The Farmer's Curst Wife- Barker (VA) 1932 Davis BB
[From: More Traditional Ballads of Virginia; Davis 1960. Horton Barker (1889-1973), the blind singer from Chilahowie Virgina, had one of the more extensive repertoires of any traditional singer. Davis's extensive notes are below after Barton's Folkway version recorded in 1961 by Sandy Paton (See Davis AA, since Barker also knew Gladden's version). Usually I don't have two listings (see Brown Collection) for one informant but considering Davis's in depth notes, I'm making an exception. With Paton's recording there are now three versions by Barker to compare (Davis's book was published before Paton's recording).
FOLKWAYS RECORDS Album No. FA 2362
1962 Folkways Records & Service Corp., 701 Seventh Ave., N.Y.C., U.S.A.
HORTON BARKER- TRADITIONAL SINGER
Recorded in Beech Creek, North Carolina,
by SANDY PATON
HORTON BARKER
Years ago, a narrow-gauge railway ran through the small town of Laurel Bloomery in the mountainous northeast corner of Tennessee. The town is named, not for the blossoms of the Rhododendron (called "laurel" by the mountain people), as one might suppose, but for the circular masses of wrought iron produced by the foundry located there. Nicknamed the "Pea Vine" railroad by the local residents, because of its twisting, winding, twenty mile route, it served the foundry, the farms, and the logging industry which thrived on the heavily timbered surrounding hills. One of the engines, a small, black, pot-bellied smoke-belcher, was known affectionately as "Old Huldy". Horton Barker was born in Laurel Bloomery in 1889, and he recalls hearing "Old Huldy" wheezing and puffing by on its daily run - - recalls it so clearly that he has appropriated its name for his favorite pipe. Now, Horton has "about a bushel" of pipes and his favorite would seem to be the one currently in operation. "Hope you don't mind if I light up 'Old Huldy', " he will say, digging into his pocket for the Prince Albert tobacco. "I've been smoking for fifty-five years, but I plan to quit before it gets a real hold on me. " But Horton will never give up "Old Huldy". "I was going to quit smoking today, but I'm afraid to risk it. You see, a fellow once told me that, if a man was to quit smoking on a particular day of the week, he'd take pneumonia for sure. Trouble is, I can't remember just which day he said it was." Later, while knocking the ashes out against the heel of his hand: "There! I told you I was going to quit smoking today and that's the tenth time I've done it."
There's no stopping him -- Horton Barker, sightless since childhood as the result of an accident, Horton Barker photo by Ray Flerlage is filled with an irrepressible sense of humor. Even the cane he uses to help him find his way about is given a name and a personality. "I'll just hitch 'Old Morgan' here on the doorknob while we eat." "Old Morgan" does considerably more than let Horton know when he's approaching a step or an obstacle. He listens to the echo of the tapping metal tip and can surprise you with what it tells him. For instance, he told me when we were passing a car parked fifteen feet or more to one side of our path. As a boy, he would jump off of a cliff into eighty feet of water and then swim back to the base of the cliff, locating it by the echo of a clicking noise made with his tongue. Horton now makes his home with his sister and her husband in St. Clair's Creek (pronounced "Sinkler's"), Virginia, a tiny community in Smyth County, not far from Chilhowie. It's gently rolling country; the green pastures and the fields of yellowing tobacco broken occasionally by clumps of uncleared forest. In the distance is Mt. Rogers, the highest point in Virginia at 5720 feet, and, just south of that, White Top, where Annabel Buchanan and John Powell directed their famous' Folk Festival during the early 1930's. It was here that Horton met other great ballad singers, such as Texas Gladden and "Sailor Dad" Hunt, and added more songs to the repertoire he had inherited from his mother and developed in all night song-swapping sessions with other students at the two schools for the blind he attended in his youth.
Horton never knew his father, a lumberman who "worked cutting timber up in West Virginia quite a bit." While the family lived in Tennessee, Horton went to school in Nashville. Later, when his mother remarried and moved across the state line into Washington County, Virginia, he was transferred to the School for the Blind in Staunton. There Horton would delight in concealing the fact of his total blindness from his fellow students. He used to lead other boys around in the town until, one day, he inadvertently let one of them run into a post. "Say," the fellow asked, rubbing his bumped head, "just how much do you see?" "Oh, I see pretty well," chuckled Horton. "'Course I can't quite make out sunlight.... "
Horton was first visited by a ballad hunter in about 1930. Not sure of the date, Horton does remember that his name was Winston Wilkinson [from Virginia c. 1932, collected also for Kyle Davis] and that he didn 't record anything, but simply listed the songs Horton knew. Within the next few years, however, Horton was recorded by Annabel Buchanan at White Top and by Sarah Gertrude Knott in Washington, D.C . In 1937, Alan Lomax recorded him for the Archive of American Folk Song at the Library of Congress. Things died down a bit after that. The country went to war and the work of the Archive was severely curtailed. Anyway, Horton went home to St. Clair's Creek to sit quietly on the porch and smoke "Old Huldy." Once in a while, his good friend, Richard Chase, a young folklorist he had met at White Top, would come by and visit. Occasionally, they would pile into the car and go off to a Folk Festival at Boone, North Carolina, or Abingdon, Virginia. But mostly he just sat and smoked and teased the boys walking by the house.
