Fine Sally- Wallin (NC) c.1920s REC 1963
[From Dark Holler: Old Love Songs and Ballads; Various Artists SFW40159 1963 John Cohen. Cas Wallin, born March 3, 1903 in Sodanoma, was recorded at the home of his sister-in-law, Dellie Chandler Norton, in the Burton Cove, Sodom Laurel, Madison County, North Carolina.
Ballad singer and banjo player, Sheila Kay Adams learned from her great-aunt Dellie Norton, cousin Cass Wallin, and other kinfolks in the Wallin, Chandler, Norton, Ramsey, and Ray families. Her version, which she said she learned from Cas is quite different and is an adaptation, rather than a cover.
Sharp collected several versions of this ballad in the area from Wallin relatives in 1916 and Cas surely learned a variant of these local versions when he was growing up so I put the date at c. 1920 when Cas was seventeen.
The text and rhymes are weak in places after the first verses.
R. Matteson 2014]
Wallin family from Wiki:
Members of the Wallin family are either descendants of or married to descendants of Hugh Wallin (1829—1864), a Union Army recruiter assassinated by Confederate soldiers during the U.S. Civil War. Among the children of Hugh and his wife, Rosannah, were sons Mitchell Wallin (1854—1932) and Thomas Jefferson "Tom" Wallin (1857—1948).
One of the first places they visited was Madison County, where they arrived in late July 1916. Sharp met Mary Sands on July 31, and over the next few days collected 25 ballads from her, including "The Silkmerchant's Daughter," "Earl Brand," "The Daemon Lover," and "Sheffield Apprentice." On August 4, Sharp met Sands's half-brother, Mitchell Wallin, who gave Sharp ballads such as "Betsy" and "Early, Early in the Spring" and the fiddle tune "High March." Over subsequent weeks, Sharp collected dozens of ballads from the Wallins' neighbors, namely the Shelton, Gosnell, and Chandler families.
Sharp described Mitchell Wallin as a "bad singer" and a difficult fiddler to notate due to his penchant for improvisation, but considered his visit to Wallin and Sands "fruitful." Years later, Berzilla Wallin said many residents of Madison County were initially suspicious of Sharp, believing that his purpose in the area was to secretly map the region for the construction of a dam and reservoir (and thus require the evictions of hundreds of residents). Others thought Sharp was a German spy. Doug Wallin later said that his grandfather, Tom Wallin— who had become a devout Baptist and disapproved of singing any songs other than hymns— threatened to disown family members if they performed for Sharp. In spite of local skepticism, Madison County proved to be one of the more ballad-rich areas Sharp visited."
FINE SALLY- Cass Wallin
There was a young lady from London she came
Fine Sally, fine Sally, fine Sally was her name,
She had more money than a king could possess
And her beauties and her diamonds was worth all the rest.
There was a young doctor who lived close by
Upon this fair damsel he casted his eye.
Fine Sally, fine Sally, fine Sally says he
Why can't you please tell me why our love can't agree.
I don't hate you Billy, nor no other man
But to say that I love you is more than I can.
Fine Sally took sick and she knew not for why
She sent for this young man whom she had denied;
Says are you the doctor can kill or can cure
Are you the young man whom I have denied?
Yes I am the doctor can kill or can cure
But I will reward you for what's past and gone.
Let what's past and gone be forever forgotten
And spare me a while longer on this world to live.
I won't spare you Sally nor the endurance of my heart.
But I'll dance on your grave when you're laid in the earth.
It's off of her fingers pulled diamond rings three
Says take this and wear it and be no more seen
For the light of your colors [1] remember poor me
When you are through dancing on Sally your Queen.
1. See Sharp A from Mary Sands for an explanation of this use of "colors."