Bolamkin- Baird (NC) c. 1927 Burton B
[My date. From Thomas Burton's, Some Ballad Folks pp. 53-54, 1978. His conversation with her follows. Bertha Baird, born in NC in 1880, was originally from Wilkes County, then Watauga County and moved to Oklahoma for three years then back to the Beech Mountain area. This probably dates to the 1800s but she never told Burton specifically when she learned it- she was 97 when she sang it for him (1971) and she had been singing it for around 50 years.
R. Matteson 2015]
"Bolamkin" ("Lamkin," child 93) is one that Mrs. Baird sings that she doesn't think is especially pretty, certainly not as pretty as "One Morning in May" or "Pretty Fair Maid"--still she sings it, shuts her eyes and sings it. Shutting her eyes is not a regional or traditional manner of performance, as she explains succinctly, while laughing:
"Think better"; then adds "I keep 'em shut the most of the time for I can hardly see a thing, and the light hit- I can't see's a reason I shut my eyes."
Mrs. Baird prefers a ballad "that's got a more of a tender feeling to it"; nevertheless, she has kept singing "Bolamkin" over a period of many years. "well,I sung it for a family in Oklahoma; they live over here, part of 'em. And she told me when she was just a child that-I don't know how big, old she was-- when I'd sing that song, she'd cry because they's stickin' the baby full of needles and pins. Well, that's been fifty-some years; I don't know how much longer."
1. Bolamkin's as fine a mason as ever laid a stone.
He built a fine castle and pay he got none,
He built a fine castle and pay he got none.
2. Bolamkin he come and knocked at the ring,
And the false nare[1], she arose and let him come in.
3. "Oh, where is the landlord, or is he at home?"
"He's gone to merry England to buy me a fine ring."
4. "Oh, where is the gaylady, or is she at home?"
"She's upstairs a-sleeping," said the false nare to him.
5. "Oh, how will I get her downstairs on such a dark night?"
"we will stick her little baby full of needles and pins."
6. Bolamkin he rocked and the false nare she sung
Till the tears and the red blood from the cradle did run.
7. "Oh, quiet my little baby, oh, quiet," said she,
"Oh, quiet my little baby with coffee or tea."
8. The gay lady coming downstairs a-thinking no harm,
There stood Bolamkin ready to take her in his arms.
9. "Oh, spare my life, Bolamkin, oh, spare it a little while,
Don't you hear my little baby, how mournful it cries?"
10. "What cares I for your baby? What c€ares I for it?
I have my whole desire and it's all I do crave."
11. "Oh, spare my life, Bolamkin, oh, spare it-- one day,
You may have as much gay gold as your horse can tow it away."
12. "What cares I for your gay gold? What cares I for it?
I have my whole desire and it's all I do crave."
13. "Oh, spare my life, Bolamkin, oh, spare it one hour,
You may have my daughter Betsv, my own blooming flower."
14. "You keep your daughter Betsy to wade through the flood
To scour the silver basin to catch your heart's blood."
15. Bolamkin was hanged on a gallows so high,
And the false nare, she was burned to a stake standing by.
1. nurse