(He tells of the time two boys came up the road with a nice string of fish. Horton's sister, who had been sitting on the porch with him, commented on the fish and then went into the house. Horton waited until the boys were directly in front of him, then called out, "Say, that's sure a nice bunch of fish you have there!" The boys, seeing Horton alone on the porch, were flabbergasted. As they went on up the road, Horton could hear them whispering back and forth - - "How'd he know we had these fish? You reckon he can see some?" "Naw! He didn't see 'em. He smelled 'em!")
Horton's musical artistry is as keenly developed as his wit, as this record will prove. But Horton is no folksong purist (the true Folksinger rarely is - - he doesn't have to be); if he hears a song he likes, he sets out to learn it - - simple as that. Some of his songs are really composites of different versions he has heard at one time or another. "When I hear a version of a song I like better than the one I've known - - well, I just sort of adopt it." Right now he is anxious to learn the version of "Lord Thomas" he heard Mike Seeger sing at the University of Chicago Folk Festival in February, 1961. "I really like his version better than mine," he commented, as we were recording his own.
Aside from the classic "Child Ballads" and the lyric folksongs he sings, his repertoire is made up of what he calls "Southern Sentimental Songs or Plantation Songs", gospel songs, hymns, and curious bits of humorous flotsam he has acquired over his seventy years of listening ....
I feel like hell -I
feel like hell --
I feel like hel-ping some poor soul
To find a man --
To find a man --
To find a man-sion in the sky.
At least one of his songs (Sweet Mary) he learned from his singing teacher at the school in Staunton. For four years, until his health forced him to give it up two years ago, Horton earned his living by travelling with a "bible lecturer" in North Carolina and Tennessee, singing the old gospel songs and sharing the unpredictable returns of the collection plate. "Sometimes he would say things that would aggravate them, make them mad, and then they'd put all their money into my plate and practically none in his. Of course, I always divided up with him later. "
My several days with Horton Barker were truly memorable ones. We drove together to Beech Creek, North Carolina, where we took advantage of Mr. and Mrs. W. Smith Harmon's generous hospitality and large living room for the recording sessions. On the trip, Horton gave me directions -- "Bear right at the top of this hill; Take a left at the other end of this bridge . " "Off to our right, now, you should be able to see an old brick house. That's over a hundred years old." "Don't I smell a cemetery on the right now?" (This followed by a string of humorous epitaphs) "That was a good bridge, wasn't it? The next one isn't so good, I'm afraid." etc.
To know Horton Barker, to stroll leisurely with him to the top of a hill while the sun chases away the early morning mist and warms your shoulderbones, and -- most of all -- to sit and listen to him sing' the old ballads in his high, clear voice, unencumbered by accompaniment, is to suddenly become aware of what is meant by "Amazing Grace. "
Burlington, Vermont
September, 1961
THE FARMER'S CURST WIFE: This is undoubtedly the ballad (Child #278) for which Horton Barker is best known. He tells me he learned it from a singer named Debusk of Widener's Valley, Virginia, but adds, "I reay have some of Texas Gladden's verses mixed in it."
There was an old rean at the foot of the hill;
If he ain't moved away he's living there still.
Sing hi-diddle-I-diddle-I-fie,
Diddle-I-diddle-I-day.
He hitched up his horse and he went out to plow,
But how to get around, he didn't know how.
The devil came to his house one day,
Says "One of your family I'm a-going to take away."
Then says the old man, "I am undone,
For I'm afraid you've come for my oldest son."
"It's neither your son nor your daughter I crave,
But your old scolding woman I now must have."
The devil put her in a sack
And swung her up across his back.
"Take her on, take her on, with the joy of my heart;
I hope, by gollies, you 'll never part."
He had barely gotten to the forks of the road
When he says, "Old lady, you're a terrible load."
He carried her down to the gates of hell
And says "Punch up the fire, we're goine to scorch her well."
In come a little devil a-dragging his chain,
She up with a hatchet and split out his brain.
Another little devil went climbing the wall
And says, "Take her back, Daddy, she'll murder us all."
The old man was a-peeping out of the crack
And sa" the poor devil come a-wagging her back.
She found the old man sick in the bed
And up with a butter- stick and paddled his head.
The old woman went whistling over the hill,
"The devil wouldn't have me so I wonder who will."
