Lonesome Valley- Frances Richards (VA) 1918 Sharp MS
[My title. Single stanza with music from Sharp's MS. The 1932 notes English Folk Songs from the Southern Appalachians follow. This version is very fragmented.
R. Matteson 2016]
No. 48. In Seaport Town.
Texts without tunes :—Journal of American Folk-Lore, xx. 259; xxix 168. Cox's Folk Songs of the South, p. 305 (see also further references).
Texts with tunes:—Journal of the Folk-Song Society, i. 160; ii. 42; v. 123. Miss Broadwood's Traditional Songs and Carols, p. 28. Folk Songs from Somerset, No. 12 (also published in English Folk-Songs, Selected Edition, i. 4, and One Hundred
English Folk-Songs, p. 4). Journal of American Folk-Lore, xxxv. 359.
[Lonesome Valley] In Seaport Town- Frances Richards; August 17, 1918; Callaway, Virginia.
There was a couple a-sitting in the chamber a-courting,
Her brother seemed to overhear,
Saying: "This courtship shall be broken,
I'll send you headlong to your grave."
They carried him off in some wild woods hunting,
Went to many a place where no one had been,
Until they came to some low and lonesome valley,
And there they rushed and killed and slain[1].
And then they returned back home again,
She was lying on her bedside weeping.
His voice kindly came to her,
Saying: "Don't weep for me, my dearest dear,
For your brothers has rushed me and killed me cruel[1].
Then she got off her bedside weeping,
Went to many a place where no one had been[2],
She kissed him over and over crying;
Saying: You are the dearest one to me."
1. derived somehow from "rash and cruel"
2. To many a place "unknown"