The Brown Girl- Williams (NC) c.1940s Abrams
[My title, replacing the generic Child tittle. From a MS in the Abrams collection; recorded on October 2, 1943. Dr. Cratis Williams source is unknown. Williams was a teacher, folklorist, performer, and the recognized leading authority on Appalachian literature, folkways, and speech. He published several short collections of folk songs including "Ballards and Songs."
Listen: http://omeka.library.appstate.edu/items/show/18953
The second stanza seems composed. Perhaps this is an arrangement.
R. Matteson 2014]
The Brown Girl- Dr. Cratis Williams
"Oh mother, oh mother, pray what shall I do?
Come and advise your own dear son,
Must I marry Fair Eleanor, say,
Or bring the brown girl home."
Then she rose up, she pondered well,
This counsel she gave her son.
Says, "My advice to you, Lord Thomas my son,
Is fetch the Brown girl home."
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