The Cruel Mother- Roberts (VA) 1918 Sharp J
[Not a local title. Sharp J, from English Folk Songs from the Southern Appalachians, 1932 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.
J. The Cruel Mother (Greenwood Sidey)- Sung by Mrs. WILLIE ROBERTS at Nellysford, Va., May 22, 1918
Heptatonic. Dorian (Tonic G).
1. Babes, O babes, I wish you were mine,
Down by the green-wood sid ey,
Babes, O babes, I wish you were mine,
Down by the green-wood sid ey.
I'd dress you all in silk so fine,
Down by the green-wood sid ey,
I'd dress you all in silk so fine,
Down by the green-wood sid ey.