Kellyburnbraes- Laidlaw (MI) 1916 Gardner B
[From Emelyn Elizabeth Gardner and Geraldine Jencks Chickering, Ballads and Songs of Southern Michigan (1939). Titled after and indirectly originating from Robert Burns version from 1792 which begins:
There lived a carl in Kellyburn Braes,
Hey, and the rue grows bonie wi' thyme;
And he had a wife was the plague of his days,
And the thyme it is wither'd, and rue is in prime.
Although the opening stanza is similar, most of the remaining verses differ.
R. Matteson Jr. 2013]
154. THE FARMER'S CURST WIFE
Ballads and Songs of Southern Michigan (Child, No. 278)
This is a very old ballad, steeped in demonology, of which many versions have been recorded in America. Child (V, 107-108) notes that "A curst wife who was a terror to demons is a feature in a widely spread and highly humorous tale, Oriental and European." Neither of the two Child texts mentions any earlier dealings between the devil and the farmer, as Michigan E. The Michigan texts A, C, D, and E are all more similar to Child A than to B, which is in Scotch dialect. There is a refrain in Child B, and A has a chorus of whistlers. The refrains of Michigan A, B, and D are quite different from those of other published texts. For British texts see JFSS, II, 184-185, and III, 131-132; and Williams, p. 211. For American texts see Barry, Eckstorm, and Smyth, pp. 325"3335 Cox, pp. 164-165; Davis, pp. 505-515, Flanders and Brown, pp. 226-228; Lomax, pp. 110-111; Mackenzie, p 64; and Sharp, I, 275-281. Burns remodeled an old ballad which, his wife said, he gave "a terrible brushing" and which he called "Kellyburnbraes" (JIFSS, XVIII, 27-38). It is somewhat similar to the Michigan text of the same name, but there are many variations in the words, and the refrains are different For comment on the refrain see Introduction, pp. 20-21.
B. Kellyburnbraes- Sung in 1916 by Mr. John Laidlaw, Ypsilanti
1 There was an old man in Kellyburnbraes,
Tadal tadal t-alddal dal day;
He married a wife, the plague of his life,
To me rantam allegan t-alddal dal day.
2 One day as this old man was going to his plough
The devil came to him, says, "How do you do?
3 "It's neither your cow nor your calf I do crave,
But it's your auld wife, and her I maun have."
4 "You're welcome, you're welcome," the old man replied,
"But if ye can match her, you're worse than you're called."
5 The devil has got her on his back,
And like a proud peddler he's carried his pack.
6 He hauled her unto his ane hall door;
He bade her step in for a bitch and a whore.
7 When she gaed in, just like a wild bear,
Them she got haud of they never saw mair.
8 A little wee devil was lying in chains;
She up with her foot and kicked out its brains.
9 The little wee devils looked over the wa',
"O help, master, help, or she will ruin us a'."
10 Now the devil has got her again on his back,
And hame to her husband, he has taen her back.
11 "O here's your auld wife, she has managed well;
She'll no get to heaven, and she'll no bide in hell!"
12 Another little devil from behind the wall
Says, "Take her away or she'll murder us all."
13 So he picked her up with his old broken back,
And away he went, went a-totin' her back.
14 "O here's your old wife all sound and well;
If we'd kept her much longer, she'd lathered all hell."
15 So you see the women are worse than the men;
If they go to hell, they'll come back again.