Oh Lily O- Houston (NC) c.1921 Sutton/ Brown A
[Brown Collection of NC Folklore, 1952. There are two versions in Brown Collection of NC Folklore; they both appear in Volume 2 and also in Volume 4 (music). I'm dating version A based on the collecting of Sutton in the early 1920s. Version B is dated 1928.
R. Matteson 2014]
5. The Cruel Brother (Child 11)
Although not very old, at least by the record (the earliest recorded text is Child's G, from Herd's Scottish Songs, 1776), The Cruel Brother' was widely known in the earlier nineteenth century; Child has eleven versions (some of them fragmentary), mostly Scotch but including two from Ireland and one from the west of England, where it was "popular among the peasantry" about 1846. But it is disappearing. It is included in Christie's Traditional Ballad Airs and in Kidson's Garland of English Folk Songs but not in either of Greig's collections nor in the Journal of the Folk-Song Society. In this country it has been reported only twice: by Barry (JAFL xxviii 300-1) from someone in Boston in whose family it had been "traditional for three generations," and by Sharp from North Carolina (SharpK I 36-7). Both of these belong to the same tradition, which is — to judge from the refrain — that of Child's J, from Ireland, though possibly from the Scotch or West of England forms. There are three sisters and three wooers in all the American texts, as there are also in Child's F, G, I, J. K ; presumably simply because ballad singers are fond of series of three, for only one lady and one wooer are of significance in the story. There are two texts in the present collection, both secured by Mrs. Sutton in the mountain country of western North Carolina.
A. 'Oh Lily O.' From the singing of "Granny" Houston of Bushy Creek in Avery county, "a doctor-woman as well as a ballad singer," says Mrs. Sutton; "signs of her profession of doctor-woman hung all around her cabin walls" and she was "furiously indignant over a tonsil clinic that the State was holding over at the county seat." From Mrs. Sutton's description one gathers that she was of Irish extraction.
1 There were three sisters playing at ball
Oh Lily O
There were three lawyers courting them all,
Lily O, sweet hi O
2 The first to come was dressed in red,
Oh Lily O
He asked if she would he his bride,
Lily O, sweet hi O
3 The next to come was dressed in blue,
Oh Lily O
Saying 'Oh my sweet, I've come for you,'
Lily O, sweet hi O
4 'Oh, you must ask my father dear,'
Oh Lily O
'And you must ask my mother, too,'
Lily O, sweet hi O
5 Oh, I have asked your father dear,'
Oh Lily O
'And I have asked your mother, too,'
Lily O, sweet hi O
6 'Oh, you must ask my sister Ann,'
Oh Lily O
'And you must ask my brother John,'
Lily O, sweet hi O
7 'Oh, I have asked your sister Ann,'
Oh Lily O
'Your brother John I did forget,'
Lily O, sweet hi O
8 Her father led her down the steps,
Oh Lily O
Her mother led her to the gate,
Lily O, sweet hi O
9 Her sister led her through the close,[1]
Oh Lily O
Her brother put her on the horse,
Lily O, sweet hi O
10 He took a pen knife long and sharp,
Oh Lily O
He stobbed his sister through the heart,
Lily O, sweet hi O
11 'Oh, lead me gently up the hill,
Oh Lily O
'And I'll sit down and make my will,'
Lily O, sweet hi O
12 'Oh, what will you leave to your modier dear?'[2]
Oh Lily O
'My velvet dress and golden gear,'
Lily O, sweet hi O
13 'What will you leave to your sister Ann?'
Oh Lily O
'My silver ring and golden fan.'
Lily O. sweet hi O
14 'What will you leave to your brother John?'
Oh Lily O
'The gallows tree to hang him on.'
Lily O, sweet hi O
1. Or "kloss," Scottish for "courtyard" or “an area in front of a house”.
2. mother dear