The Cruel Mother- Chisholm (VA) 1918 Sharp I
[Not a local title. Sharp I, from English Folk Songs from the Southern Appalachians, single stanza with music. His notes follow Michael Yates' excerpt.
This version was also published as E in Davis; Traditional Ballads from Virginia. Compare to Sharp D, The Cruel Mother as sung by Mr. N. B. CHISHOLM at Woodridge, Va., Sept. 21, 1916.
R. Matteson 2014]
For his final week in the mountains Sharp set off from Black Mountain to Charlottesville, Virginia, where he met Professor Alphonso Smith, one of America's leading ballad scholars. Sharp intended his excursion into Virginia to be something of a probe - a brief trip to establish whether or not it would be worthwhile to return there later. Professor Smith passed Sharp onto a Mr Mannaway, a schools' inspector in Albermarle County, who suggested that Sharp should meet Mr N D Chisholm, 'a first rate folksinger', 51. Sharp diary, 20.9.16.[51] and a Mrs Campbell, both of Brown's Cove, a small settlement in the Shenandoah Valley. Two days later Sharp found Mr Westley Batten of Mount Fair, 'from whom we got 2 rare songs, one a fine version of The Two Sisters.' 52. Sharp diary, 22.9.16.[52] Sharp also discovered Mrs Rosie Smith, one of Mr Chisholm's relatives, who was then living in Charlottesville, and on 27th September, 'took Alphonso Smith with us in our motor ... and collected a lot of songs from the Chisholm and Smith clan.' [From: Cecil Sharp in America--collecting in the Appalachians; Yates]
No. 10. The Cruel Mother (Sharp's notes)
Texts without tunes :—Child's English and Scottish Popular Ballads, No. 20. C. Burne's Shropshire Folk-Lore, p. 540. A. Williams's Folk Songs of the Upper Thames, p. 295. Journal of American Folk-Lore, xxv. 183 ; xxxii. 503. Texts with tunes:—Kinloch's Ancient Scottish Ballads, p. 44 and Appendix. Child, v. 413. Christie's Traditional Ballad Airs, i. 105 and 107. Journal of the Folk-Song Society, ii. 109; iii. 70. Folk Songs from Somerset, No. 98 (also published in English Folk Songs, Selected Edition, Series 1, p. 35, and One Hundred English Folk Songs, p. 35). Gavin Greig's Last Leaves, No. 11. Dick's Songs of
Robert Burns, p. 347. Cox's Folk Songs of the South, pp. 29 and 522. W. R. Mackenzie's Ballads and Sea Songs from Nova Scotia, No. 3. British Ballads from Maine, p. 80. Davis's Traditional Ballads of Virginia, pp. 133 and 560. McGill's Folk Songs of the Kentucky Mountains, p. 83.
The tune of version B is that of The Wife of Usher Well, No. 22. In version I there appears to be a change of mode from Dorian to Mixolydian. The singer is a brother of Mr. W. B. Chisholm of Woodridge, who sang version D. Version A is published in Ballads (School Songs, Book 261), Novello & Co., London, and version E in Folk Songs of English Origin, 2nd Series—both with pianoforte accompaniment.
No. 10; The Cruel Mother
I. The Cruel Mother- Sung by Mr. JAMES H. CHISHOLM at Nellysford, Va., May 21, 1918
Heptatonic
Baby, O baby, if you were mine,
All along lum a loby,
I would dress you in the scarlet so fine,
Down by the green river sidey.