Lord Thomas- (NY) 1942 Frank Luther - Songbook
[Unknown informant, arranged by Frank Luther. From Frank Luther; Americans and Their Songs; New York: Harper & Bros. 1942. Also Bronson TTCB, II, 1962, No. 17. Luther teamed up with Carson Robison in the late 1920s. Part of a bio from Wiki follows.
R. Matteson 2014]
Frank Luther (August 4, 1899- November 16, 1980) was an American country music singer, dance band vocalist, playwright, songwriter and pianist.
Born Francis Luther Crow on a farm near Lakin, Kansas, forty miles from the Colorado line, he was raised on a farm near Hutchinson, Kansas, where his father, William R. Crow, and mother, Gertrude Phillips Crow, dealt in livestock and trotting horses. He began to study piano at age 6, improvising his own music when repetitious exercises bored him, and began vocal instruction at 13.
Three years later, he toured the Midwest as tenor with a quartet called The Meistersingers. He began studying at the University of Kansas, but attended a revival meeting conducted by Jesse Kellems and was so deeply impressed that he accepted an offer from the evangelist to become his musical director. During a subsequent stop in Iola, Kansas, young Crow himself was ordained, despite his never having studied for the ministry.
By 1921, the Reverend Francis Luther Crow was in the pulpit of the First Christian Church in Bakersfield, California. There, he organized a 30-voice children's choir, an 80-voice adult choir, and two church orchestras. Writing and delivering his weekly sermons proved more problematic, and the Boy Preacher, as he was known locally, resigned to devote his creative energies to the world of music.
Returning to Kansas, he married vocalist/musician Zora Layman on May 8, 1920, and the young couple eventually worked their way to New York City. In 1926, he was seriously pursuing further vocal training when he was invited to join the DeReszke Singers, as tenor/accompanist. They declared his surname, Crow, to be un-musical, and so he dropped it and became Frank Luther from that day on. The quartet toured with humorist Will Rogers, with whom Frank spent considerable time while on the road.
Luther joined a popular quartet, The Revelers, as tenor in 1927. They toured the British Isles, where Frank met the future Queen of the United Kingdom and did a set accompanied on the drums by the Prince of Wales. His career seemed to be at its zenith, but he contracted a severe cold on the way back to New York. A long-lasting sinus infection and infected throat robbed his ability to sing for nearly a year. His voice returned in a painfully slow manner.
In 1928, with his singing only gradually returning to top form, Frank met and became acquainted with fellow Kansan Carson Robison, who had teamed with tenor Vernon Dalhart to make many dozens of top-selling recordings of rural American favorites, shortly to be known in the trade as hillbilly music. Robison and Dalhart were severing their recording partnership, and it was suggested that Luther listen to some Dalhart records and seek to approximate his style. From 1928 to 1932, Frank Luther recorded country music with Carson Robison. Their recordings, made for several record companies and issued on a variety of labels, were extremely popular. "Barnacle Bill the Sailor," "When Your Hair Has Turned to Silver," "When It's Springtime in the Rockies," "When the Bloom is On The Sage," "Little Green Valley," "Down on the Old Plantation," "I'm Alone Because I Love You," "The Utah Trail," "Goin' Back to Texas," "Left My Gal in the Mountains," "In the Cumberland Mountains," "An Old Man's Story, "Little Cabin in the Cascade Mountains," and "The Birmingham Jail" sold a great many copies and influenced future generations of country singers.
Lord Thomas- Frank Luther, 1942, Americans and their Songs, p. 23.
1. Lord Thomas, he was a bold young man,
A keeper of our king's deer;
Fair Eleanor was a fair lady;
Lord Thomas he loved her dear.
He went unto his mother dear,
"Mother dear, mother" says he,
"Must I marry the brown-skin girl
Or bring Fair Eleanor home?"
"The brown-skin girl has house and land,
Fair Ellen she has none;
Therefore I charge you with my blessing
To bring the brown girl home."
He dressed himself in attire of red,
His man he trimmed in green;
And every village as he passed by
He was taken to be some king.
He rode up to Fair Ellen's door,
He knocked and so loudly did ring;
There was none more ready than Ellen herself
To arise and let him in.
"What news, what news have you brought unto me?
What news, what news?" says she.
"I've come to ask you to my wedding today."
"O that's sad news to me."
7. She went unto her mother dear.
"Mother, dear mother," says she :
"O shall I go to Lord Thomas' wedding
Or stay at home with thee?"
8. "There'll be ten of your friends and ten of your foes,
And that you plainly see;
Therefore I charge you with all my blessing
To tarry at home with me."
9. She dressed herself in scarlet red,
Her maid she dressed in green;
In every village that she passed by
She was taken to be some queen.
10. She rode up to Lord Thomas' door
And knocked, and so loudly did ring;
There was none so ready as Lord Thomas himself
To arise and let her in.
11. He took her by her fair lily hand
And led her through the hall.
He seated her in a gold leaf chair
Among the quality all.
12. "Is this your bride, Lord Thomas?" she cried,
"Methinks she's wondrous brown;
You might have married the fairest woman
That ever trod English ground."
13. "Nay, blame her not, fair Ellen," he cried,
"Nay, blame her not to me;
For better I love thy little finger
Than the brown girl's whole body."
14. The brown girl took her little pen-knife,
Which was both long and sharp,
And 'twixt the short ribs and the long
She pierced fair Eleanor's heart.
15. "Now how is this, fair Ellen?" he cried
"Methinks you look wondrous wan.
You used to be the fairest woman
That ever the sun shone on."
16. Oh, are you blind, Lord Thomas," she says,
"Or can't you plainly see?
The beautiful color that was once in my cheek
Goes twinkling down my knee."
17. He had his sword all by his side ;
He walked across the hall,
Lord Thomas cut off his own bride's head
And threw it against the wall.
18. He placed his sword all on the floor,
The point all towards his heart.
(Was ever the like of this ever known,
Three lovers so soon to part?)
19. "Oh, mother, mother, dig my grave,
Dig it both wide and deep,
And place fair Ellen by my side,
The brown girl at my feet."