Jimmy Randal- McAllister (VA) 1935 Wilkinson MS
[My title. From Winston Wilkinson's MS, Bronson 51. Lucy was the sister of Marybird McAllister, and I believe (unconfirmed) that Lucy married Will McAllister and her sister married Lem McAllister. The area is Brown's Cove, Va. and George Foss who collected ballads there in the early 1960s describes it in his online article/book, White Hall to Bacon Hollow:
From White Hall to Bacon Hollow is about a place and about its culture and people. I have granted myself the author's indulgence of selecting a title significant in its double meaning. White Hall to Bacon Hollow is a stretch of twisting country road, Virginia route 810, crossing the line between Albemarle and Greene Counties. Heading west from Charlottesville toward Staunton across the mountains in the valley of Virginia and the Shenandoah River, turn north through the small industrial town of Crozet past orchards of apples and peaches and fields of corn and rye to a small country store in the fork of the road which is White Hall. From there the road winds ever closer to the mountains northward some twenty miles to Bacon Hollow. This region is bounded on the west by the southernmost section of the Skyline Drive and nestles into the gaps and coves which reach up to the Shenandoah National Park line near the crest of the Blue Ridge Mountains.
This area is rich in folk-songs and ballads and was visited by Cecil Sharp, John Stone, Wilkinson, Paul Clayton, Kyle Davis Jr, and other collectors.
R. Matteson 2014]
Jimmy Randal- Wilkinson MSS., 1935-36, pp. 24-25(A). Sung by Mrs. Lucy McAllister, Harriston, Va., Oct., 1935.
What did you have for your supper, Jimmy Randal, my son?
What did you have for your supper, my fair and pretty one?
Fried eels and fried onions, Mother fix my bed soon.
I'm sick at my heart and I want to lie down.
What you going to will your father, Jimmy Randal, my son?
What you going to will your father, my fair and pretty one?
My farm and fine buildings, Mother fix my bed soon.
I'm sick at my heart and I want to lie down.
What you going to will your brother, Jimmy Randal, my son?
What you going to will your brother, my fair and pretty one?
My horse whip and saddle, Mother, make my bed soon.
I'm sick at my heart and I want to lie down.
What you going to will your sister, Jimmy Randal, my son?
What you going to will your sister, my fair and pretty one?
My chest and my money, Mother, make my bed soon.
I'm sick at my heart and I want to lie down.
What you going to will your mother, Jimmy Randal, my son?
What you going to will your mother, my fair and pretty one?
My dead body to bury, Mother, make my bed soon.
I'm sick at my heart and I want to lie down.
What you going to will your true-love, Jimmy Randal, my son?
What you going to will your true-love, my fair and pretty one?
Brimstone and fire to parch her bones brown, Mother, make my bed soon.
I'm sick at my heart and I want to lie down.