph County’s Providence Quaker Church Cemetery.

After being caught and imprisoned, John did indeed break jail, though he likely did not join the army as

stated in the version of the ballad heard here, which was based on a G. B. Grayson and Henry Whitter 78 RPM recording from 1927. Other masters of Appalachian music have recorded “Omie Wise,” including Clarence “Tom” Ashley, Dock Boggs, Roscoe Holcomb, and Doc Watson. The singer of the version heard on this album, South Carolinian Hasee Ciaccio, studied old-time music in East Tennessee State University’s Bluegrass, OldTime, and Country Music Studies Program, as did fiddler Kalia Yeagle, a native of Alaska.

I’ll tell you all a story about Omie Wise, How she was deluded by John Lewis’ lies.

He told her to meet him at Adams’s Springs; He’d bring her some money and some other fine things.

He brung her no money nor no other fine things, But, “Get up behind me, Omie, to Squire Elletts we’ll go.”

She got up behind him, “So careful we’ll go”; They rode ‘til they came where deep waters did flow.

John Lewis, he concluded to tell her his mind; John Lewis, he concluded to leave her behind.

She threw her arms around him, “John, spare me my life, And I’ll go distracted and never be your wife.”

He threw her arms from ‘round him, and into the water she plunged.

John Lewis, he turned ‘round and rode back to Adams’s Hall.

He went, enquired for Omie, but “Omie, she is not here, She’s gone to some neighbor’s house and won’t be gone very long.”

John Lewis was took a prisoner and locked up in the jail, Was locked up in the jail and was there to remain awhile.

John Lewis, he stayed there for six months or maybe more Until he broke jail, into the army he did go.

5 . B A N K S OF T H E OH IO —D OY L E L AW S ON

Doyle Lawson: vocals, guitar Recorded: August 2016 in Blountville, Tennessee; tracking and mixing engineer: Josh Swift Laws F5; Roud 157

While thematically similar to “Omie Wise,” “Banks Of The Ohio” has been recorded by a wider range of musicians, including acts from such diverse genres as old-time, country, bluegrass, folk, rock, and pop. (As an example of the latter, Olivia Newton-John had a #1 Australian hit and a #6 UK hit with her 1971 recording of the ballad). The popularity of “Banks Of The Ohio” has much to do with its sing-along chorus. Another distinctive attribute is the ballad’s male protagonist, Willie, who acknowledges killing his true-love and also reflects upon the moral implications of the deed he has done. Bluegrass great Doyle Lawson often performed “Banks Of The Ohio” in the early 1970s while a member of the groundbreaking progressive bluegrass group The Country Gentlemen. In those instances, he sang harmony to Charlie Waller’s lead vocals; on the version on this album, Lawson sings lead, movingly accentuating the simple beauty of the ballad’s melody with his inimitable, legendary voice.

An accomplished instrumentalist (primarily on mandolin but also, as heard here, guitar), vocalist, and producer, Lawson, a native of Sullivan County, Tennessee, was inducted into the International Bluegrass Music Hall of Fame in 2012. He began his career in 1963 while still a teenager, joining Jimmy Martin and The Sunny Mountain Boys. After touring and recording with J. D. Crowe and with The Country Gentlemen, Lawson in 1979 established Doyle Lawson & Quicksilver, a legendary bluegrass group that specializes in gospel music.

I asked my love to take a walk, Just to walk a little way; As we walk, oh, may we talk All about our wedding day.

I started home ‘tween twelve and one Thinking of what I had done; I killed the girl, my love, you see, Because she would not marry me.

“Only say that you’ll be mine, In our home we’ll happy be Down beside where the waters flow On the banks of the Ohio.”

The very next morn about half past four, The Sheriff knocked upon my door, Said, “Willie, you must come and go Down to the banks of the Ohio.”

“Willie dear, that cannot be, Another’s wife I’m pledged to be, And away now I must go Far from the banks of the Ohio.”

“Only say that you’ll be mine, In our home we’ll happy be Down beside where the waters flow On the banks of the Ohio.”

I took her by her lily-white hand And dragged her down to where the waters stand; There I threw her in to drown, Watched her as she floated down.

6 . K N OX V I L L E G I R L —K R I S T I H E D T K E A N D C OR B I N H AY S L E T T

Kristi Hedtke: vocals Corbin Hayslett: vocals, guitar Recorded: May 2016 at the ETSU Recording Lab in Johnson City, Tennessee; tracking and mixing engineer: Ben Bateson Laws P35; Roud 263 “Knoxville Girl” was derived from the nineteenth-century Irish ballad “The Wexford Girl,” which in turn evolved from the English ballad “The Oxford Girl.” All these ballads were probably derived from a seventeenth century broadside titled “William Grismond’s Downfall, or A Lamentable Murther by him Committed at Lainterdine in the county of Hereford on March 12, 1650: Together with his lamentation.” First recorded in 1924 by north Georgia-native and country music pioneer Gid Tanner, “Knoxville Girl” reached a broad audience in 1937 through a closely harmonized recording by the duo The Blue Sky Boys. Others were inspired to interpret the ballad, with a version by The Wilburn Brothers rising to #16 on the country chart. The Louvin Brothers’ #19 country hit from 1956 is considered by many to be a definitive recorded version. In recent years “Knoxville Girl” has become a staple in the Americana music repertoire.

The arrangement on this album—the work of singer/multi-instrumentalist Corbin Hayslett—presents a more complete text than generally heard in previously recorded versions, a result of Hayslett’s commitment to researching the historical contexts of the material he performs. The focus of this duet, complementing Hayslett’s guitar and harmony singing, is Kristi Hedtke’s lead vocal. Both musicians have studied old-time music in East Tennessee State University’s Bluegrass, Old-Time, and Country Music Studies Program.

‘Twas in the town of Knoxville, where I was bred and born, Up in the hills of Tennessee I owned a flowered farm, I courted me a Knoxville girl with dark and roving eyes, I asked her for to marry me and yes was her reply I went up to her father’s house ‘bout eight o’clock one night; We went to take an evening walk to plan our wedded life;

We strolled along quite easily ‘til we came to level ground, I broke a stake out of the fence and beat that fair maid down.

She fell down on her bended knees, for mercy she did cry, “Oh Willie dear, don’t murder me here, I’m unprepared to die.”

She never spoke another word, I only beat her more, ‘Til all the ground around me was in a bloody gore.

I took her by her golden curls and dragged her around and around, Throwing her into the river that flows through Knoxville town; “Go down, go down, you Knoxville girl with the dark and roving eyes, Sink down, sink down, you Knoxville girl, you can never be my bride.”

