Truelover's Warning- E. Ramsey (NC) 1980 Yates A
[From: Far in the Mountains Volume 1 and 2; Mike Yates. His notes follow.
R. Matteson 2016]
Evelyn and Douston Ramsey
Evelyn and Douston had a small tobacco farm in the deep mountains of Madison County. Douston was the brother of the well-known Madison County singer and banjo-player Obray Ramsey. Some years before my visit Evelyn had organized a small annual music festival, but after about three years it began to get out of hand, someone was stabbed during a fight, and the festival folded. I stayed with Evelyn and Douston for a few days and really enjoyed being driven through the neighbourhood by them, listening to them singing and telling local stories. They reminded me of something that Cecil Sharp had once said about the Hensley family of Carmen. "My experience has been very wonderful so far as the people and their music is concerned...I spent three days, from 10a.m. to 5p.m., with a family in the mountains consisting of parents and daughter, by name Hensley. All three sang and the father played the fiddle. Maud and I dined with them each day, and the rest of the time sat on the verandah while the three sang and played and talked, mainly about the songs." One ballad, collected from Rosie Hensley, was Fair Ellender and Sweet William, a version of which I recorded from Evelyn.
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This version of The Silver Dagger was well-established in Madison County when I first visited the area - although Cecil Sharp only published sets from Kentucky and Virginia - and I also recorded three of Evelyn's neighbours singing versions of the song. (Doug Wallin's version appears on Volume 3, track 20, of this set).
When, in 1949, Arthur Kyle Davis published his checklist of songs and ballads collected in Virginia, he was able to list eighteen sets, including one recording made by Texas Gladden, the sister of Hobart Smith, who called it, appropriately, Broken Hearts. A version from the singing of Holey Huntley may be heard on Augusta Heritage cassette 009, and listeners may wish to compare Evelyn's version with that recorded by Charlie Oaks and His Family - Wake Up You Drowsy Sleeper - that is reissued on Yazoo 2028.
36. The Truelover's Warning (Laws G21, Roud 711)
(Sung by Evelyn Ramsey at her home in Sodom Laurel, Madison County, NC. 30.8.80)
Come all you friends and pay attention,
And listen to these few lines I'm going to write.
They are as true as ever was written,
Concerning the life of a beautiful bride.
A young man courted a handsome lady,
He loved her as dear as he loved his life.
And unto him she made this promise,
She would be his lawful wife.
As soon as her parents learnt to know this,
They tried to part them night and day.
'Oh son, why be so foolish?
She's too poor.' they would often say.
Down on his knees before his father,
He cried, 'Oh father, please pity me.
How can you keep me from my true-love?
For she is all the world to me.'
As soon as this lady came to know this,
She soon made up what she would do.
She wandered forward and left the city,
The green wild rose no more to view.
She wandered down by the lonesome river,
And for death she did prepare.
'Let this be a youthful warning,
That all true-lovers may never part.'
Her true-love being not far behind her,
He heard an awful sound.
He looked and saw his true-love lying,
With a sword upon the ground.
Her cold black eyes, like stars she opened,
Saying, 'Love, oh love, you've come too late.
Prepare to meet me up in Heaven,
Where all true-lovers will be complete.'
He then picked up the sword, a-weeping,
And placed it to his own dear heart.
Saying, 'Won't this be a joyful morning,
When all true-lovers may never part.'