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Free Little Bird
Old-Time, Song and Breakdown, original lyrics by Crosby. USA; Eastern Tenn.
ARTIST: From Laura Lawson, KY 1931; Collected by Harvey H. Fuson- Ballads of the Kentucky Highlands p. 130.
CATEGORY: Fiddle and Instrumental Tunes
DATE: 1853 (Earliest recording, Dykes Magic City Trio- 1927)
OTHER NAMES: Katy Cline;
RELATED TO: Willie Dear; Katy Cline; Careless Love;
RECORDING INFO: Old Homestead OHCS 191, "Dykes Magic City Trio" (Eastern Tenn.) {originally recorded for a Brunswick 78 in 1927}. Columbia 15498 (78 RPM), Roane County Ramblers (1929). County 403, Roane County Ramblers (Eastern Tenn.) {1929}. Marimac 9008, The Lazy Aces - "Sill Lazy After All These Years" (1986. Version originally from Clarence Ashley & Fred Price); Any Old Time String Band. Any Old Time String Band, Arhoolie 4009, LP (1978), cut#B.04; Ashley, Clarence (Thomas/Tom)). Old-Time Music at Clarence Ashley's, Part 2, Folkways FA 2359, LP (1963), cut# 1; Ashley, Clarence (Thomas/Tom)). Folk Go-Go, Verve/Folkways FV 9011, LP (197?), cut# 12; Bluestein, Evo. Evo's Autoharp, Greenhays GR 715, LP (1985), cut# 4; Boosinger, Laura. My Carolina Home, Upstream UP 888, CD (1990), cut# 7; Chelf, J. E.. I Kind of Believe It's A Gift, Meriweather Meri 1001-2, LP (198?), cut# 31 (Sweet Sunny South); Douglas, Bob. Sequatchie Valley, Tennessee Folklore Soc. TFS-109, LP (198?), cut# 11c (Free A Little Bird); Highwoods String Band. Fire on the Mountain, Rounder 0023, LP (1973), cut# 13; Holcomb, Roscoe. High Lonesome Sound, Folkways FA 2368, LP (1965), cut#B.06; Holcomb, Roscoe. High Lonesome Sound, Smithsonian SF 40104, CD (1998), cut#15 (I'm a Free Little Bird); Holt, David. Reel and Rock, Flying Fish FF 372, LP (1985), cut#A.02; Lunsford, Bascam Lamar. Music From South Turkey Creek, Rounder 0065, LP (1976), cut#a 1; McCutcheon, John. Barefoot Boy with Boots On, Front Hall FHR-021, LP (1981), cut# 11; New Lost City Ramblers. There Ain't No Way Out, Smithsonian/Folkways 40098, CD (1997), cut#23; Owens, Bill; and the Kinfolk. Songs of the Smokey Mountains, REM LP-1024, LP (197?), cut# 10 (Free A Little Bird); Ridgel's Fountain Citians. Tennessee Strings, Rounder 1033, LP (197?), cut# 6 (Free A Little Bird); Roane County Ramblers. Original Recordings, 1928-29, County 403, LP (1971), cut# 7 (Free A Little Bird; Seeger, Peggy And Mike. American Folk Songs for Children, Rounder 8001/8002/8003, LP (1977), cut# 45; Stringbean (David Ackerman). Stringbean and His Banjo. A Salute to Uncle Dave Macon, Starday SLP 215, LP (196?), cut# 12; West, Hedy; and Bill Clifton. Getting Folk Out of the Country, Bear Family BF 15008, LP (198?), cut# 1;
SOURCES: American Folk Songs for Children, Doubleday/Zephyr Books, Bk (1948), p.120; Darling-NAS, pp. 268-269, "Free a Little Bird;" Silber-FSWB, p. 391, "Free Little Bird;" Mel Bay’s “Doc Watson and Clarence Ashley” by Dix Bruce;
NOTES: “Free Little Bird” is an adaptation of “Kitty Clyde,” written and composed by L. V. H. Crosby and published in1853; for complete lyrics see Version 6. Here’s a verse of Kitty Clyde:
How I wish that I was a Bee,
I'd not gather honey from flowers,
But would steal a dear sip from Kitty's sweet lip,
And make my own hive in her bowers.
Or, if I was some little bird,
I would not build nests in the air,
But keep close by the side of sweet Kitty Clyde,
And sleep in her soft silken hair.
Free Little Bird is related to “Willie Dear,” and the Monroe’s “Katy Cline,” and has a similar structure to “Careless Love.” In “Katy Cline" the singer “wishes he were a little bird with its nest in the air” plus there are other floating verses. Monroe Brothers, "Katy Cline" (Bluebird 6960, 1937) is another version based on “Kitty Clyde,” the name changing slightly to “Katy Cline.”
More information on “Free Little Bird” can be found in W.K. McNeill, Southern Mountain Folksongs (August House, 1993, pp. 81-86).
Here are the lyrics of Free Little Bird from Laura Lawson:
I'm as free a little bird as I can be,
I'm as free a little bird as I can be,
I'm as free a little bird as ever spoke a word,
I'm as free a little bird as I can be.
Go bring me a chair and set me down,
Go bring me a pen and write it down,
At the end of every line that I write down,
The tears will come falling to the ground.
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