I called for me a candle to light my way to bed, I called for me a handkerchief to bind my aching head, I rolled and tumbled the whole night through, as troubles was for me, The flames of hell around my bed was all my eyes could see.

I started back to mother’s, got there about midnight, My mother she’d been sitting up and took an awful fright, Saying, “My dear son, what have you done to bloody your clothes so?”

I told my anxious mother, I was bleeding at my nose.

I was taken on suspicion, they put me in a cell, For there was none to pity me and none would go my bail; I’m here to waste my life away down in this dirty old jail, Because I killed that Knoxville girl, the girl I loved so well.

7. P R E T T Y P OL LY—A M Y T H Y S T K I A H , W I T H R OY A N D R A D E

Amythyst Kiah: vocals, guitar Roy Andrade: banjo Recorded: June 2016 at the ETSU Recording Lab in Johnson City, Tennessee; tracking and mixing engineer: Ben Bateson Sharp I49; Laws P36; Roud 15 This well-known ballad began in the eighteenth-century as “The Gosport Tragedy,” a broadside chronicling the 1726 murder of a pregnant woman named Molly by a carpenter named John Billson, the father of the unborn baby. The carpenter sought to escape the site of the murder—Gosport, England—by boarding a ship, the Bedford. According to the broadside, a seaman on that ship, Charles Stewart, soon witnessed a female ghost with a baby in her arms; the ghost confronted Billson, who confessed to his crime, took sick, and died. A century later, new broadside versions began circulating with truncated lyrics and titles like “The Cruel Ship’s Carpenter,” “Nancy’s Ghost,” and “Polly’s Love.” By the early twentieth century, the ballad, generally known as “Pretty Polly,” was a favorite in Appalachia, and not coincidently the earliest recordings of the ballad were by

Appalachian musicians, including John Hammond’s 1925 “Purty Polly” and B. F. Shelton’s and Dock Boggs’ 1927 versions of “Pretty Polly.” By this time the ballad had taken on a distinctively American flavor, with banjo-accompaniment and blues-influenced repetition of each stanza’s first lines. By the urban folk music revival, “Pretty Polly” had become one of the more performed and recorded ballads across the U.S., and interpretations usually drew upon the ballad’s Appalachian—rather than its British—associations. The ballad’s popularity continued unabated into new millennium, though few versions have attempted to bring “Pretty Polly” back to its eighteenth century origins as this version by Johnson City, Tennessee-based singer-songwriter Amythyst Kiah.

In her arrangement augmented by Roy Andrade’s driving clawhammer banjo accompaniment, Kiah recreates the sense of nautical terror found in the original broadside. Influenced equally by old-time music, rhythm & blues, and classic country, she has toured across the U.S. and in the UK. Oh Polly, Pretty Polly, come go along with me, Polly, Pretty Polly, come go along with me, ‘Fore we get married some pleasure to see.

My mind it is to marry and never part, My mind is to marry and never to part, First time I saw you you wounded my heart.

She jumped up behind him and away they did ride, She jumped up behind him and away they did ride, Leaving her loved ones and family behind.

He took her ‘cross mountains and valleys so deep, Took her ‘cross mountains and valleys so deep, Poor little Polly could do nothing but weep.

“Oh William, sweet William, I’m feared of your ways, William, sweet William, I’m feared of your ways, ‘Fraid you will lead my poor body astray.”

“Oh Polly, Pretty Polly, your guess is ‘bout right, Polly, Pretty Polly, your guess is ‘bout right, Dug on your grave the best part of last night.”

They came to a clearing and what did she spy, They came to a clearing and what did she spy, Newly dug grave with a spade lying by.

She fell to her knees, Lord, she begged for her life, She fell on her knees, she begged for her life: “Let me be a single girl if I can’t be your wife.”

“Oh Polly, Pretty Polly, that never can be, Polly, Pretty Polly that never can be, You never brought nothing but trouble to me.”

He stabbed her in the heart and the heart’s blood did flow, Stabbed her through the heart and the heart’s blood did flow, And into that grave Pretty Polly did go.

He threw some dirt over her and started home, Threw some dirt over her and started for home, Leaving nothing but the turtle doves and the wild birds to moan.

There he saw Pretty Polly all engorged with blood, There he saw Pretty Polly all engorged with blood, And in her small arms a sweet baby she held.

And he screamed and he hollered and soon passed away, He screamed and he hollered and soon passed away, Debt to the Devil sweet William did pay.

He got on his boat, Lord, no time to repent, He got on his ship, Lord, no time to repent, The ship struck a rock, to the bottom it went.

8 . T OM D U L A —L AU R A B O O S I N G E R , W I T H T H E K RU G E R B RO T H E R S

Laura Boosinger: vocals Jens Kruger: banjo Uwe Kruger: guitar Joel Lansberg: bass Emma McDowell Best: fiddle Recorded: October 2015 at Double Time Studios in North Wilkesboro, North Carolina; session producer: Uwe Kruger; tracking and mixing engineer: Jens Kruger Courtesy of Double Time Music, Inc. Laws F36A; Roud 4192 Perhaps the best-known “native American ballad” from Appalachia, “Tom Dula” (widely known as “Tom Dooley”) is based on a true story. Thomas C. “Tom” Dula (the surname was locally pronounced as “Dooley”) was born June 22, 1845, in Wilkes County, North Carolina, and he grew up near Ann Foster and Laura Foster, who at various times became his lovers. And this “love triangle” became the defining situation in Tom’s life.

After working as a farm hand, Tom joined the Confederate military in 1862 at the age of 17. Taken prisoner,

he served out the Civil War in a prison camp. Released at War’s end in 1865, Tom returned to North Carolina and resumed an earlier affair with Ann Foster, who was now married and known as Ann Melton. Moving to the Melton house around this time was Ann’s cousin Pauline Foster, who was infected with syphilis. Tom likely contracted that disease from Pauline, and subsequently spread it to Ann and Laura. Tom’s relationship with Laura incited feelings of jealousy in Ann, and Ann convinced Tom that they had contracted syphilis from Laura. Ann and Tom conspired to kill Laura, a plan that involved Tom luring her to her death after asking her to marry him (some have conjectured that Laura was pregnant). On May 25, 1866, Laura left her parents’ house on horseback to meet Tom for their promised elopement, and she was never again seen alive. Later, Ann directed authorities to Laura’s grave, and Tom, who had fled across the Tennessee border, fell under suspicion.

He was working under an assumed name for a man named James Grayson, but the latter realized the young man’s identity and turned Tom in to deputies from Wilkes County. Tom was charged with murder, and his subsequent trial, held in Statesville, North Carolina, received widespread attention for the allegations of tawdry and violent behavior. Tom was convicted, and his appeal was rejected; on May 1, 1868, he was hanged. The murder, the trial, and the hanging garnered extensive coverage in local, state, and national newspapers.

