Gentle Little Jenny- Nye (OH/KY) 1937 Lomax
[This is my transcription, Bronson has one and so does the Library of Congress. Gentle may have originally been Gentiel, as in upper class. This is especially true with the Cooper of Fife versions.]
[Excerpt from:] AN INFORMANT IN SEARCH OF A COLLECTOR:
CAPTAIN PEARL R. NYE OF OHIO
Captain Nye demonstrates, as perhaps no other informant yet studied does, these factors in the survival and transmission of traditional oral literature. His family constituted a homogeneous group in itself. Born on the boat, "Reform," on February 5, 1872, he was one of eighteen children, the 15th child, the 9th boy.[3] His father's boat, he reports, was known up and down the Canal as "Bill Nye's Circus" or "Bill Nye's Orphan Home," and it was a boat on which singing was a common pastime, both within the family group and at Canal gatherings.
His parents sang to entertain the children, using "song and music as a mind developer," he commented.[4] There were "Singing Bees" and "jollifications," and he often noted that one or another of the many songs he wrote out was popular on the Canal and much called for at get-togethers. Lionel Wyld, in his book on the Erie Canal, noted that "The canaler and his culture represented a ... definite, separate social grouping, one apart from the mainstream of society. He was both mobile and caught."[5] The mobility compensated for the formal schooling not possible for the Nye children except when the boat was frozen in. "Father promised to make it a 'daylight trip' so we would get better acquainted with "Indian" and "Canal History," he wrote Alan Lomax;[6] and it exposed him to what Wilgus has called the two Ohio folksong traditions[7] as well as a variety of other influences. If Miss Eddy's collection represents the northern tradition and can be called, as Wilgus calls it, largely vertical,[8] Captain Nye's
material encompasses elements of all the various traditions that drifted across Ohio and along its canals and rivers.
He was very aware of the "apartness" of the canalers, the "clannish side,"[9] to use his term, and of the fact that many of the traditional songs in his family were different. Of his very full version of "Pretty Sally," Laws second type, much called for on the Canal, he says "We seemed to sing this different than others."[10] He thought the Canal versions much prettier.
The canalers also had a language of their own, and one part of the book Captain Nye was working on during the last years of his life consisted of a listing of Canal words and terms with definitions. There was evidently a very strong sense of community, and when the Canal closed in 1913 and Captain Nye burned his boat[11] and tried to take up life on shore he never felt at home there.
The "last of the Canal Boat Captains" first came to national attention through John Lomax, who recorded 33 of his songs in June, 1937.
Gentle Little Jenny (The Wife Wrapped in the Wether's Skin)- Sung by Captain Nye 11-03-1937; Recorded by John Lomax. AFS 1603 B1
http://memory.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/r?ammem/afcnyebib:@field(DOCID+@lit(afcnye000024))
I married me a wife, and took her home,
Yes I did.
I married me a wife, and took her home,
Where the dew flies over the valley.
I married me a wife, and took her home,
But often I wished I'd let her alone,
For often her heart seemed like a stone,
My gentle little Jenny.
When I come in 'tis [1] from the field,
Yes it is.
When I come in 'tis from the field,
To greet my little Jenny.
When I come in 'tis from the plow,
and say kind wise, "My dear now."
And scorn she bows and starts a row,
My gentle little Jenny.
There's a piece of bread upon the shelf,
See it there.
There's a piece of bread upon the shelf,
Oh my bouncing little laddie.
There's a piece of bread upon the shelf,
If you want anymore you can bake it yourself,
My bouncing little laddie but your highness Master Paddy.
I gets me a knife, and I went to the barn, yes I did.
I gets me a knife, and I went to the barn,
For to cut me an old hickory.
I gets me a knife, and went to the barn,
A hickory I cut as long as my arm,
It did more good than a thousand charms
For gentle little Jenny.
Then I went out to my the sheep pen,
Yes I did.
Then I was out to my sheep pen,
Far off of my gentle Jenny.
Then I went out to my sheep pen,
And soon cut off an old wether's skin,
Then I put my dear little Jenny in,
My darling little Jenny.
She did not like it on her back,
No, no, no.
She did not like it on her back,
For the smart then to grow.
She did not like it on her back,
For my old hickory went wickety wack,
It took out wrinkles and the slack,
Of darling little Jenny.
I'll tell my father and all my kin,
Yes I will.
I'll tell my father and all my kin,
My bouncing little laddie.
I'll tell my father and all my kin,
That you whipped me with your hickory limb,
And then he'll say, come home to him,
My bouncing a little Paddy.
If you do, I'll tell you lies,
yes, I will.
If you do, I'll tell you lies,
My darling little Jenny.
If you do, I'll say you lied,
I was only dressing my wether's hide,
And that is true can not be 'nied,
My darling little Jenny.
Then I come in 'tis my plow,
Yes, it is.
When I come in 'tis my plow,
My darling little Jenny.
When I come in 'tis my plow,
She acts much better like a new creature now,
In the old woman's hide she took a vow,
My darling little Jenny.
1. Another transcription has "just" instead of "tis"