Barbara Allen- Arwood (NC) 1983 Yates B
[From: Far in the Mountains: Volumes 3 & 4 of Mike Yates' 1979-83 Appalachian Collection. His notes precede and follow.
R. Matteson 2015]
Garrett and Norah Arwood notes by Yates:
I first came across Garrett's name as a fiddle maker in volume 4 of the Foxfire books (Anchor Press, New York. 1977. pp.116-122). Garrett and Norah, who was a fine quilt maker, lived at the head of Pigeon Roost in Mitchell County, NC, far back in the mountains. It had rained heavily for most of the day when I recorded them, but as in all good story books, the sun came out when Garrett began to play (honest!) and their haunting music just rang out across the mountains.
11. Barbara Allen (Child 84, Roud 54) -Sung and played on the fiddle by Garrett & Norah Arwood at their home in Pigeon Roost, Mitchell County, NC. May 21, 1983.
In Scarlet town where I was born,
There was a fair maid dwelling.
Made every youth cry, 'Well-away',
Her name was Barbara Allen*.
Was in the merry month of May,
When the spring buds they were swelling.
Sweet William came from a western state,
And courted Barbara Allen.
Was in the merry month of June,
The spring flowers they were blooming.
Sweet William on his deathbed lay,
For the love of Barbara Allen.
He sent his servants to the town,
Where Barbara was a-dwelling.
'Our master's sick, and sent for you,
If your name be Barbara Allen'.
Slowly, slowly, she got up,
And slowly she came near him.
But all she said when she got there,
'Young man, I think you're dying'.
'Yes, I'm sick, I'm very sick,
Death is on me dwelling.
No better, no better, I ever can be,
If I can't have Barbara Allen'.
'Yes, you're sick, you're very sick,
Death is on you dwelling.
No better, no better, you ever will be,
Cause you can't have Barbara Allen'.
As she was on the highway home,
The birds they kept on singing.
They sing so loud, they seem to say,
'Hard-hearted Barbara Allen'.
She looked to the east, she looked to the west,
She spied his corpse a-coming.
'Lay down, lay down, that corpse of clay,
So I might look upon him'.
The more she looked, the more she mourned,
Till she fell to the ground a-weeping.
Said, 'Take me up and carry me home,
For I am now a-dying'.
Sweet William was buried in the old churchyard,
And Barbara Allen beside him.
From William's grave there grew a rose,
From Barbara Allen's a briar.
They grew and grew to the high church top,
And could not grow any higher.
They met and tied in a true-lover's knot,
The rose around the briar.
* I have used the spelling 'Barbara Allen' in the transcription, although the singers seem to vary their pronunciation of the girl's name throughout the song.
Probably the best-known of the ballads that Professor Child included in his monumental English and Scottish Popular Ballads. Versions have turned up repeatedly throughout the English-speaking world. Dan Tate also had a version, and when I asked him why he liked it, he said that the ending - with its rose and briar motif - "Just couldn't be beat". Samuel Pepys mentions the ballad in his diary entry for January 2, 1666, saying that it was a pleasure to hear Mrs Knipp (an actress) singing her little Scotch song of Barbary Allen. Some scholars have suggested that Pepys' comment indicates that the ballads was originally sung on the stage. Others, including the American scholar Phillips Barry, have suggested that the piece was originally a libel on Charles II and his mistress Barbara Villiers.
Steve Roud lists over 170 recordings, including versions from Texas Gladden (Rounder CD 1800), Joe Heaney (Topic TSCD518D) and Jim Wilson (Musical Traditions MTCD 309-10). In America, Annadeene Fraley sings a good version on Rounder CD 8041 and the Library of Congress previously issued a full LP - Versions and Variants of the Tunes of Barbara Allen (AAFS L54) - devoted to this single ballad.