And then there’s the ballad “Tom Dula” (or “Tom Dooley”), which grew out of the public fascination with the crime and the punishment. (The ballad we know today, probably a blending of two ballads that once circulated locally in Wilkes County, should not be confused with a poem titled “The Murder of Laura Foster” written in 1868 by poet Thomas C. Land shortly after Dula’s hanging.) First recorded in 1929 by G. B. Grayson and Henry Whitter, “Tom Dula”/”Tom Dooley” has been more closely associated with Frank Proffitt Sr., who performed the ballad for folklorist Frank Warner in 1938. A performer himself, Warner learned Proffitt’s version and recorded his own rendition. Folklorist Alan Lomax heard Warner’s version and soon published his own arrangement of the ballad in the book Folk Song U.S.A., which was ultimately the song source for the hit version by The Kingston Trio. This group—one of the most popular acts during the urban folk music revival—took the ballad to the top of the Billboard charts in 1958 as “Tom Dooley,” and it is that version that has received most of the attention (and profit) over the years.

The unique arrangement of “Tom Dula” heard on Big Bend Killing is a collaboration of two nationally popular acts based in western North Carolina. Singer Laura Boosinger (who resides in the Asheville area) and band The Kruger Brothers (who live and maintain a studio in Tom Dula’s former stomping ground of Wilkes County) share the all-too-rare ability to modernize older material while honoring tradition.

Hang your head, Tom Dula, Hang your head and cry; Killed little Laura Foster, Now you’re bound to die.

“For at this time tomorrow Where do you reckon I’ll be?

If it wasn’t for Sheriff Grayson, I’d have been in Tennessee.”

You met her on the hillside To make her your wife; You met her on the hillside, There you took her life.

So hang your head, Tom Dula, Hang your head and cry; You killed little Laura Foster, Now you’re bound to die.

Well, you met her on the hillside Where you begged to be excused; You met her on the hillside, Hid her clothes and shoes.

“It’s trouble, it’s trouble, And tomorrow I’ll be dead; I never even harmed a hair Of poor little Laurie’s head.

Hang your head, Tom Dula, Hang your head and cry; Killed little Laura Foster, Now you’re bound to die.

“For at this time tomorrow Where do you reckon I’ll be?

Down in yonder holler Hanging from the white oak tree.”

You met her on the mountain To make her your wife; You met her on the mountain, Stabbed her with your knife.

So hang your head, Tom Dula, Hang your head and cry; Killed little Laura Foster, Now you’re bound to die.

Then you dug her grave four feet long, Dug it three feet deep; Threw the cold clay over her, Stomped it with your feet.

“You can take down my old banjo, Play it all you please, For at this time tomorrow, boys, It’ll be of no use to me.”

Hang your head, Tom Dula, Hang your head and cry; Killed little Laura Foster, And now you’re bound to die.

Hang your head, Tom Dula, Hang your head and cry; Killed little Laura Foster, Now you’re bound to die.

“It’s trouble, it’s trouble A-rollin’ o’er my breast; The way that I’m a-livin’, boys, I ain’t a-gonna see no rest.

9. H I R A M H U B B A R D — C OR B I N H AY S L E T T

Corbin Hayslett: vocals, banjo Recorded: November 2016 at the ETSU Recording Lab in Johnson City, Tennessee; tracking and mixing engineer: Ben Bateson Laws A20; Roud 2208 The best-known recording of this Civil War ballad was by Jean Ritchie, whose passionate if rather short version appeared on a 1963 live album on the Folkways label. “Hiram Hubbard,” also known as “Hiram Hubbert,” was not infrequently heard in New York City’s Greenwich Village folk clubs during the early 1960s, sung by Doc Watson (who accompanied the ballad on banjo rather than on his trademark guitar) and by a young Bob Dylan. These various versions—depicting a man executed after being falsely accused of being a spy in a war-torn border state—were evocative, but the full narrative was rarely sung. Corbin Hayslett, a rising star in old-time music, discovered some neglected verses to “Hiram Hubbard,” which can be heard on this version.

Hayslett relates that he modeled his banjo accompaniment on the feel if not the style of Dock Boggs’ distinctive banjo playing.

Come all you friends and neighbors, a story I will tell, Here’s a sad and mournful story that unto to you I’ll tell, Concerning poor Hiram Hubbard and about the way he fell.

When they come to the Cumberland River ‘twas there they had his trial, They came to the Cumberland River ‘twas there they held his trial; He bade this world farewell and ascended his last mile.

He’s traveling through this country bound down in sorrow and distress, He traveled through this country in sorrow and distress; The rebels overhauled him, in chains they bound him fast.

They drove him up the holler, they drove him up the hill, They drove him up the holler, they led him up the hill, At the place of execution he begged to write his will.

They drove him on before them ‘til the road was dripped in blood, They drove him on before them ‘til the path was stained in blood; They testified agin’ him, and they dragged him through the mud.

Farewell my dear companions, likewise my little child, Farewell my dear companions, likewise my little child, I leave this letter with you, for I’m a-gwine to die.

They robbed him of his money, then the shoes they did pull off, They robbed him of his money, the shoes they pulled off; They put eleven balls through him, and his body dropped away.

Hiram Hubbard were not guilty, I’ve heard great many say, Hiram Hubbard were not guilty, I’ve heard great many say, He was not in this country, he was ninety miles away.

10. B IG B E N D K I L L I N G —A L IC E G E R R A R D

Alice Gerrard: vocals, fiddle Recorded: April 2015 at the ETSU Recording Lab in Johnson City, Tennessee; tracking and mixing engineer: Ben Bateson Until recently “Big Bend Killing” was one of the least familiar of Appalachian ballads. Associated with a single community within the Great Smoky Mountains, “Big Bend Killing” was recorded just once—a documentary field recording made by Joseph S. Hall in 1939—shortly before the ballad disappeared from oral tradition (the people who once lived in the Smokies—including the woman who sang the ballad for Hall, Margaret Packett—got displaced from their ancestral homes and farms during the creation of Great Smoky Mountains National Park). The original recording of “Big Bend Killing” was archived, unheard for decades, until finally being released to the public in 2010—along with many other field recordings of Smokies music from 1939—on the Grammy Award-nominated album Old-Time Smoky Mountain Music. When invited to participate in this album of contemporary musicians celebrating Appalachian balladry, Alice Gerrard chose to record “Big Bend Killing” because she was intrigued by this mysterious ballad.

