House Carpenter- Shelton (NC) 1916 Sharp G

House Carpenter- Shelton (NC) 1916 Sharp G

[Single stanza with music from: English Folk Songs from the Southern Appalachians; collected by Olive Dame Campbell and Cecil J. Sharp, published 1917 (notes follow). Sharp's No. 29. is titled, The Daemon Lover. I've changed it to the more appropriate title- House Carpenter.

Perhaps Tempa Shelton is related to Franklin Shelton (Sharp F) since they live nearby and the verse is nearly identical with the second line not rhyming. Sharp did not provide the complete text for Shelton's version and many of the versions he collected because he probably felt that the text was not significantly different than the other versions he had already written out.

R. Matteson 2013]

Notes: No. 29. The Daemon Lover.
Texts without tunes:—Child, No. 243.
Texts with tunes:—Journal of the Folk-Song Society, iii., 84. Motherwell's Minstrelsy, Appendix xv., tune 1. Songs of the West, 2nd ed., No. 76. American variants: —Journal of American Folk-Lore, xviii., 207; xix., 295; xx., 257; xxvi., 360; xxv., 274 (with tune). Broadside by H. De Marsan, New York. Musical Quarterly, January, 1916, p. 18.

G. The House Carpenter- Sung by Mrs. TEMPA SHELTON at Spillcorn, N. C, Sept. 6, 1916
Hexatonic. Mode 4, a.

We've met, we've met, my own true love,
We've met, we've met once more.
I have lately crossed the salt water sea
And it's all for the sake of thee.