House Carpenter- Allen (VA) 1950 Karpeles Bronson 38
[From: A Return Visit to the Appalachian Mountains (excerpt) by Maud Karpeles; Journal of the English Folk Dance and Song Society, Vol. 6, No. 3 (Dec., 1951), pp. 77.
Karpeles talks about her return trip to the mountains in 1950 immediately below.
R. Matteson 2013]
My visit was sponsored by the Library of Congress who lent a tape-recording machine to me and my companion, Mrs. Sidney Robertson Cowell. We spent three and a half weeks in the mountains and we concentrated on seeking out the singers, or members of their families, from whom Cecil Sharp and I had formerly obtained songs. It transpired that some fifty of these singers had died or could not be traced, but I succeeded in finding thirty-one (either former singers or their near relatives). Of these, sixteen no longer remembered the songs, but, to compensate, the remaining fifteen (nine former singers and six relatives) sang to us and we recorded sixty-nine songs from them. In addition, five singers and instrumentalists, whom I had not previously known, gave us, between them, twenty-two pieces, making a total of ninety-one songs and tunes.
House Carpenter ["Daemon Lover," or "House Carpenter"]- Sung by Mrs. Oscar Allen (62), Lynchburg, Va., September 15, 1950 a. LC/ AAFS, rec. No. 10,0004 (A16) Collected by Maud Karpeles and Sidney Robertson Cowell; Mode Dorian (III once sharped).
1. "Well met, well met, my own true love,
Well met, well met, said he.
"I've just returned from the salt water sea.
And 'twas all for the sake of thee."
2. I once could have married a king's daughter dear,
And she would have married me.
But I refused the crown of gold,
And 'twas all for the sake of thee.
3. If you could have married a king's daughter dear,
Now married at your command [sic].
For I have married a house carpenter,
And I think he's a nice young man,
And I think he's a nice young man.
4. If you forsake your house carpenter,
And come and go with me,
I'll take you where the grass grows green
On the banks of sweet Willie.
5. She picked her little baby up,
And kisses gave it three,
Saying, Stay at home my darling little babe,
And keep your Dad's company,
Saying, Stay at home, my darling little babe,
And keep your Dad's company.
6. They had not been on sea two weeks,
I'm sure it was not three,
Before the lady she began to weep,
And she wept most bitterly.
7. Are you weeping for your house carpenter,
Are you weeping for your gold?
Or are you weeping for your house carpenter
Whose face you'll see no more?
8. I am not weeping for my house carpenter,
Or neither for my gold.
I'm weeping for my darling little babe,
Whose face I'll see no more.
I'm weeping for my darling little babe,
Whose face I'll see no more.
9. They had not been on sea three weeks,
I'm sure it was not four,
Before the ship it sprang a leak,
And it sank to rise no more.