Upon Pigeon River down at the Big Bend, I suppose you’ve all heard of the women and men; The ladies conversed, oh it was a sight, They’d taken Mims White and Scott Brown’s life.

Upon the mountain not far away When Oma and Vester were to pass time away, Was there at the rest-log just sitting around, Up came Mims White and Oma’s husband Scott Brown.

Oma ran off around the hill To Vernal and Frank at the moonshine still; She went to them in an awful fright, Saying, “I am afraid they’ll take Vester’s life.”

They just worked on ‘til they got that run out, Said, “We will go up and see what’s about”; They went up the mountain in nearly a run, They was teethed to a large cavalry gun.

Far-off sons are going to hear the news, Scott and Mim’s mended their socks and their shoes; They put them on quickly with nothing to say, Ending of sorrow was soon laid away.

1 1 . OL D JOE DAW S ON —B OB B Y M c M I L L ON

Bobby McMillon: vocals Recorded: July 2015 at the ETSU Recording Lab in Johnson City, Tennessee; tracking and mixing engineer: Ben Bateson Historically sung in one Great Smoky Mountains locale (specifically, in Cocke County, Tennessee), “Old Joe Dawson” was a favorite ballad among Bobby McMillon’s family members on his father’s side. McMillon learned the ballad from his relative Mae Phillips, who married the grandson of “Sandy” John Sutton, the man who in April 1899 shot and killed Joe Dawson. According to McMillon, “Sandy John was hidden in the woods the night Dawson and a revenue agent came around the mountain. They had oil lamps in their hands to see by and approached the still supposedly to break it up. But instead of that, they went to dividing the liquor, and Sutton cracked down on Dawson. Sutton was never arrested for the shooting, but friends of Joe Dawson in Newport [Tennessee] got an ordinance passed making it illegal to sing the song in the town limits.” This is the first time that “Old Joe Dawson” has ever been recorded.

Among the most recognized traditional ballad singers in modern-day Appalachia, McMillon is bestknown for sharing with the world the ballad “The Legend Of Frankie Silver,” which he learned from his western North Carolina relatives on his mother’s side of the family. McMillon’s performance of “The Legend Of Frankie Silver” was featured in filmmaker Tom Davenport’s documentary about the ballad.

Old Joe Dawson, the bully of the town, oh Lordy Lord, Old Joe Dawson, the bully of the town, Rode through the Haywood and got shot down, Oh Lordy me.

He rode through the Haywood a-robbing stills, oh Lord, He rode through the Haywood a-robbing stills, He got shot down in Tobe Phillips’ fields, Oh Lordy me.

Shot him in his neck and he fell on his side, oh Lordy Lord, Shot him in his neck and he fell on his side, And that was the death Joe Dawson died, Oh Lordy me.

He come a-riding on his horse’s back, oh Lord, He come a-riding on his horse’s back, Charlie Roberts brought him back in a forty dollar hack, Oh Lordy me.

Here come his wife with a child on her arm, oh Lordy Lord, Here come his wife with a child on her arm,

“They killed my man and it’ll kill me,” Oh Lordy me.

“I dreamed last night and the night before, oh Lord, I dreamed last night and the night before, Death walked by my open door, Oh Lordy me.

“If ’n I live and I don’t get shot, oh Lordy Lord, If ’n I live and I don’t get shot, I’ll make my liquor from a coffee pot,” Oh Lordy me.

1 2 . O T T O WO OD T H E B A N D I T—DAV I D HOLT

David Holt: vocals, steel guitar Josh Goforth: harmony vocals, mandolin, fiddle, guitar Chris Rosser: bass Recorded: February 2016 at Hollow Reed Studio in Asheville, North Carolina; tracking and mixing engineer: Chris Rosser Roud 11543 Otto Wood was a notorious outlaw from western North Carolina whose badman behavior fascinated the media during the 1920s and into the Great Depression. Born in 1894 in Wilkes County, North Carolina, Wood from an early age had numerous scrapes with the law, and he was jailed in several states. He, however, proved adept at escaping from prison. In 1923, Wood killed a Greensboro, North Carolina, pawnbroker, and was sentenced to solitary confinement. While incarcerated, Wood wrote his autobiography Life History of Otto Wood, Inmate, State Prison. Published in 1926, the book galvanized public sympathy for this convicted murderer, who presented himself as a reformed man. The prison warden removed Wood from solitary confinement at Raleigh’s Central Prison, whereupon on July 10, 1930, he made his final escape. His notoriety led to his demise.

On December 31, 1930, police in Salisbury, North Carolina, spied Wood on the street (he was easy to identify because he was missing one arm), and an altercation ensued. The escaped outlaw attempted to overpower the

officers, but the Salisbury Chief of Police shot Wood in the head at close range. The ballad that told his story, “Otto Wood The Bandit,” was first recorded in 1931 by The Carolina Buddies, a group featuring singer Walter “Kid” Smith (often credited with composing the ballad), fiddler Odell Smith, and guitarist Norman Woodlieff.

Entering the old-time music repertoire, the ballad would eventually be recorded by Doc Watson and Norman Blake, and now, for this album, by the multi-talented, Grammy Award-winning David Holt.

Step up, buddies, now I’ll sing you a song, I’ll sing it to you right, but you might hear it wrong, It’s all about a man named Otto Wood, Well, I can’t tell it all, but I wish I could.

Otto, why didn’t you run?

Otto’s done dead and gone.

Otto, why didn’t you run When the sheriff pulled out that 44 gun?

He stepped in a pawn shop a rainy day, He had a quarrel with the clerk, they say; He pulled out his gun and struck a fatal blow, And this is the way the story goes.

Well, he rambled out west and he rambled all around, ‘Til he met two sheriffs in a southern town; They said “Otto, you better step to the way, We’ve been expecting you every day.”

Otto, why didn’t you run?

Otto’s done dead and gone.

Otto, why didn’t you run When the sheriff pulled out that 44 gun?

Well, he pulled out his gun and then he said, “You make a crooked move and you both fall dead.

You better crank up your car and take me out of town”; And a few minutes later, he was graveyard bound.

They put him in the pen, but it done no good, It wouldn’t hold the man they called Otto Wood; Wasn’t very long ‘til he stepped outside, Pulled a gun on the guards and take them for a ride.

Now, he was a man they could not run, He always toted a 44 gun.

Well, he loved the women and he hated the law, And he just wouldn’t take nobody’s jaw.

Otto, why didn’t you run?

Otto’s done dead and gone.

Otto, why didn’t you run When the sheriff pulled out that 44 gun?

Otto, why didn’t you run When the sheriff pulled out that 44 gun?

