Georgie- Grover (ME) pre1944 Wells; REC Lomax/Cowell 1941
[From: The Ballad Tree, by Evelyn Wells, 1950. A recording of Mrs. Carrie Grover (ca.1878-1959), originally from Nova Scotia then from Gorham, Maine, is found at Folktrax 908-60 ('Songs of the Southern Appalachians 2'). I believe it's the 1941 recording Cowell made of Carrie Grover in Teaneck, N. J. although Lomax also recorded Grover that year (see article below).
Her version of the Georgie is found in Grover's own privately published book, A Heritage of Songs and was also collected by Evelyn Wells in 1944 and published in her book, the Ballad Tree (w/music). Carrie Grover lived in Nova Scotia until the age of 12.
"I was born into a house where someone was singing most of the time, and when song was the only entertainment," she told Wells. Grover's father had a large repertoire of songs from his sailing days. An older brother taught her songs from the West Virginia log woods, both African-American folks songs and "song ballets."
R. Matteson 2013]
Grover (ME) pre1944 Wells; REC Cowell 1941
Come saddle up my fastest steed,
Come saddle up my pony;
And I'll ride away to the King's high court,
To plead for the life of Georgie.
[text upcoming]
-----------------
8. “Arthur McBride and the Sergeant” by Paul Brady (1976) “Arthur McBride and the Sergeant,” recorded with solo voice and guitar by the Irish balladeer Paul Brady, became a seminal performance in the Irish folk revival. The song was released on the 1976 album Andy Irvine and Paul Brady, and, although other versions of the song were well known in the revival already, Brady’s soon supplanted all others and became a standard. Partly due to his virtuosity on the guitar (which he re-tuned to open G), and partly due to his clear, piercing vocal delivery, Brady’s performances are regarded as definitive; in the words of the Irish Times, “there is no finer recording of ‘Arthur McBride.’”
One of the reasons for Brady’s distinctive version was his unusual source. Although the song is clearly Irish in origin, Brady learned it from a transcription of an American singer, Mrs. Carrie B. Grover of Maine. Mrs. Grover’s parents came from Nova Scotia, and she had English, Irish, Scottish and Welsh forebears. Folksinger and folklorist Lisa Null recalls that Paul Brady learned the song from a copy of Grover’s book A Heritage of Songs, which was circulated as an undated mimeographed manuscript privately printed by the Bethel Academy in Maine, until it was formally published in 1973. Like many Irish musicians of his generation, Brady had come to the United States in the early 1970s to work and earn money, and had met Null and Patrick Sky, who were the directors of Green Linnet Records, a label devoted to Irish music. It was in Sky’s house in Rhode Island that Brady encountered Grover’s book, and set about to craft his unique guitar arrangement. He debuted the song during that stay in America, and played it for the next fi ve years before recording it on the Brady and Irvine album. Ultimately, Brady’s version achieved a whole new level of fame when it was covered by Bob Dylan on his album Good as I Been to You (1992). Long before she prepared the manuscript of A Heritage of Songs, Carrie Grover had been recorded for the AFC Archive by both Alan Lomax and Sidney Robertson Cowell. Lomax recorded her version of “Arthur McBride and the Sergeant” in April, 1941, at the Library of Congress. Mrs. Grover sings the song unaccompanied, with a very regular, rhythmic delivery, which is very different from Brady’s syncopated, free-flowing interpretation. This recording, as well as the transcription in A Heritage of Songs, are available to researchers in the Folklife Reading Room at AFC, and make a fascinating comparison with Brady’s classic arrangement.