The Cruel Mother- Kilburn (KY) 1917 Sharp F
[Not a local title. Sharp F, from English Folk Songs from the Southern Appalachians, with music. His notes follow.
R. Matteson 2014]
No. 10. The Cruel Mother.
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.
The Cruel Mother- Sung by Mrs. MAUD KILBURN at Berea, Madison Co., Ky., May 31, 1917; Sharp F
1. There was a lady near the town,
Low, so low and so lonely,
She walked all night and all around,
Down in the green woods of Iv'ry.
2. She had two pretty little babes,
Low, so low, etc.
She thought one day she'd take their lives.
Down in the green woods, etc.
3. She got a rope so long and neat,
And tied them down both hands and feet.
4. She got a knife so keen and sharp,
And pierced it through each tender heart.
5. Then she went out one moonlit night;
She saw two babes all dressed in white.
6. O babes, O babes, if you were mine,
I'd dress you up in silk so fine.
7. O mamma, O mamma, when we were yours,
You dressed us in our own heart's blood.
8. In seven years you'll hear a bell,
In seven years you'll land in hell.