Barbara Allen- (KY) c.1914 McGill BOOK
[No informant named. From: Folk-songs of the Kentucky Mountains by Josephine McGill, 1917. McGill was from Louisville and studied music in NYC. She collected this ballad during the summer of 1914 or 1915 near Hindman in Knott County. She provided a list of informants but did not say who sang which ballad.
Following is an excerpt from her article, "Following Music" in a Mountain Land (The Musical Quarterly, Vol. 3, No. 3 (Jul., 1917), pp. 364-384),
R. Matteson 2012, 2015]
Josephine McGill says: The tune of the ballad is very simple, scarcely departing from the tonic harmony; it suggests the drone of the ancient music. The dulcimore afforded an appropriate accompaniment, as it did also for the particular version of Barbara Allen heard from the same balladist. Some versions run:
All in the merry month of May
When the green buds they were swelling.
But my host's rendering not unfittingly transposed the episode to the melancholy days
Late in the season of the year
When the yellow leaves were falling,
Young James Graham of the west countrie
Fell in love with Barbra Allan.
With considerable charm the children of the Hindman Settlement School, Knott County, Kentucky, sing the version, "All in the merry month of May," as well as that beginning: "Late in the season of the year." The latter, in minor key, lends itself to the plaintive effects achievable upon the "dulcimore." As may be fancied the chief variety to be obtained therefrom is that of rhythm. This is true also of a more primitive indigenous, and highly popular, instrument-a hickory limb strung with a single wire. The one which the collector saw was four feet long, but greater length is desirable. The performer rests one end of the instrument upon the floor, pressing his lips to the other end, thus supposedly improving the tone. There is art in the playing of even so primitive an instrument.
BARBARA ALLEN- no source give; transcribed by Josephine McGill (1877-1919).
All in the merry month of May
When green buds they were swelling.
Young Jemmy Grove on his death-bed lay,
For the love of Barbara Allen.
He sent his servant to the town,
The town where she was dwelling;
"Fair maid there is a call for you,
If your name be Barbara Allen."
So slowlie, slowlie she got up,
And slowlie she went to him,
But all she said when she got there,
"Young man, I think you're dying."
"Oh, yes, I'm sick, and very sick,
And death is with me dealing;
No better will I ever be
If I don't have Barbara Allen."
"O don't you remember in yonder town,
When the red wine you were filling;
You drank a health to the ladies all around
And slighted Barbara Allen "
"O yes, I remember in yonder town,
When the red wine I was filling;
I drank a health to the ladies all around,
But my love to Barbara Allen."
He turned his pale face to the wall
While death was with him dealing;
"Adieu, adieu to my dear friends all,
Be kind to Barbara Allen."
As slow-lie, slow-lie she got up,
As slow-lie she went from him;
The birds they sang so clear in her ear,
"Hard-hearted Barbara Allen."
As she were walking o'er the fields,
She heard those death bells knelling,
And every stroke it seemed to say,
"Hard-hearted Barbara Allen."
As she were walking through the streets,
She saw the corpse a-coming;
"Take off, take off that winding sheet,
And let me look upon him."
The more she looked, the more she grieved,
Till she bursted out a-crying:
"O pick me up and take me home,
For surely I am dying."
"O mother, mother, make my bed,
Go make it long and narrow;
Young Jemmy died for me today,
I'll die for him tomorrow."
"O father, father, dig my grave,
Go dig it deep and narrow;
Young Jemmy died for me through love,
I'll die for him through sorrow."
"Farewell," she said, "ye virgins all,
And shun the fault I fell in:
Henceforth take warning by the fate
Of cruel Barbara Allen."