Songs & Ballads Sung in Overton County, Tennessee: A Collection- Crabtree 1936

Songs & Ballads Sung in Overton County, Tennessee: A Collection- Crabtree 1936

["Songs and Ballads Sung in Overton County, Tennessee: A Collection" by Lillian Crabtree, 1936, is 316 pages long. It was her Master's thesis, George Peabody College for Teachers in 1936, which resulted in the texts of 323 songs and ballads, without music.

There are 12 chapters. Attached to this page are the 10 chapters with song texts-- the first (Introduction) and last (Conclusions) chapters do not have song texts and they will eventually appear below. There is no Table of Contents that lists individual songs or an Index- but I've made one- see immediately below. From my copy of her typed ms. three pages are missing, p, 181, 246 and 250. Since I am not including page number per se-- this will not be an issue except that at lest two songs will be missing.

While a student at George Peabody College in Nashville, Crabtree traveled throughout Overton County by auto and on horseback looking for old songs. Many of the songs, are copyrighted early country songs heard on the radio by groups like The Carter Family and Jimmie Rodgers. There are a few Child ballads but not many (three versions of Barbara Allen, Love Henery, The Farmer's Curst Wife, George Collins, Bailor's Daughter and one of The House Carpenter) and a few local ballads (Braswell Boys). There are almost no attributions- this is simply a collection of any and all the songs the author could find in Overton County 1935-1936-- mostly folk songs and early country radio songs.


It's clear that Crabtree used printed material, newspaper clippings, and that most of the texts (she calls poems) were handwritten by the informants and given to her. In my opinion, a small number were actually collected and written down by her from the singing of an informant. The effect of radio and recordings is obvious. There are songs from the Carter family and songs from and about Jimmie Rodgers (his name spelled wrong) as well as other songs from the old-time country record era which began in 1923. There are some unusual texts and some texts that pre-date recordings made in 1936 and later.  For example, the Carters recorded "My Clinch Mountain Home" in 1936. They collected and arranged some of the same texts that  Crabtree found--her version of Clinch Mountain shows an earlier, yet different version of the famous Carter recording.

Crabtree's contention that the western songs came from people migrating from Texas is amusing, of course that may be possible. I believe these songs were learned from regional performers performing in the area, radio, recordings and print sources. Because there's virtually no information about sources of these songs, we don't know.

Very little is known about Lillian Crabtree (b. August 18, 1908 in Tennessee),  in The Peabody Reflector - Volume 10, Issue 7 - Page 279 we find: Miss Lillian Crabtree and Mr. Victor Dobras were married at Milligan College, Tennessee on June 15th. Mr. and Mrs. Dobras are living at 2545 Lexington Avenue, Lorain, Ohio, where he is a member of the English faculty in the high school.

She still in Ohio in 1940 and by 1949 she follows her husband, Victor E. Dobras, Assistant Principal, Trinidad High School, Trinidad to  Colorado. Then she dies Dec. 1986 at Shawnee Mission, Johnson, Kansas. Apparently, she never published or followed up her massive collection done as a Masters thesis.

The condition of this manuscript makes it impossible to use OCR and therefore I will be doing selected songs and ballads and if I can get a better copy I may do more someday.

R. Matteson 2014]

CONTENTS:

1. INTRODUCTION p.1-6

2. FAMILY LIFE p.7
      Little Brown Cot
      Blue Ridge Mountain Home
      My Clinch Mountain Home
      Little Home in Tennessee
      The Old Door Step
      Friends of Long Ago
      A Message From Home Sweet Home
      The Drunkard's Lone Child
      The Wild Moor
      If I Only Had a home Sweet Home
      Over the Hill to the Poorhouse
      I wish I was Single Again
      I Wish I was Single Again (2)
      Ain't Gonna Be Treated This-A-Way
     Married Man's Troubles
     Now Moses
     Advice to Young Men
     Boys Keep Away From the Gals
     Grandma's Advice
     The Cumberland
     You'll Never Know a Mother's Love Again
     I've No Mother now
     The picture on the Wall
     Motherless Children
     You'll Never miss Mother
     Shake Hands with Mother Again
     Ten Thousand Miles away
     The Lightning Express
     I have no Loving Mother Now
     Pictures form life's Other Side
     Mother Queen of my Heart
     Mother and Home
     There'll Come A Time
     Hello Central, Give Me Heaven
     Step-Mother
     Don't Grieve Your Mother