1 3 . JOH N H E N R Y—A M Y T H Y S T K I A H , W I T H R OY A N D R A D E

Amythyst Kiah: vocals, guitar Roy Andrade: banjo Recorded: June 2016 at the ETSU Recording Lab in Johnson City, Tennessee; tracking and mixing engineer: Ben Bateson Laws I1; Roud 790 This traditional blues-ballad commemorates the seemingly superhuman feat of African American folk hero John Henry, a sledgehammer-wielding railroad laborer who laughed in the face of Industrialization and proved that man can be stronger than machine. According to the ballad, John Henry and other laborers were blasting a railroad tunnel through a mountain when the railroad company brought to the site a new steam-powered drilling machine, which threatened their jobs and their dignity. To the company boss, John Henry proposed a contest to determine the superior worker: man or machine. John Henry won the contest but died from exhaustion after his victory.

Probably composed in the 1870s or 1880s, “John Henry” was initially popular among African Americans, who regarded the mythic laborer as a symbol of strength in the midst of adversity. The figure of John Henry may have been infused with ritual power adapted from West African folklore, as the character in that blues-ballad bears resemblance to Ogun, a Yoruban deity associated with iron and steel and charged with the task of road-building into new territory. In the early twentieth century, many working-class Southern whites began singing “John Henry” and viewing the folk hero as iconic, empowering them, as economically marginal people, to resist the dehumanizing forces of industrialization.

In separate studies published during the late 1920s and early 1930s, West Virginia-based scholars Guy Johnson and Louis Chappell asserted that the blues-ballad had been based on an actual incident involving a real person whose exact identity the two scholars could not determine. Local traditions variously maintained that John Henry the person was born in Alabama, Georgia, North Carolina, or Virginia. Johnson and Chappell speculated that the incident described in “John Henry” occurred between 1870 and 1872 during construction of the Chesapeake & Ohio Railroad’s Big Bend Tunnel in southeastern West Virginia.

In 2002, Johnson’s and Chappell’s research was challenged by scholar John Garst, who argued that the situating of John Henry in West Virginia was not supported by existing documentation. Garst pointed out that Johnson and Chappell had received letters from railroad workers who claimed to have witnessed John Henry’s feat in 1887 along railroad tracks owned by the Columbus & Western Railway Company between Oak and Coosa Mountains near Leeds, Alabama (that railroad line was later incorporated into the Norfolk Southern Railroad). According to Garst, the folk hero was likely a real person named John Henry Dabner, born circa

1850 as a slave in Mississippi; Dabner lived in northern Alabama during the 1880s and worked on railroad tunnel-construction in that vicinity. In 2006, historian Scott Nelson offered an alternate story, speculating that John Henry might have been John William Henry, a prisoner in the Virginia State Penitentiary who was leased to the Chesapeake & Ohio Railroad to work at Lewis Tunnel, Virginia.

By the twentieth century, “John Henry” was a favorite of countless American musicians, including black musicians like Paul Robeson, Leadbelly, Josh White, Odetta, and Harry Belafonte, and white musicians like Fiddlin’ John Carson, Woody Guthrie, Pete Seeger, Merle Travis, and Johnny Cash. “John Henry” inspired interpretations by legendary composers, ranging from W. C. Handy’s 1922 arrangement “John Henry Blues” and Aaron Copland’s 1940 arrangement of the blues-ballad for chamber orchestra.

In the version of the blues-ballad included on this album, Amythyst Kiah takes poetic license in stating that John Henry was a Tennessee man. It is understandable: she is from Tennessee, and what state wouldn’t want to claim this legendary hero?

John Henry was a little bitty boy, Sittin’ on his mama’s knee: “The Big Bend Tunnel and that C & O Rail’s Gonna be the death of me, oh Lord, Gonna be the death of me.”

John Henry went into that tunnel, He went into that tunnel to drive; Mountain was so tall and John Henry was so small, Laid down his hammer and he cried, Lord, Lord, He laid down his hammer and cried.

John Henry had a little woman, Name was Polly Ann; John was sick and he could not work, Polly Ann drove steel like a man, oh Lord, Polly Ann drove steel like a man.

John Henry told his captain, “You know I’m a Tennessee man; ‘Fore I let that steam-drill beat me down I’ll die with this hammer in my hand, oh Lord, Die with this hammer in my hand.”

John Henry stayed in that tunnel, Stayed there all his life; Mountain was so tall and John Henry was so small, He laid down his hammer and he died, Lord, Lord, He laid down his hammer and died, He laid down his hammer and he died, Lord, Lord, He laid down his hammer and died.

14 . W R E C K OF T H E OL D 9 7— C OR B I N H AY S L E T T

Corbin Hayslett: vocals, guitar Roy Andrade: guitar Recorded: November 2016 at the ETSU Recording Lab in Johnson City, Tennessee; tracking and mixing engineer: Ben Bateson Laws G2; Roud 777 One of the better-known twentieth century American ballads, “Wreck Of The Old 97” set lyrics that vividly depicted a Virginia train wreck to a familiar mid-nineteenth-century melody, Henry Clay Work’s “The Ship That Never Returned.” The wreck, occurring on September 27, 1903, involved the Southern Railway mail train nicknamed the “Fast Mail.” On that day, engineer Joseph A. (“Steve”) Broady, his locomotive No. 1102 and four cars carrying the mail, fell behind schedule, and Broady—possibly ordered by the railroad company—attempted to make up for lost time by travelling faster than normal during a scheduled run from Monroe, Virginia, to Spencer, North Carolina. At the end of a three-mile downhill grade just outside Danville, Virginia, Broady tried to slow the train as it approached the curved Stillhouse Trestle, but the train’s brakes failed.

Broady then tried in vain to stop the train by locking the wheels; the train derailed, plunging off the bridge. Of the eighteen people on the crew, eleven died. Photographs representing the scene of the disaster were published in newspapers nationally.

The first recorded version of the ballad, from December 1923, was by pioneering country musician Henry Whitter, whose version was titled “Wreck On The Southern Old 97.” The next year, light-opera singer Vernon Dalhart’s version of the ballad became the first million-selling record in country music history. The popularity of “Wreck Of The Old 97” was met with a copyright-related lawsuit. The hit recording by Dalhart incorporated Whitter’s revised, shortened version, and not the original longer ballad version usually attributed to Fred Jackson Lewey and Charles Noell. Yet, in 1924, David Graves George claimed ownership, and in 1933 a court was persuaded to declare George the composer of the ballad and the rightful recipient for past royalties. RCA Victor (the company that released Dalhart’s record) appealed three times, and the third time the U.S. Supreme Court overruled the lower courts and granted ownership of the ballad to RCA Victor. Regardless of the authorship controversy, the ballad has remained popular, having been recorded by diverse artists ranging from Woody Guthrie, Johnny Cash, Flatt and Scruggs, and Lonnie Donegan, to Hank Williams III. The singer of this version of “Wreck Of The Old 97,” Corbin Hayslett, is a native of the section of Virginia in which the 1903 incident occurred. Having sought out the original, pre-Henry Whitter version of “Wreck Of The Old 97,” Hayslett here offers what is likely the most complete text of the ballad ever recorded.

