Matthy Groves- Taylor (KY) 1917 Sharp L
[My title. Single stanza with music from English Folk Songs from the Southern Appalachians I; Sharp/Karpeles 1932, p. 161-182, versions A-Q. Notes from 1932 edition and notes from Sharp's diary follow. Taylor must be the daughter at the house where Mrs Pope lodged.
R. Matteson 2015]
1932 Edition Notes: No. 23. Little Musgrave and Lady Barnard.
Texts without tunes:— Child s English and Scottish Popular Ballads, No. 81. Reed Smith's South Carolina Ballads, p. 125. Cox's Folk Songs of the South, p. 94. Journal of American Folk-Lore, xxiii. 371; xxv. 182.
Texts with tunes:—Rimbault's Musical Illustrations of Percy's Reliques, p. 92. Chappel's Popular Music of the Olden Times, i. 170. MotherwelJ's Minstrelsy,
Appendix, tune No. 21. W. R. Mackenzie's Ballads and Sea Songs of Nova Scotia, No. 8. Wyman and Brockway's Twenty Kentucky Mountain Songs, pp. 22 and 62. Journal of American Folk-Lore, xxx. 309. British Ballads from Maine, p. 150. Davis's Traditional Ballads of Virginia, pp. 289 and 577.
Sharp diary 1917 page 129. Tuesday 1 May 1917 - Pineville
Directly after breakfast Maud and I walked out towards the Poor Farm in quite cool weather. I found it very hard to walk so we went slow and then rested in a very rude log-cabin belonging to a Mrs Mullins. It was the poorest house I have been in, just a shed without windows, and a lean-to at the back by way of kitchen. Full of cracks & ventilation holes and in it Mr and Mrs & 4 or 5 children and a lodger lived. Then we walked on ran Mrs. Pope, a buxom middle aged woman, to earth at Little Jack Asher’s, and lured her away to her house where she sang me several good songs. Got one from a daughter of the house at which Mrs. P[ope] lodged. Then feeling very done up I telephoned for a motor & rode back to lunch. After a rest & tea we sallied forth again to Mrs. Townsley’s, a Creole woman, Irish cum French cum Indian, and her daughter Mrs. Wilson both of whom sang us two ripping songs, a fine version of Rejected Lover, and an execution song with a gorgeous dorian air. Wrote up tunes in the evening & some letters. A good day. Quite cool, but fine.
L. [Matthy Groves] Sung by Mrs. LEANNA TAYLOR at Clear Creek, Wasioto, Bell Co., Ky., May 1, 1917
One day, one day, one holiday,
One holiday in the year,
Little Matthy Grove he come to church
This holy word for to hear, hear,
This holy word for to hear.