3. WAR AND WAR INFLUENCE
    (Hush-A-Do)
    The Soldier Sweetheart
    After the War
    The Dying Soldier Boy
    The Dying Soldier
    The Soldier's Letter
     Brother Greene
    The Drummer Boy
     Sailor Boy
    The Navy Song
    My Pretty Quadroon
    The Pretty Octoroon [sic]
    My Happy Home in Kentucky
   
4. CRIME
    The Braswell Boys
    Charles Giteau
    The Murder of James A. Garfield
    Bad Companions
    Gambling on the Sabbath Day
    John Hearty
    Rose Conna Lee
    Knoxville Girl
    Knoxville Girl (2)
    Frankie and Johnny
    Jesse James
    Twenty-One Years
    Twenty One Years [Answer to Twenty-One Years]
    My Walking Cane
    The Boston Burglar
    Prisoner No. 999
    Mary Phagen [Fagan]
    Ommie Wise
    Little Omi Wise
    When the Lilies Bloom
    Prisoner's Song
    Prisoner's Song (2)
    Moonlight and Skies
    New Birmingham Jail
    When It's Lamp Lighting Time in the Valley
    In the Jailhouse Now
    Ninety-Nine Years
    The Drunkard's Dream
    Drunkard's Hell
    My Tender Parents
  
5. RELIGION
    Lonesome Valley
    One Day Nearer Home
    Can't Feel at Home Anymore
    Listening All the Night Long
    Little Feet Be Careful
    Diamonds in the Rough
    Shine on Me
    God Gave Noah the Rainbow Sign
    The Royal Telephone
    The Two Rulers
    Two Young Men
    The Old Woman and the Devil [Farmer's Curst Wife]
    V-I-C-T-O-R-Y
    Be kind to a Man When He's Down

6. DEATH
   The Blind Child
   Little Bessie
   The Orphan Girl
   The Dying Girl's Message
   The Dying Girl's Message (Dying Nun's Message)
   Two Little Orphans
   Two Little Orphans (2)
   Row Me Over The Tide
   A Drunkard's Child
   A Beautiful Chair
   Faded Flowers
   Musician's Harp
   Dreaming of the Loved Ones
   The Wreck of the Old '97
   The Wreck of the Old Ninety-Seven (2)
   True and Trembling Brakeman
   True and Trembling Brakeman (2)
   Engine one Forty-Three
   The Wreck of Number Nine
   Death of John Henery [sic]
   A Dream of a Miner's Child
   Fate of Floyd Collins
   Little Mary Fagan (2)
   Kitty Wells
   The Girl I Left in Sunny Tennessee
   George Collins (Child 76)
   Laura's Grave
   Put My Little Shoes Away
   The Letter Edged in Black
   Baggage Coach Ahead
   He is Coming To Us Dead
   My Buddy
   The Life of Jimmie Rogers [sic]
   Death of Jimmie Rogers [sic]
   Johnson and Dickson
   Don't Go Out Tonight, My Darling
   Conversation With Death
  
7. WESTERN SONGS
   The Dying Cowboy
   The Dying Cowboy (2)
   The Young Cowboy
   The Dying Cowboy (3) [Bury Me on the Lone Prairie]
   Bury Me Not On The Lone Prairie (2)
   I Have No Use For The Women
   Bury Me Out on the Prairie (3)
   The Dying Cowgirl
   The Dying Ranger
   The Texas Rangers
   The Texas Ranger (2)
   When the Work's All Done This Fall
   [California Earthquake]
   Yodeling cowboy
   Old Chisholm Trail
   The Silver Rio Grande
   My Texas Home
  There's a Home in Wyoming
   Good-Bye Old Paint
    Wild and Reckless Hobo
   The Gal I left behind Me
   The Yellow Roe of Texas
   When it's Springtime in the Rockies
  
