Green Valley- Marie Hare (NB) 1958 Paton REC
[From Folk Legacy CD: "Marie Hare, Strathadam, New Brunswick, Canada". Also ung by Hare in 1958 at Miramichi Music Festival. Notes by Ives and Manny follow.
R. Matteson 2017]
(Ives) The girl who sings of her faithless lover and her broken heart is certainly a folksong fixture, but, while the stereotype is common, this particular song does not seem to be common at all. The only published variants I know of are the two in Helen Creighton's Maritime Folk Songs (p. 86), one of which came from Nova Scotia, the other from New Brunswick. Both have the stanzas in different order, and stanza 5 appears in neither. That stanza appears in other contexts, though, particularly in a song known as "The Blue-Eyed Boy" (see Brewster, p. 339; Henry, p. 51). There is a song, "Green Valley," collected by Alan Lomax in Beaver Island, Michigan, in 1938 (LC 2297 Al), and Bascom Lunsford sings a version of a song called "Must I Go Bound" (LC 1784 A3). Wilson (pp. 23, 67) prints a variant of the song as sung by Marie's brother, Harold Whitney, which, while obviously the "same song," is different enough in both words and tune to make an interesting comparison. Marie also sang this song in the 1958 Festival (see ATL 2175.5), the only important difference being that she spoke the last words.
(Manny) This song of the forsaken sweetheart was a great favorite of the Whitney family, and it was much sung by others in Strathadam. Marie's brother, Willie, who died in 1925, was fond of singing it, but Marie is not sure where he learned it. Every year the young men of Strathadam went west for the harvesting, and brought home songs, but this is not necessarily one of them. May MacLean, Jared's sister, sang it.
Green Valley- sung by Marie Hare of Strathadam, New Brunswick, learned from her family.
O, the first young man that came courting me,
I'll make no doubt that he loved me,
With his false heart and his flattering tongue,
He was the first to entice me when I was young,
0, the first six months his love proved kind,
Until at last he changed his mind.
Saying, "My parents call, and I must obey,
So it's goodbye, love, I am going away."
"I will hold you fast, I'll not let you go,
For you are mine by right, you know;
Fulfill those vows that you made to me
As the bright sun rose on Green Valley.
"It was on this book, love, you made me swear,
And those few lines you soon shall hear,
That no other marriage was I ne'er to make,
With no other young man, all for your sake.
"Now, must I go bound while he goes free?
Must I love a man that don't love me?
Or must I act a childish part
And love a man who has broke my heart?
"O, I must not think of his curly hair,
His cherries lips nor his wav 'ring curls,
With his fond heart and his flattering tongue,
He was the first to entice me when I was young.
"It was on the green, love, where we sat down,
Nothing but small birds came fluttering round,
Changing their notes from tree to tree,
As the bright sun rose on Green Valley.
"I will sing one verse, and I'll sing no more,
Since the boy has gone that I adore.
I will change my mind like the wavering wind,
And I'll depend no more on false mankind. "