Now this is what a woman can do,
She can out do the devil and her old man, too.
There 's one advantage women have over men,
They can go to hell and come back again.]
Davis: THE FARMER'S CURST WIFE
(Child, No. 278)
Of the group of ballads concerned with the humorous treatment of married life, "The Farmer's Curst Wife" appears to be the most popular. "Our Goodman" treats marital infidelity lightly; "Get up and Bar the Door" (not represented in this volume, but found in TBVA) depicts comically a domestic battle of wits; "The Wife Wrapt in Wether's Skin" jestingly suggests a safe method of wife taming; and now "The Farmer's Curst Wife" comments in amusing hyperbole upon a wife's invincible shrewishess.
A farmer who has a bad wife is glad to have the Devil take her rather than his eldest son (oxen, himself), away to hell. But in hell she is as incorrigible as ever, kicking or murdering young imps until one of them urges the Devil to take her back to her husband before she murders them all. This he does, and philosophic remarks about the nature of women often end the ballad. Child prints only two versions, one English (A) and one Scottish (B), to much tire same effect, except that A has "a chorus of whistlers" instead of the nonsense refrains of B, and B has a final stanza in which the woman on her return asks for the food she had left cooking when she went away years before. Chilcl calls attention to a similar ballad composed by Robert Rurns "from the old traditional version," but does not print the composed version, though it may be partly traditional. Child prints a traditional tune for B (V, 423).
The ballad seems to be extremely rare in recent British tradition only three English counties seem to have reported in Sussex, Dorsetshire, Wiltshire. See JEFSS, II (1905-6), 184-85; III (1908-9), 131-32; and Alfred Williams, Folk Songs of the Upper Thames, 1923, p. 211. Alfred Williams gives as the title of his Wiltshire text without tune, "There Was an Old F'armer in Sussex
Did Dwell," its first line, and adds a note, "This is called the 'Sussex Whistling Song,' but whether it originated in Sussex, or elsewhere, it was very popular in the Thames valley eighty years ago" (in 1923). The text is practically identical with Child A. which, under the title of "The Farmer's Old Wife," was taken from Dixon's Ancient Poems, Ballads, and songs of the Peasantry of England, 1846. Twentieth-century Scotland seems to muster only a single tune, without words, of this ballad (Greig-Keith, p. 220).
Miss Broadwood has an extremely interesting note on whistling refrains in general and on this ballad in particular in JEFSS, V (1914-17), 208-9. "I think . . . that it has not yet been pointed out by anyone that in song, where the devil is openly mentioned there is usually a rude , nonsense refrain, and in some cases the company whistles after each verse. Whistling is, of course, intimately connected. with magic, and to whistle is to keep away, or put oneself on a comfortable footing with, the dreaded power I venture, therefore, to think that in the very old song of 'The Farmer's Old Wife' or 'The Devil and the Ploughman,' still so popular throughout our Islands, the whistling after each verse was intended to keep Satan at a distance." For the lore about whistling and nonsense- refrains we are most grateful, but "still so popular throughout our Islands"? The published record scarcely sustains this statement.
In America both texts and tunes are far more abundant and widely scattered. TBVa printed thirteen texts (of fifteen available and six tunes. FSVa describes eight items more recently added, with five tunes. In addition to Virginia, the following states have been heard from, usually with a number of versions: Maine, Vermont, Massachusetts, West Virginia, Kentucky, Tennessee, North Carolina, Mississippi, Florida, Texas, Arkansas, Missouri, Michigan, Indiana, Nebraska. The ballad has also been found in Nova Scotia. Sampling of a few representative collections yields the following result- rather less impressive than one would have expected: Barry, five texts and one tune; Cox, one text, no tune; Sharp-Karpeles, Seven texts, seven tunes; Belden, two texts, no tune; Randolph, two texts, one tune; Brown, two texts, four tunes ; Eddy, no text or tune; Gardner-Chickering, five texts, two tunes; and so on.
The American texts and tunes of this ballad are so extremely complicated, by multiplicity and variation, that any effort to classify them would be a major undertaking and of doubtful validity. Barry (p. 332) has taken the trouble to piece together the story of the five Maine texts, but the result is of little value as to the Maine texts, and of less value outside them. Barry also tells a good anecdote somewhat paralieling the ballad story. He also would wish to make more of the demonological implications of the ballad. Comparing it to the former "The Wife Wrapt in Wether's Skin," he comments, "In the former the demon is exorcised; in the latter, he meets his match in the person of the cursed wife herself." And as to the present ballad, he concludes: "The cursed wife mav be regarded as a stock character of medieval stories; but this particular ballad is probably steeped more deeply in demonology than appears from the fragments we have left of the tale." Yes, but we have a superb song left, with or without demonological implications. And America is preserving it, in the usual fashion of varying it by oral circulation, in rnany out-of-the-way places. Belden (p. 95), on the basis of two or three American texts which have the little devils "dancing on a wire," suggests a relationship to old mystery plays. But the expression does not occur in the Virginia texts.