8. HUMOR AND NONSENSE
   How to Make Love
   The Bulldog Down in Sunny Tennessee
   Chawin' Chawin' Gum
   Chewing Gum (2)
   The Little pink Dress
   The Possum and the Coon
   I Love That Cindy
   Frog Went A Courtin'
   Away Out on that mountain
   Bachelor's Hall
   It'll Never Happen Again
   Blue Yodel (Muleskinner Blues)
   The Bug Song
   All-Go-Hungry Hash Blues
   Great Grandad
   My Old Coon Dog
   Swapped My Horse and Got Me A Mule
    Hi-Rye Hoopdy-Do
   The Old Cow Crossed The Road
   The Old Grey Goose
    Hole in the Bottom of the sea.
   It was Midnight on the Ocean
   [Frog Went A- Courtin'] (2)
   [Ida Red]

9. VARIED SUBJECTS IN BALLAD AND SONG
   Cooling Spring (Merry Merry Little Spring)
   Whippin' That Old T.B. (Rodgers)
   Advice to Wife Seekers
   Old and Only in the Way
   The Ship that Never Returned
   [Blind Man's Ballad]
   Mississippi Flood
   You're Gonna Miss Me When I'm Gone
   Old Charlie
   My Grandfather's Clock

10. BLUES
   Railroad Blues
   Brakeman's Blues
   Memphis Yodel
   Blue Ridge Mountain Blues
   Jimmy's Mean Mama Blues
   Jimmie's Texas Blues
   Old Virginia Blues (East Carolina Blues)
   Sissy Cater Blues
   Blue Yodel (T for Texas)
   Gambling Barroom Blues (Related: St. James Infirmary)
   Those Gambler's Blues (St. James Infirmary)
   Waiting for a Train
   Oklahoma Blues
   Mississippi Valley Blues
    
