Silver Dagger- Lulabelle Greene (KY) 1973 REC
[From Meeting's a Pleasure Vol. 2. The liner notes follow.
This is a version of end of the composed ballad, Silver Dagger, which dates back to the early 1800s.
R. Matteson 2016]
Alva Greene, although he undoubtedly knew many old songs, steadfastly refused to sing a note for us. One day I was asking him about such matters and he said, 'Oh, I think Lulabelle knows that' and called out his wife, whom I had scarcely met before she had previously always hidden in the back part of the house during our visits (or so I presume). This is only the second half of the song and it may well be that, when I invited her to come over to the microphones, she began where she had last left off (she was understandably very nervous). I would have like to work with her further, but this was unfortunately the day on which Social Security checks arrive in the mountains and Alva terminated our session soon after, just as soon as the mailman arrived. Since all of our later sessions with Alva occurred over at Francis Gillum's place, I never met Lulabelle again. Her short selection gives a good representation of the common style of Appalachian singing that was undoubtedly once universal in the region.
Folk Songs of the Catskills has a good note on the complications of this nineteenth century song, whose elements sometimes entangle with those of Katy Dear. Early recordings of the ballad seem comparatively scarce and completely at odds with its popularity in tradition, possibly because its normal length is not easily telescoped to a three minute span. Sarah Gunning sang it for me on Rdr 0051 and Tommy Moore supplies a version on SF 40029. More recent versions can be found on MT 321 and MT 323.
The Silver Dagger - Lulabelle Greene, vocal (Rec: Mark Wilson, Sandy Hook, Ky, August, 1973).
She pulled out a silver dagger
She pierced it through her snow white breast
At first she reeled and then she staggered
Saying, "Farewell, wide world, I'm going to rest."
Young Willie down by the roadside wondering
He thought he heard his true love's voice
He ran, he ran like a man distracted
Saying, "Love, oh love, I'm afraid you're lost."
Her coal black eyes like a diamond cinders
"Love, oh love, you've come too late.
Propose to meet me on Mt Zion
Where all of our sorrows will be complete."
He picked up the silver dagger
He pierced it through his own true heart.
Saying, "Let this be a youthful's warning
Where all true lovers hates to part."