The present eight versions or variants are essentially an extension of the TBVa material, but with five good tunes (AA-EE),
especially the three (AA-CC) transcribed from phonograph records, and with many varying details, refrains, and wordings. No whistling refrains have been added, like those in Child A and in TBVa C, D, F, and L. In general, the texts look to Child A (except for its chorus of whistlers) rather than B, but occasional details point rather toward B. Naturally, the resemblance to American texts is closer, but not too close. None of the more recent texts has the detail found in Child B and in TBVa A, in which the returned wife asks for the food she has left cooking long ago. BB (stanza 11) seems to be the only text in which the returned wife beats her sick husband (Coffin's Story Type F). Coffin's Story Typ. A would cover most of these versions, with occasional glances at other types. The old man's plowing with cattle or pigs (Coffin's Story Type C) appears in AA, CC, HH, but the pact between the devil and the man is seldom made clear. The individual headnotes call attention to some specific points of interest. In general, the variation concerns the beginning and the ending, and, of course, the refrains, no two of which are alike. The final moral, whether or not a part of the original ballad, is infinitely varied and always amusing. All told, this ballad seems to be one of the better examples of ballad variation.
BB. "The Farmer's Curst Wife." phonograph record (aluminum) made by A. K. Davis, Jr. sung by Horton Barker, of near Chilahowie, Va. Washington County. August 5, 1932. Text transcribed by P. C. Worthington. Tune noted by E. C. Meade. The song is magnificently sung, with Mr. Barker's usual verve and richness of tone. Mr. Barker's text and tune appear in
Brown, IV, 118-19, from a recording of W. A. Abrams, of Boone, N. C. No address for Mr. Barker is given, and no date for the recording. The latter is presumably August 8, 1940, when Mr. Abratns made the recording of Mrs. Timmons and Mrs. York, at Boone (see Brown, IV, 118-19). Since Mr. Barker is a Southwest Virginian, and since the present recording was made on August 5, 1932, and since it was announced and described in FSVa (p. 34), published in 1949, whereas Brown, IV, appeared only in 1957, the priority of the Virginia claim is fully established. But perhaps the dual publication is a blessing, since it gives the opportunity to compare two variants of the same song sung by the same singer at an interval of (presumably) eight years.
The tunes are essentially the same, but E. C. Mead's transcription from the Virginia record gives six variants introduced in subsequent stanzas. No variants are recorded in the Schinhan notation. The prior Virginia text is two stanzas shorter than the Brown text: it omits stanzas 4 and 5 of Brown, which read as follows:
4 'Then,' said the old man, 'I am outdone,
For I'm afraid you've come for rny oldest one.'
5 'It's neither your son nor your daughter I crave,
But your old scolding woman I now must have."
In place of Virginia stanza 5, Brown 7 reads:
7 The devil put her in a sack,
And he slung her up across his back.
The stanzas correspond, with minor variations, until the last two, where the order of the stanzas is reversed. The penultimate Virginia stanza:
12 Now this is what a woman can do,
She can outdo the devil and her old man too.
reads in the final North Carolina stanza:
15 There's one advantage women have over men,
They can go to hell and come back again.
Both texts have the rather rare stanza (Virginia 11, North Carolina 13) in which the returned wife beats her sick husband (cf. Cofifin's Story Type F).
1. There was an old man at the foot of the hill,
If he ain't moved away he's livin' there still,
Sing hi diddle-i diddle-i fi, diddle-i diddle-i day.
2. He hitched up his horse and he went out to plow,
But how he got around he didn't know how.
3. The devil came to his house one day,
Says, "One of your family I'm a-gonna take away."
4. "Take her on, take her on, with a joy in my heart,
I hope by golly you'll never part."
5. When the old devil got her on his back,
The old man says, "Now ball the jack."
6. When the old devil got her to the fork of the road,
He says, "Old lady, you're a terrible load."
7. When the devil got her to the gates of hell,
He says, "Punch up the fire, we're [1] wanta scorch her well."
8. In come a little devil a-draggin' a chain,
She up with a hatchet and split out his brains.
9. Another little devil went climbing the wall,
Says, "Take her back daddy, she's a-murderin' us all!"
10. The old man was a-peepin' out of the crack,
He saw the old devil come a-waggin' her back.
11. She found the old man sick in the bed,
And up with the butterstick and paddled his head.
12. Now this is what a woman can do,
She can outdo the devil and her old man too.
13. The old woman went whistling over the hill,
"The devil wouldn't have me so I wonder who will?"
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