Pretty Polly- W. R. Shelton (NC) 1916 Sharp D
[My title. Single stanza with music from English Folk Songs from the Southern Appalachians; Volume I; 1917 and 1932. Collected by Cecil J. Sharp and Olive Dame Campbell. Edited by Maud Karpeles. The 1932 notes follow.
This version is from William Riley Shelton, a member of the large Shelton family. According to Frances Dunham almost all of Sharp's informants in the area (Madison County, NC) were descendants of Rodrick Shelton (b. 1754 in Virginia). Betty Smith writes: "Of the thirty-nine contributors to Sharp from Madison County, twenty-eight have been identified as Shelton descendants, three as spouses of his descendants, and five with family members who married his descendants. Three appear to be spouses of the descendants and five with family members married into the Shelton family."
Yates also commented, "Doug Wallin knew both Frankland[Franklin] Shelton and his brother William Riley Shelton - Doug calls the latter 'the brag ballad singer' - who also sang to Cecil Sharp, and can be heard talking about William on his Smithsonian Folkways CD (SF CD 40013).
R. Matteson 2016]
No. 49. The Cruel Ship's Carpenter (1932 notes)
Texts without tunes:—Broadsides by Pitts, Jackson & Son, and Bloomer (Birmingham). Ashton's A Century of Ballads, p. 101.
Texts with tunes :—Christie's Traditional Ballad Airs, ii. 99. Journal of the Folk-Song Society, i. 172. Folk Songs from Somerset, No. 83 (published also in English Folk Songs, Selected Edition, i. 4, and One Hundred English Folk-Songs, p. 4). Cox's Folk Songs of the South , pp. 308 (see also further references) and 528. Wyman and Brockway's Twenty Kentucky Mountain Songs, p. 110, and Lonesome Tunes, p. 79. Journal of American Folk-Lore, xx. 262.
D. [Pretty Polly] Sung by Mr. W. RTLEY SHELTON at Alleghany, N. C, Aug. 29. 1916
Heptatonic. Mode 3, a + b (ionian).
He led her through hedges and mire so deep.
At length this fair damsel began for to weep,
Saying: Awake, you sad villain, you're leading me away [1]
Exulting for my sweet life to betray.
1. usually "astray"