Katy Dear- Gene York (KY) 1969 Harrod REC
[From: Musical Traditions MTCD 341-2 ('Meeting's a Pleasure 2'). Collectors: Mark Wilson, John Harrod. Their notes follow.
This is standard US traditional version of Drowsy Sleeper. I did a concert with John Harrod back in 2010 in honor of Sleepy Marlin.
R. Mattson 2016]
This venerable Old World lyric (eg, Sharp, English Country Songs) often gets entangled in America with elements of The Silver Dagger. The song is a great favorite amongst country harmony groups like the Yorks, usually in a version that seems to derive, courtesy of later covers by the Blue Sky Boys and the Louvin Brothers, from a 1934 ARC recording by the Callahan Brothers. Earlier, B F Sheldon recorded a haunting version of a different text on Vi 40107.
Katy Dear - Gene York, vocal and guitar; Margie York, vocal (Rec: Mark Wilson and John Harrod, Corinth, Ky, 4/06/97).
"Oh, Katy dear, go ask your mother
If you can be a bride of mine?
If she says, yes, we'll go and get married
If she says no, we'll run away."
"Oh, Willie dear, there's no need asking
She's in her room taking a rest
And by her side is a silver dagger
To slay the one that I love best."
So he picked up that silver dagger
And plunged it through his troubled heart.
Saying, "Goodbye, Katy, goodbye darling,
It's now forever we must part."
So she picked up that bloody dagger
And plunged it through her lily white breast
Saying, "Goodbye, Papa, goodbye, Mama
I'll die for the one that I love best."