Pretty Crowing Chicken- Proffitt (NC) c.1960 REC
[Proffitt's version (Listen: Pretty Crowin' Chicken) appears on High Atmosphere: Ballads and Banjo Tunes from Virginia and North Carolina, a 1975 compilation album released by Rounder Records. The album is composed of Appalachian folk music recordings gathered by musicologist John Cohen in North Carolina and Virginia. The album was originally released in 1975. In 1995, Rounder re-released the album with an additional twenty minutes of bonus tracks.
I'm not sure of the date Proffitt recorded Pretty Crowin' Chicken but I assume it's was in the late 1950s (he died in 1965). I also assume Frank learned this version directly or indirectly from the Buna Hicks or Hattie Hicks Presnell versions since it was not collected as part of his early repertoire. There are several minor differences.
R. Matteson 2013]
Pretty Crowing Chicken- Frank Proffitt of Beech Mountain, NC; c.1960 REC
[banjo]
Oh, the moon it shines bright, and the stars they give light,
While this fair miss she worries [1]alone.
There's something in the way that is causing him to stay,
While this fair miss she worries alone, 'lone, 'lone,
While this fair miss worries alone.
Her old true love come at last, and he come very fast,
Come tripplin' through the plain.
This fair miss she arose, and she threw on her clothes,
For to let her old true lover in, in, in,
For to let her old true lover in.
"My pretty little chicken, my pretty crowin' chicken,
Don't you crow before day.
I'll make your wings of a yeller beading gold,
And the comb of the silver so gay, gay, gay,
And the comb of the silver so gay."
[banjo]
This chicken proved false-hearted,
And crowed one hour too soon.
She sent her lover away, before it had come day,
And he traveled by the light of the moon, moon, moon,
And he traveled by the light of the moon.
She saddled up her milk white steed,
And also her dapple grey.
And she rode through the dark wilderness,
At the end of a long summer day, day, day,
At the end of a long summer day.
"My old true love, my sweet turtle dove,
When shall I see you again?"
"When the moon and the stars enters in yonders stream,
And the sky, it shall shed no more rain, rain, rain,
And the sky, it shall shed no more rain."
1. sings "warries"