Come all you fellers and gather around me, A sad, sad story to hear, All about the wreck of the Old 97 And the death of its brave engineer.

At Washington station on that bright Sunday morning At the rising of the sun, He kissed his dear wife and he said, “Children, bless you, Your father must go on his run.”

Steve Broady was that engineer, And a brave bold man was he, But a many poor boy has lost his life To that Southern Railway company.

Last Sunday morning as I stood on the mountain Watching the smoke from below, It was Old 97 leaving Washington Station Like an arrow shot from a bow.

wide open, Then we’ll watch Old 97 fly.”

When they read him the board he threw back the throttle, And although his airbrakes was bad All the people said when he passed Franklin Junction You couldn’t see the man in the cab.

He told his brakeman, he told his fireman, “Never mind the whistle nor the bell, I’ll pull 97 into Danville on time Or I’ll run her right square down into hell.”

It’s a winding road from Lynchburg to Danville And from Lima it’s a three-mile grade; At the stillhouse trestle his airbrakes did fail him, And just look what a jump he made.

Number 97 was the fastest mail train That the South had ever seen, But she run so fast on that cloudless morning That the death toll numbered 14.

Down that final grade making ninety miles an hour, His whistle broke into a scream; He was found in the wreck with his hand on the throttle Scalded to death by the steam.

At Monroe, Virginia, they give him his order, Saying, “Steve, you’re an hour behind; You must put her into Spencer on time, No matter it be rain or shine.”

Then the news come slipping o’er the telegram wires, And this is how it read: It said that brave railroad crew that run 97 Is lying in north Danville dead.

He climbed in the engine and he says to the trainmen, “Boys, it’s do or die; I’ll reverse the lever, throw the throttle

Did she ever pull in? No, she never pulled in, And at 1:45 she was due.

But for hours and hours the dispatch stood waiting For that fast mail that never came through.

1 5 . E X P L O S ION I N T H E FA I R MO U N T M I N E S —JOH N L I L LY

John Lilly: vocals, guitar Recorded: May 2016 at the ETSU Recording Lab in Johnson City, Tennessee; tracking engineer: Will Macmorran; and mixing engineer: Ben Bateson Unlike many of the ballads on this album, which were created by anonymous balladeers, this story-song can be traced to a specific composer: Alfred Reed, who was nicknamed (by his record company) “Blind Alfred Reed.” Blind from birth, Reed supported his family through singing self-penned songs and ballads on the streets of small towns in southern West Virginia. Then in July 1927 he travelled to Bristol, Tennessee, where he made his first recordings at the now-legendary location sessions held there by Victor Records (those same sessions also yielded the first recordings by The Carter Family and Jimmie Rodgers). After recording at Bristol, Reed, signed to a contract with Victor, travelled in December 1927 to Camden, New Jersey, for a follow-up session, where he recorded, to the accompaniment of his own fiddle and his son Arville’s guitar, “Explosion In The Fairmount Mines.” Alfred Reed had based his composition on an earlier coal mining song, “The Dream Of The Miner’s Child,” which had commemorated the December 1907 mining disaster at Monongah, near Fairmont, West Virginia. (The record company spelled “Fairmont” as “Fairmount” on the record label, and the misspelling stuck.) In Reed’s song, a young girl, by telling her father of her dream of a mining disaster and thus detaining him at home, saves him from certain death when an actual accident happens at the mine. John Lilly, a talented performer of old-time songs and a skilled songwriter in his own right, has been a leading interpreter of Reed’s music for many years.

One morning a miner was just about to leave, Heard his dear child screaming in fright; He went to her bed, and she looked up and said, “Oh, I’ve had such a dream, turn on the light.

“I dreamed that the mines were all burning in fire, Every man was fighting for his life; Some had companions, and they prayed out loud, ‘Oh dear God, please protect my darling wife.’

“Daddy, please don’t go down in the hole today, For my dreams do come true sometimes, you know; Oh, don’t leave me, Daddy, please don’t go away; Something bad sure will happen, please don’t go.”

And the miner bent down, kissed her dear sweet face, Then he turned to travel on his way, But she threw her small arms around her daddy’s neck; Kissed her again, he heard her say,

“Daddy, please don’t go down in the hole today, For my dreams do come true sometimes, you know; Oh, don’t leave me, Daddy, please don’t go away; Something bad sure will happen, please don’t go.”

And the miner was touched, said he would not go, “Hush, my child, I’m with you, do not cry.”

Then came an explosion and two-hundred men Were shut down in the mines and left to die.

“Daddy, please don’t go down in the hole today, For my dreams do come true sometimes, you know; Oh, don’t leave me, Daddy, please don’t go away; Something bad sure will happen, please don’t go.

Oh don’t leave me, Daddy, please don’t go away; Something bad sure will happen, please don’t go.”

16 . W E S T V I RG I N I A M I N E D I S A S T E R—E L I Z A B E T H L a P R E L L E

Elizabeth LaPrelle: vocals Recorded: June 2015 at Bluefield State College, Virginia [part of Mountains of Music Homecoming 2015]; tracking and mixing engineer: Josh Pickett Courtesy of Jack Hinshelwood Jean Ritchie composed this contemporary ballad not long after reading about the Hominy Falls mine disaster in Nicholas County, West Virginia, which occurred on May 6, 1968 (25 miners were trapped in an underground mine shaft after the miners accidently drilled into a water-filled chamber; eventually 21 were rescued, while four drowned). Realizing that few songs or ballads dealt with the impact of coal mine disasters on the women and children living above ground in the coal towns, Ritchie wrote such a song and recorded it for her 1971 album Clear Waters Remembered. “West Virginia Mine Disaster” was subsequently performed and recorded by several musicians, including Kathy Mattea. Elizabeth LaPrelle honors Ritchie’s original by singing the ballad a cappella and with a depth of seriousness. One of the leading younger interpreters of traditional Appalachian balladry, the Rural Retreat, Virginia-native LaPrelle performs and records as a solo act and as half of the award-winning Anna and Elizabeth, a duo with Anna Roberts-Gevalt.

