House Carpenter- Wallin- Second version (Madison Co., NC) c. 1940, REC 1992
[From: Smithsonian Folkways' Family Songs and Stories from the North Carolina Mountains; 1992. This is one of the outstanding versions of this ballad that I've heard-- even though Wallin is not an outstanding singer. His rhythm is excellent and the text is excellent. The extra verse (verse 13) has been adapted from Lady Isabel and the Elf Knight.
Doug Wallin was also recorded by Mike Yeats in 1983-- his transcription is very similar to mine but there are some changes- for example the "What banks" stanzas- which perhaps Wallin changed from the family version.
R. Matteson 2013]
All Music bio- Doug Wallin was a ballad singer and fiddler from Madison County, NC, an area with longstanding ballad and instrumental traditions. Both of Wallin's parents, father Lee and mother Berzilla, were singers; Lee also played the fiddle and banjo and Doug's younger brother Jack plays banjo, fiddle, and guitar. Doug's song selection and style respectfully reflected the Wallins' long family heritage. His singing was unusually refined, characteristically rendered with subtlety, precision, and a quiet passion. His extensive repertoire consisted of centuries-old ballads and songs, many of British ancestry, which he learned from members of his family and mountain community; he particularly favored lyrical love ballads, which he sang without instrumental accompaniment. Wallin often played the tune of a ballad on the fiddle before singing the words, or added a fiddled refrain between verses. Like his singing, his fiddling was straightforward and old-timey, emphasizing the simple beauty of each song's melody.
In 1990, Wallin received a Heritage Fellowship from the National Endowment for the Arts; he was also the recipient of a North Carolina Heritage Award for his loving preservation of traditional music. Although performances by Wallin appeared on the Folkways album Dillard Chandler: The End of an Old Song and on a couple of privately released cassettes, his music did not become widely accessible until the 1995 release of Smithsonian-Folkways' Family Songs and Stories from the North Carolina Mountains, a CD of field recordings which also features Doug's brother Jack on three tracks. Doug Wallin died on March 15, 2000, at 80 years old.
Doug Wallin (second bio)
Ballad singer and musician
Madison County, NC
Born in 1919 and raised deep in the Blue Ridge Mountains of Madison County, Doug Wallin sang time-honored ballads, hymns, and love songs in the style and tradition of his ancestors. He performed with a natural artistry and a reverence for the meaning and heritage of the old songs.
Wallin learned much of his seemingly limitless repertoire from his mother Berzilla, and from other close relatives. Many of his most cherished ballads, such as "The House Carpenter" and "Barbara Allen," originated in the British Isles and were brought to America with the first settlers.
Wallin lived in the Laurel Country, an area visited by English ballad collector Cecil Sharp nearly a century ago. Sharp was astonished to find "a community in which singing was as common and almost as universal a practice as speaking." At the time of his visit, folk balladry had all but disappeared in England. Sharp documented numerous ballads from Doug's relatives, several of which appear in his famous published collection English Folksongs of the Southern Appalachians.
Instrumental music was also valued in the Wallin family. Doug's father, Lee, was a banjo player and his brother Jack played the banjo and guitar. And although singing was his special gift, Doug played the fiddle quite well.
Doug Wallin stayed close to home most of his life, farming the family land. He rarely traveled from Madison County, but occasionally ventured out to share his singing with audiences at Western Carolina University, Mars Hill College, and Berea College. He also performed at the Festival of American Folklife, sponsored by the Smithsonian Institution, and the British American Festival, held in Durham in 1984. Doug Wallin was a 1989 recipient of the North Carolina Heritage Award.
House Carpenter- Doug Wallin (NC) REC
[Fiddle intro]
1. "We've met, once more, my own true love,
We've met, once more," said he.
I've just returned from the salt, salt sea,
And it's all for the sake of thee.
2. Now I could have married a king's daughter dear,
And I'm sure she'd have married me,
But I've forsaken all her gold,
For the love I have for thee.
3. If you could have married the King's daughter dear,
You had better have married she;
For I've lately married a house carpenter,
And a nice young man is he.
4. If you'll forsake your house carpenter,
And come along with me,
I will take you where the grass grows green,
On the banks of Sic-i-ly.
5. If I'll forsake my house carpenter,
And come along with thee,
What have you got to maintain me upon,
And keep me from salvery.
6. I have three ships upon the sea,
All making for dry land,
I have three hundred jolly sailor boys,
You can have them at your own command.
7 Then she dressed up in a yellow robe,
Most glorious to behold,
And she walked the street all around and about,
And shined like glittering gold.
8 Then she picked up her tender little babe
And kisses gave it one, two, three,
"Stay at home, stay home you tender little babe,
And keep your papa company.
9. They hadn't been on the sea two weeks,
I'm sure it was not three,
Till she began to weep and she began to mourn
And wept so bitterly.
10 Are you weeping for your house?
Are you weeping for your store?
Are you weeping for your house carpenter
Whose face you'll see no more?
11 No, I'm not weeping for my house,
Neither for my store;
I'm weeping for my tender little babe,
Who I left sitting on the floor.
12 They had not been on the sea three weeks,
I'm sure it was not four,
Till the ship sprang a leak, to the bottom she goes,
She goes to rise no more.
13 "Take me out, oh, take me out,
Take me out," she cried,
For I'm too rich and cost-i-ly
To rot in the salt water sea.
14 What banks, what banks before me now?
As white as any snow?
Those are the banks of heaven, you know,
Where all righteous people go.
15 What banks, what banks before me now?
As black as any crow?
Those are the banks of hell, my love,
Where you and I must go.