Sweet Willie- Mrs. Lloyd Bare Bragg, Elk Park NC 1933 Collected by Maurice Matteson
[From Beech Mountain Ballads; 1936. A version of Earl Brand titled "Sweet Willie," was collected by my grandfather Maurice Matteson with Mellinger Henry at Elk Park, NC back in 1933. My grandfather bought his dulcimer from Nathan Hicks and the Hicks family knew the ballad as "Lady Margaret."
This is very similar to the version of the same title that Frank Warner recorded which he got from North Carolina in 1933. Warner does not name an informant or source.
R. Matteson 2014]
SWEET WILLIE- Mrs. Lloyd Bare Bragg, Elk Park NC 1933
[View Music]
He rode up to the old man's gate,
And boldly he did say:
"Keep your youngest daughter at home,
But the oldest I will take away."
He got on his milk-white steed,
And she on her dapple grey;
He swung his bugle-horn around his neck
And they went riding away.
They had not gone more than a mile and a half,
Until they both looked back.
They saw her father and seven of her brothers,
Come trippling[1] over the slack.
"Crawl right down," Sweet Willie cried,
And hold my milk-white steed,
Till I fight your father and your seven brothers,
Or die in my own life's blood."
She got right down without one word,
And held the milk-white steed,
Till she saw her father and seven of her brothers,
Go dying in their own hearts blood.
"Oh slack your hand, Sweet Willie," she cried,
"Your wounds are deep and sore.
Oh slack your hand, Sweet Willie," she cried,
"For a father I can have no more."
If you don't like what I have done,
You can love some other one;
I wish you away in your mother's chamberee,
And me in some house or room.
They rode on to his father's gate,
And tapped against the ring.
"O father, O mother, asleep or awake,
Arise and let me in.
Sweet Willie died like it was today,
Fair Ellen died tomorrow.
Sweet Willie died of the wounds he received,
Fair Ellen died of sorrow.
1. I. G. Greer's 1913 version also from North Carolina has "trippling over the plain."