Oh say, did you see him, it was early this morning, He passed by your houses on his way to the coal;

He was tall, he was slender, and his dark eyes so tender, His occupation was mining, West Virginia his home.

It was just before noon, I was feeding the children; Ben Moseley came running to bring us the news: Number eight was all flooded, many men were in danger, And we don’t know their number, but we fear they’re all doomed.

I picked up the baby, and I left all the others To comfort each other and to pray for their own; There is Tommy, fourteen, and there’s John not much younger, And their time soon is coming to go down the dark hole.

Oh, what will I say to his poor little children?

And what will I tell his old mother at home?

And what will I say to my heart that’s clear broken, To my heart that’s clear broken if my darling is gone?

If I had the money to do more than just feed them, I’d give them good learning, the best could be found, So when they growed up they’d be checkers and weighers And not spend their whole life in the dark underground.

Oh say, did you see him, it was early this morning, He passed by your houses on his way to the coal; He was tall, he was slender, and his dark eyes so tender, His occupation was mining, West Virginia his home.

17. T H E C YC L ON E OF R Y E C O V E —DA L E J E T T A N D HEL LO ST R A NGER

Dale Jett: lead vocals, guitar Teresa Jett: harmony vocals, bass Oscar Harris: harmony vocals, autoharp Recorded: June 2015 at the ETSU Recording Lab in Johnson City, Tennessee; tracking and mixing engineer: Ben Bateson Roud 7116 On May 2, 1929, during a wave of tornados that struck parts of the eastern U.S., a cyclone struck the Rye Cove Consolidated School in rural Scott County, Virginia, decimating the building while class was in session; 13 people died (elementary school and high school students as well as one teacher), and more than 50 others were injured. (One newspaper account put the number of children killed at 19.) A. P. Carter, who was the chief

songwriter/arranger for The Carter Family and who lived not far from Rye Cove, helped in the relief effort.

Carter soon memorialized the tragedy by composing this story-song, which The Carter Family recorded in November 1929 for Victor Records. In the new recording of “The Cyclone Of Rye Cove” on Big Bend Killing, Dale Jett, the grandson of A. P. Carter and of Carter Family lead vocalist Sara Carter, conjured in his vocals the combination of sorrow and empathy heard in the original Carter Family recording, with harmonizing and instrumental support from Oscar Harris and Teresa Jett (the other players in the band that Dale Jett fronts, Hello Stranger).

Listen today and a story I’ll tell In sadness and tear-dimmed eyes, A dreadful cyclone that came our way Blew our schoolhouse away.

Rye Cove (Rye Cove), Rye Cove (Rye Cove), Rye Cove (Rye Cove), Rye Cove (Rye Cove), Place of my childhood and home Where in life’s early morning, Lord, I once loved to roam And now so silent and alone.

The cyclone appeared, it darkened the air, The lightning flashed over the sky; Children all cried, “Don’t you take us away; Spare us to go back home.”

Rye Cove (Rye Cove), Rye Cove (Rye Cove), Rye Cove (Rye Cove), Rye Cove (Rye Cove), Place of my childhood and home Where in life’s early morning, Lord, I once loved to roam And now so silent and alone.

Mothers so dear and fathers the same Came to that horrible scene; Searching and crying, they found their own child Dying on a pillow of stone.

Rye Cove (Rye Cove), Rye Cove (Rye Cove), Rye Cove (Rye Cove), Rye Cove (Rye Cove), Place of my childhood and home Where in life’s early morning, Lord, I once loved to roam And now so silent and alone.

Give us a home far beyond the blue sky, Storms and cyclones are unknown; At the end of life’s strand we’re gonna meet at God’s hand Children in a heavenly home.

Rye Cove (Rye Cove), Rye Cove (Rye Cove), Rye Cove (Rye Cove), Rye Cove (Rye Cove), Place of my childhood and home Where in life’s early morning, Lord, I once loved to roam And now so silent and alone, And now so silent and alone.

1 8 . I ’ V E A LWAY S B E E N A R A M B L E R—JOH N L I L LY

John Lilly: vocals, guitar Recorded: October 2015 at the ETSU Recording Lab in Johnson City, Tennessee; tracking and mixing engineer: Ben Bateson Laws P1A/B; Roud 262 The traditional story-song “I’ve Always Been A Rambler” was originally disseminated across the British Isles and in the U.S. by means of broadside publication; it is traceable to another ballad, “The Girl I Left Behind,” published before 1842. When compared to most Child ballads and some “native American ballads,” which tended to tell complex stories involving believable characters, “I’ve Always Been A Rambler” is an underdeveloped narrative.

All the ballad reveals about the unnamed rambler’s motivation for journeying across the mountains—from West Virginia through Marion, Virginia, and Johnson City, Tennessee, to points beyond—is that he travels out of a compulsion both romanticized and wistful. This performance by the West Virginia-based singer-songwriter John Lilly was inspired by Grayson & Whitter’s 1928 recording.

I’ve always been a rambler, my trouble’s been quite hard; Always loved the women, drank whiskey and played cards.

My parents treated me kindly as they had no boy but me; My mind was bent on rambling, at home I couldn’t agree.

So I asked her if it made any difference if I crossed over the plains; Said, “It’ll make no difference,” so I returned again; Said that she’d prove true to me until I proved unkind, So we shook hands and I parted with the one I left behind.

There was a wealthy farmer lived in the country fine, Had a handsome daughter on who I cast an eye; She was so tall and handsome, so pretty and so fair, There’s not one girl in this wide world with her I would compare.

So I left old West Virginia, to Marion I did go, On to Johnson City, gonna see the wide world o’er, Where money and work was plentiful and the girls they treated me kind, But the only object of my heart was the one I left behind.

I rambled out one evening down by the public square, Mail had just arriven and the postman met me there, Handed me a letter which caused me to understand My girl in West Virginia had married another man.

So I read a few lines further and found that it was true; My heart filled with trouble, oh what else could I do, My heart was filled with trouble, with trouble on my mind, I’m going to drink and gamble for the one I left behind.

1 9. T H E PA R T I NG G L A S S —R O S A N N E C A S H

Rosanne Cash: vocals John Leventhal: guitar, mandolin, harmonium Recorded: April 2016 at Studio 22, New York City Tracking and mixing engineer and session producer: John Leventhal Thanks to Danny Kahn Rosanne Cash appears courtesy of Blue Note Records/Capitol Music Group Roud 3004 The perfect closing song for this journey through the ballad legacy of Appalachia (a journey that of course began in the British Isles), “The Parting Glass” brings it all back home. CD #1 featured ballads associated with the British Isles, and now CD #2, after a foray through New World balladry, concludes with this Old World song of departure, which in this setting constitutes a kind of return.

