Her Father's Gold- Smith (NC) 1976 REC
[From Digital Library of Appalachia; Ballad sung by Betty Smith of Madison County, North Carolina at the Berea College; Also on June appal: For my friends of Song.
Smith titles it "Lady Isabel and the Elfin Knight" and its was recorded at the Berea College Celebration of Traditional Music on 10/30/76.
I'm not sure if this is traditional. Transcription incomplete.
R. Matteson 2014]
Betty Smith is a ballad singer, dulcimer player, and author from Hot Springs, NC (Madison County) and is one of Madison County's best-known musicians for over twenty years, was born in 1926 in Rowan County, and grew up in Guilford County. Her father was a ballad and shape-note singer.
"I did not set out to be a folksinger. I just am a folk singer. It is difficult to write about where I fit into the traditional music picture. I just know that I am bound to sing it and play it. Everyone knows some songs, but the questions of why I have pursued the songs so, why I have stayed with traditional music, why I am able to learn and retain so many songs - these are questions that I cannot answer. I just have this awful curiosity and a feel for what is good and authentic, both in collecting and in selecting what I will sing."
Her Father's Gold- Betty Smith 1976
He came to her where she lay,
She neither had the wings to fly away
Nor the tongue to tell him nay, nay, nay,
Nor the tongue to tell him nay.
She brought him some of her father's gold,
And some of her mother's fee
Take off take off
Six king's daughters