11. LOVE
   Barbara Allen (1) [Child 84]
   Barbara Allen (2)
   Barbara Ellen (3)
   Careless Love
   The House Carpenter [Child 243]
   Her Bright Eyes Haunt Me Still
    Flirting
   Simply A Flirt
   Forsaken Love
   The Shadow of the Pine
   Jack and Joe
   You've Treated Me Mean and Dirty
   Lullaby Yodel
   Curly-Headed Baby
   Isle of Capree
   May I Sleep in your Barn Tonight, Mister?
   Lorena
   Joe Hardy
   The New River Train
   My Little Lady
   Thous Hast Wounded the Spirit That Love Thee
   Old Ties
   Lover's Farewell
   The Lazy boy
   Gypsy's Warning
   The Man's Reply to the Gypsy's Warning
   Girl's Reply to the Gypsy's Warning
   I Have No One To Love Me
   As I Walked out One Morning Fair
   Brown Eyes
   Green Ireland
   Thou Hast Learned To Love Another (1)
   Thou Hast Learned To Love Another (2)
   Old Smokey (1)
   On Top of Old Smokey (2)
   For the Sake of Days gone By
  The Fatal Wedding
   Ella Dare
   Charlie Brooks
   Wildwood Flower (Twine Mid The Riglets)
   After the Ball
   Broken Engagement
   Bury me Beneath The Willow (1)
   Weeping Willow (2)
   little Rosewood Casket (1)
   Little Rosewood Casket (2)
   Little Rosewood Casket (3)
   A Package of old Letters
   I'll Be All Smiles Tonight, Love
   Bring Back My Blue-Eyed Boy To Me
   Blue Eyes (I'm Thinking Tonight of My Blue Eyes)
   Leave Me Darling, I Don't Mind (Blues)
   A Forsaken Lover
   Conquer Pride
   Poor Nell
   Loving Henery [Child 68, Young Hunting]
   The Two Lovers
   The two Lovers (2)
   Flo-Ella
   Pearl Bryant
   Pearl Bryant (2)
   Sweet Fern (Sweet Birds)
   Sweet Birds (2)
   Still I Love Thee
   Absence Makes The Heart Grow Fonder
   The Sailor's Plea
   The Maple on the Hill
   I'm Lonely Tonight Sweetheart
   Will You Miss Me (When I'm Gone)
   Will You Love Me When I'm Old
   Little Darling
   Are You Tired of Me My Darling?
   Black-Eyed Susan
   Little Sweetheart
   Be Nobody's Darling But Mine
   The Red River Valley (1)
   The Red River Valley (2)
   The Red River Valley (3)
   The Red River Valley  (4)
   We Parted by the Riverside
   Don't Be Weary Little Darling
   Sweetheart Come Back To Me
   Bye, Bye, Till I See You Again
   Down Beside A Brook
   More Pretty Girls Than One
   Nobody's Darling (1)
   I'm Nobody's Darling (2)
   Peach Picking Time In Georgia (McMichen/Rodgers)
   The Roving Gambler
   The Sweet, Long Ago
   What Is A Home Without Love?
   Lassie Mohee (1)
   The Pretty Mohee (2)
   On the Banks of the Wabash
   Such A Happy Little Girl Am I
   Tell Me
   When The Mountain Laurels Bloom
   Jennie, The Flower of Kildare
   Carolina Moon
   Silvery Moon
   Sadie Ray
   I'll Remember You Love In My Prayers
   The Whip-Poor-Will
   The Storms Are On The Ocean
   Down Among the Budded Roses
   There's a Good Girl In The Mountains
   The Little Brown Jug
   Sparking on Sunday Night
   I love Little Willie
   My Happy Little Home in Arkansaw
   The Boys Won't Do To Trust
   The Aggravating Beauty Lulu Wall (Carter Family) (1)
   Lulu Wall (2)
   Meet Me in the Moonlight (Prisoner's Song- Dalhart)
   Katy At The Gate
   You're the Only Girl I Ever Cared About
   My Mother Was A Lady
   Two Sweethearts
   Somebody
   Kitty Kline
   When I was A Boy from the Mountains
   I Love You Best of All
   You're As Welcome As the Flowers in May
   Sweet Bunch of Daisey's
   You and My Guitar
   Mary and Willie
   The Bailor's Daughter (Bailiff's Daughter- Child 105)
   The Merchant's Daughter (Dog and Gun)
   The Ways Courting Breeches
    Barney McCoy
    Maggie Darling, Now Goodbye

12. CONCLUSIONS- CHAPTER XII

Of the three hundred twenty--three songs and ballads in this study, thirty-three appear in he chapter on family life, twelve in the one on war, eighteen in the one on religion, thirty-five in the one on death, nineteen in the one southern life, twenty-five in the one on humor and nonsense, ten in the one on varied subjects, fifteen in the one on blues, and one hundred-twenty in the one on love.

One hundred twenty songs classify themselves in the love division in the addition to the appearance of love in the third, fourth, sixth, seventh, eighth and tenth chapters, with varying degrees of emphasis. The ninety-seven outside the limits of the group of  happy love, in the chapter on love, little need be said about the appearance of love  in other chapters to show that unhappy love is the predominating theme. In the chapters on war, crime, death, western songs, and blues, it is evident, however, that the majority still deal with unhappy love.

Death appears to be the theme next in rank of preference. Thirty-five songs under that classification, with a strong tendency to make it outstanding in the second, third, fourth, fifth and seventh chapters and a minor touch in the ninth and eleventh chapters, makes it next to love in rank.

The second in rank according to number of poems is crime the chapter on crime has more songs than the one on death, but crime does not permeate the other chapters, and has therefore, slightly less significance.

Lillian Crabtree