Barbara Allen- Curtis (MO) 1938 Randolph L
[My title. Partial text given in Ozark Folksongs; Randolph, I, 1946, p. 131(E). Randolph's notes include this curious comment, "There are several commercial records of this ballad, of which those by Al Craver (Columbia 15126-D) and Vernon Dalhart (Brunswick 117) are probably the best." It should be noted that Dalhart and Craver are the same person!! Craver is one of the many pseudonyms Dalhart used to record for different companies.
R. Matteson 2015]
L. Barbara Allen. From a text contributed by Mr. C. F. Curtis, Barnumtown, Mo., Dec. 2I, 1938.
Oh cursed be my only name,
And cursed be my beauty,
I might have saved this young man's life
If I had done my duty.
They were buried in a great church yard
All by their own desire
And out of Willie's grave there sprang a red rose,
And out of Barbara's a brier.
They grew and they grew and they grew and they grew
Till they could not grow no higher,
And then they tied in true lovers' knot,
For the rose wrapped round the brier.