Barb'ra Ellen- Howard (KY) 1917 Sharp L
[My title. Single stanza From English Folk Songs from the Southern Appalachians, 1932 Sharp/Karpeles. Notes from the 1932 edition follow. An excerpt from Sharp's diary is given.
R. Matteson 2015]
No. 24. Barbara Allen.
Texts without tunes -.—Child's English and Scottish Popular Ballads, No. 84. Gavin Greig's Folk-Song of the North-East, ii, arts. 165 and 166. Ashton's Century of Ballads, p. 173. Miss Burne's Shropshire Folk-Lore, p. 543. Garret's Merrie Book of Garlands, vol. ii. A. Williams's Folk Songs of the Upper Thames, pp. 204 and 206. D. Scarborough's On the Trail of Negro Folk Songs, p. 59. Journal of American Folk-Lore, xix. 285 ; xx. 250; xxii. 63 ; xxviii. 144; xxix. 161.
Texts with tunes :—Christie's Traditional Ballad Airs, I. 87 and 89. Journal of the Folk-Song Society, 111 and 265; ii. 15 and 80. Kidson's Traditional Tunes, P- 37- Journal of the Irish Folk-Song Society, i. 45. Chappel's Popular Music of the Olden Times, ii. 538. Kidston's Garland of English Folk Songs, p. 74. Joyce's Ancient Irish Music, p. 79. Rimbault's Musical Illustrations of Bishop Percy's Reliques, No. 53. Gavin Greig's Last Leaves, No. 32. Folk Songs from Somerset, No. 22 (also published in English Folk Songs, Selected Edition, i. 20, and One Hundred English Folk-Songs, p. 20). Thomson's Scottish Songs, iii. 29. Cox's Folk Songs of the South, pp. 96 and 523. Reed Smith's South Carolina Ballads, p. 129. W. R. Mackenzie's Ballads and Sea Songs of Nova Scotia, No. 9. Wyman and Brockway's Lonesome Tunes} p. 1. Journal of American Folk-Lore, vi. 132 ; xxii. 74 (tune only); xxxv. 343 ; xxxix. 97 and 211. Musical Quarterly, January 1916, p. 20 (tune only). British Ballads from Maine, p. 195. Davis's
Traditional Ballads of Virginia, pp. 302 and 577. McGill's Folk Songs of the Kentucky Mountains, p. 40. Sandburg's American Songbag, p. 57.
Sharp diary 1917 page 134. Sunday 6 May 1917 - Pineville - Barbourville, Kentucky
Left Pineville at 9.37 and arrived at Barbourville & the Hotel Jones at 10.45. Prospected at once and found omens much more favourable. After lunch I rested while Maud explored in another direction but brought back unfavourable news. After tea we went out again and tried a third direction and about a mile from the Hotel struck a nest of singers of the right sort from whom in an hour and a half we take down 11 songs. Delighted at this turn in our luck. Arranged to call again at same place at noon tomorrow. Wrote up book in the evening and wrote long letters to Mrs Storrow & Constance. Hotel fairly comfortable Bath rooms but no hot water! Rather grubby and bed clothes distinctly "off". However, might be worse and so long as we get some songs we can put up with this amount of discomfort.
L. [Barb'ra Ellen] Sung by MRS. ALICE SLOAN at Barbourville, Knox Co., Ky., May 6, 1917
Hexatonic (no 6th).
All in, all in the month of May,
When the flowers they were blooming,
When this young man was a taken sick
For the love of Barb'ra Ellen.