The full lyric of “The Parting Glass” first appeared in a broadside in Scotland in the 1770s, and within a decade those words were wedded to the Scottish fiddle tune “The Peacock.” A widely disseminated parting song across Scotland and Ireland (second in popularity only to Robert Burns’ “Auld Lang Syne”), “The Parting Glass” became familiar to many Americans during the urban folk music revival of the late 1950s and early 1960s, primarily because of the Irish group Clancy Brothers and Tommy Makem, who regularly sang the song in folk clubs across the U.S. One musician who heard “The Parting Glass” at this time was Bob Dylan, who reworked it into a 1964 song, “Restless Farewell.” In recent years, many folk and pop musicians—particularly in the UK and Ireland—have recorded “The Parting Glass.” Rosanne Cash recorded her own version especially for this album, thus honoring the emigrants—some of whom were her own ancestors—who braved the difficult transatlantic passage from the British Isles to settle in this New World. Cash’s version of “The Parting Glass” is a kind of toast to a people and a culture that infused the places where many ended up—including Appalachia— with songs and stories that were and are eternally meaningful and beautiful.

Of all the money ere I had, I spent it in good company, And all the harm I’ve ever done, alas, it was to none but me, And all I’ve done for want of wit, to memory now I can’t recall, So fill to me the parting glass: goodnight and joy be with you all.

If I had money enough to spend and leisure time to sit awhile, There is a fair maid in this town that surely has my heart beguiled; Her rosy cheeks and ruby lips, I own, she has my heart enthralled, So fill to me the parting glass: goodnight and joy be with you all.

Of all the comrades ere I had, they are sorry for my going away, And all the sweethearts ere I had, they wish me one more day to stay, But since it fell unto my lot that I should rise and you should not, I gently rise and softly call, “Goodnight and joy be with you all, Goodnight and joy be with you all.”

A L BUM CREDI TS

producer: Ted Olson associate producer: Roy Andrade sound engineer: Ben Bateson mastering engineer: John Fleenor/Appalachian Media Works essay and track-by-track notes: Ted Olson lyric transcriptions: Ted Olson packaging and illustrations: Michael Mullan production & booklet design: Karen Key project promotion: Lisa Duff executive producer: Steve Kemp/Great Smoky Mountains Association This album is dedicated to the memory of Jean Ritchie, for her inspiring work and enduring legacy in documenting, promoting, and recording Appalachian ballads.

This album’s producers and engineers would like to thank all the musicians who participated in this project for keeping Appalachian balladry alive in the twenty-first century.

Š 2017 Great Smoky Mountains Association Great Smoky Mountains Association is a nonprofit organization which supports the educational, historical, and scientific efforts of Great Smoky Mountains National Park. All purchases benefit the park.

P.O. Box 130 Gatlinburg, TN 37738 www.SmokiesInformation.org

BIG BEND KILLING:

T H E A P PA L A C H I A N B A L L A D T R A D I T I O N CD 1:

1 . B A R B R Y A L L E N (CAROL ELIZABETH JONES) 4 : 5 1 2 . T H O M A S T H E R H Y M E R (ARCHIE FISHER) 8 : 2 1 3 . TA M L I N (ARCHIE FISHER) 1 0 : 4 9 4 . L O R D T H O M A S A N D FA I R E L L E N D E R (SHEILA KAY ADAMS) 7: 4 0 5 . M AT H Y G R O V E S (DONNA RAY NORTON) 6 : 3 4 6 . E G G S A N D M A R R O W B O N E (JODY STECHER AND KATE BRISLIN) 4 : 3 5 7. T H E S H E F F I E L D A P P R E N T I C E (MARTIN SIMPSON, ANDY CUTTING, AND NANCY KERR) 4 : 0 2 8 . W I L L I E TAY L O R (MARTIN SIMPSON, ANDY CUTTING, AND NANCY KERR) 4 : 2 0 9 . T H E B O L D L I E U T E N A N T (ALICE GERRARD) 4 : 5 8 1 0 . L O R D B AT E M A N (CAROL ELIZABETH JONES) 4 : 4 9 1 1 . T H E FA R M E R ’ S C U R S T W I F E (DONNA RAY NORTON) 3 : 5 1 1 2 . M R . F R O G W E N T A - C O U R T I N ’ (BILL AND THE BELLES) 3 : 2 4 1 3 . B A R B A R A A L L E N (ROSANNE CASH) 3 : 2 9

CD 2:

1 . W I L D H O G I N T H E W O O D S (ALICE GERRARD) 3 : 3 7 2 . T H E B AT T L E S O N G O F T H E G R E AT K A N AW H A (TREVOR McKENZIE) 3 : 3 4 3 . D O L E F U L WA R N I N G (BRUCE GREENE AND LOY McWHIRTER) 2 : 5 1 4 . O M I E W I S E (HASEE CIACCIO, WITH KALIA YEAGLE) 3 : 2 2 5 . B A N K S O F T H E O H I O (DOYLE LAWSON) 2 : 4 9 6 . K N OX V I L L E G I R L (KRISTI HEDTKE AND CORBIN HAYSLETT) 5 : 3 6 7. P R E T T Y P O L LY (AMYTHYST KIAH, WITH ROY ANDRADE) 4 : 3 9 8 . T O M D U L A (LAURA BOOSINGER, WITH THE KRUGER BROTHERS) 5 : 1 5 9 . H I R A M H U B B A R D (CORBIN HAYSLETT) 5 : 4 2 1 0 . B I G B E N D K I L L I N G (ALICE GERRARD) 3 : 2 3 1 1 . O L D J O E D AW S O N (BOBBY McMILLON) 1 : 4 6 1 2 . O T T O W O O D T H E B A N D I T (DAVID HOLT) 3 : 0 2 1 3 . J O H N H E N R Y (AMYTHYST KIAH, WITH ROY ANDRADE) 2 : 4 2 14 . W R E C K O F T H E O L D 9 7 (CORBIN HAYSLETT) 4 : 5 3 1 5 . E X P L O S I O N I N T H E FA I R M O U N T M I N E S (JOHN LILLY) 3 : 0 3 1 6 . W E S T V I R G I N I A M I N E D I S A S T E R (ELIZABETH LaPRELLE) 3 : 3 8 17. T H E C Y C L O N E O F R Y E C O V E (DALE JETT AND HELLO STRANGER) 4 : 47 1 8 . I ’ V E A LWAY S B E E N A R A M B L E R (JOHN LILLY) 3 : 3 5 1 9 . T H E PA R T I N G G L A S S (ROSANNE CASH) 2 : 3 7