The House Carpenter- McGee (NC) 1943 Abrams REC
[From The Abrams collection of Field Recordings made circa 1939-1946, with added commentary. McGee give an additional verse at the end (in brackets) which probably should be the third verse not the last.
R. Matteson 2013, 2016]
The House Carpenter- sung by James McGee of Boone, NC. Recorded on June 16, 1943.
Listen: http://contentdm.library.appstate.edu/docapp/abrams/field_recordings/house_carpenter_mcgee.html
'Well met, well met, my old true love,
Well met, well met," said he;
"I'm just returned from the salt, salt sea,
And it's all for the love of thee."
Oh, will leave your house carpenter,
And come and go with me,
I'll take you where the grass grows green
On the banks of sweet Liberty.
She picked up her sweet little babe,
And kisses gave it three,
Saying, "Stay, oh stay my sweet little babe
And keep you papa company."
They hadn't been sailing more weeks than two,
I'm sure it was not three;
Till she fell a-weeping in her true love's arms
And she wept most bitterly.
Are you weeping for my silver or my gold,
Are you weeping for my store?
Or are you weeping for your house carpenter,
That you never will see any more?
I'm neither weeping for my silver or my gold
I'm neither for your store.
I was only weeping for my sweet little babe
Whose face I shall see no more
[I can not leave my sweet little babe,
And go to a foreign land;
For I have married a the house carpenter
And I think he's a nice young man]