Banks of the Citoree- Bostic (NC) 1938 and 1939 Brown 4 A(1)
[From The Brown Collection of NC Folklore, Volume 4, 1957. Notes from Volume 2 follow.
Apparently the title suggested by Bostic was "Banks of Citoree" which in the early US broadsides was a somewhat similar sounding "banks of Tennessee." Recorded on March 23, 1938, Mrs. G. L. Bostic performs "The House Carpenter." This is Dr. Abrams first field recording.
http://contentdm.library.appstate.edu/docapp/abrams/field_recordings/house_carpenter.html
A handwritten text was given Abrams on March 5, 1938 by Betty Bostic, as learned from her mother-- which surprisingly is missing the opening line of the first stanza. According to my records Betty was the granddaughter of Mrs. G. L. Bostic. Although she may have learned this from her mother- the source is her grandmother. Here's what I have:
Mrs. Gordon L. Bostic (nee Della Adams) 1867-? of Mooresboro, Cleveland County, North Carolina; sent in 3-05, learned by her paternal grandaughter Betty Bostic, 1917-?, who was a student of Dr. Abrams. It's interesting to note that the very first line of the first verse is missing but this is not indicated in the handwritten MS. I've taken the liberty to add a standard opening line. The last stanza is disorganized and incomplete. It was probably forgotten and should run something like:
She had cursed the ground of living beings;
She cursed a sailor's life;
For robbing her of the one she loved,
And taking away his wife.
Listen: http://contentdm.library.appstate.edu/docapp/abrams/field_recordings/house_carpenter.html
R. Matteson 2013]
40. James Harris (The Daemon Lover)
(Child 243)
If the various traditional versions of this ballad all go back, as Child believed, to the long-winded, pedestrian seventeenth-century broadside of 'James Harris,' they constitute something of an argument for Barry's doctrine of communal re-creation. For its range as traditional song, see BSM 79, and add New Hampshire (NGMS 95-7), Tennessee (SFLQ xi 127-8), North Carolina (FSRA 38-40), Florida (SFLQ viii 160-1), the Ozarks (OFS I 166-76), Ohio (BSO 70-7), Indiana (BSI 136-48, JAFL lvii 14-15), Illinois (JAFL LX 131-2), Michigan (BSSM 54-8), and Wisconsin (JAFL LIT 46-7, originally from Kentucky). Few regional collections made in this country fail to record it ; [1] it is therefore surprising that Child knew, apparently, only one American text and that a fragment. It is almost always called in America 'The House Carpenter.' The notion that the lover from the sea is a revenant or a demon, present in the original broadside and less definitely in some of the other versions in Child, has faded from most American texts; with us it is a merely domestic tragedy. And perhaps for that very reason it is one of the favorites of American ballad singers. There are some fourteen texts in the North Carolina collection, most of them holding pretty closely to one version. A full text of this version is given first and most of the others described by reference to this.
Footnote for above:
1. There are traces of it in our K and M versions.
A(1) 'The House Carpenter.' Sung by Mrs. G. L. Bostic. Recorded at Mooresboro, Cleveland county, August 7, 1939; another title given is 'Banks of Citoree.'
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For melodic relationship cf. SharpK i 252, No. 35K, basic melodic outline only. Scale: Heptachordal, plagal. Tonal Center: g. Structure : aba1c (2,2,2,2) = aai (4,4).
Complete text:
["Banks of the Citoree."] House Carpenter- Learned from Della Adams of Mooresboro, Cleveland County, North Carolina who probably learned it circa 1880s. Sent in by her paternal grandaughter, Betty Bostic.
[Well met, well met, my old true love,]
"Well met, Well met!" cried he,
"I've just returned from the salt, salt sea --
And it's all for the sake of thee."
"I once could ha' married the king's daughter, dear;
I'm sure she'd ha' married me.
But I ha' refused the crown of gold --
And it's all for the sake of thee."
"If you could ha' married the king's daughter, dear,
I'm sure you are to blame.
For I'm married to a house carpenter --
And he is a fine young man."
"Won't you forsake your house carpenter
And go away with me?
I'll take you where the grass grows green
On the banks of the Cidaree.[2]"
"If I forsake my house carpenter
And go away with thee,
Pray tell me what you have that will keep
Me away from slavery."
She picked up her lonesome little baby,
She gave it kisses three;
"Stay here my own dear little babe
And keep your father company. "
She dressed herself in a fine rich gown,
A gown so fine she wore
And tipped the streets so gay & bright
But she never saw home any more.
She hadn't been gone more 'n' two weeks,
I'm sure it was not three,
When she began to cry an' weep
And she wept most bitterly
"Is it me that makes you weep?
Or is it my store?
Or is it the house-carpenter
Whom you never shall see any more?"
"Tis not you that makes me weep
Nor is it your store --
'Tis my one sweet little babe
Whom I never shall see any more."
She hadn't been gone more 'n' three weeks,
I'm sure it was not four.
'Twas then that she took a fatal leap --
Never to rise any more.
She had cursed the ground of living beings;
She cursed a sailor's life;
She cursed __ __ __ __ __ __
For robbing her of the one she loved.
1. I've added missing first line
2. Spelled "Citoree" by an editor of Brown Collection
MS from: I. G. Greer/W. Amos Abrams Manuscript Files Series, Folksong Files Subseries, W. L. Eury Appalachian Collection, Special Collections, Appalachian State University, Boone, NC)