The House Carpenter- Tom Ashley (NC) 1930 REC
[From the 14th April, 1930 recording by Tom Ashley on Columbia 15654-D, Re-issued on County CD The Music of Clarence "Tom" Ashley, 1929-1933, County CO-CD-3520. Listen: The House Carpenter- "Tom" Ashley- 1930
Early recordings include: Can't You Remember When Your Heart Was Mine? by the Carolina Tar Heels in 1928 was the first old-time country recording of "The House Carpenter" although the first verse was taken from a different song. The Greers recorded it in 1929 but it was never issued. For the Greers music see Brown Collection. Tom Ashley's version was recorded in 1930 and again with Tex Isley in 1966. Bradley Kincaid recorded the ballad in 1933.
The two recordings with nearly identical texts by Ashley are transcribed below. Ashley's tune is modal with banjo accompaniment. Ashley's verses 3 and 7 are taken from versions of Young Hunting.
At the bottom of the page is an article about Bob Dylan's cover of Ashley's version.
R. Matteson 2013, 2016]
The House Carpenter sung by Clarence "Tom" Ashley. Recorded 14th April, 1930, Columbia 15654-D, Re-issued on County CD The Music of Clarence "Tom" Ashley,1929-1933, County CO-CD-3520. [Listen: The House Carpenter- "Tom" Ashley- 1930]
There is a story about Clarence Ashley calling The House Carpenter a "lassy makin'" tune (i.e. a tune sung while making molasses), much to the confusion of the recording engineer. Years later Ashley would tell how he had confused the naive 'city slicker' who had no idea what The House Carpenter was about. [Yates; see another account below]
Well met, well met, said an old true love
Well met, well met, said he
I'm just returning from the salt, salt sea
And its all for the love of thee
Come in, come in, my old true love
And have a seat by me
It's been three-fourths of a long, long year
Since together we have been
Well, I can't come in or I can't sit down
For I haven't a moment's time
They say you're married to a house carpenter
And your heart can never be mine
Says, it's I could have married a king's daughter dear
I'm sure she'd have married me
I forsaken her crowns of gold
And it's all for the love of thee
Will you forsaken your house carpenter
And go along with me
I will take you where the grass grows green
On the banks of the deep blue sea
Said, it's she picked up her little babe
And kisses she gave it three
Says, stay right here, my darling little babe
And keep your papa company
Then it's she jumped on the snow white steed
And him on the dapple gray
They rode till they come to the banks of the sea
Three hours before it came day
Says, it's are you a-weeping for my silver and my gold
Says, it's are you a-weeping for my store
Are you a-weeping for that house carpenter
Whose face you'll never see anymore
Says, it's I'm not a-weeping for your silver or your gold
Says, it's I'm not a-weeping for your store
I am a-weeping for my darling little babe
Whose face I'll never see anymore
Hadn't been on the ship but about three weeks
I'm sure it was not four
Till they sprung a leak in the bottom of the ship
And they sinken for to rise no more
--------------------------
[Transcription from FOLKWAYS RECORDS Album No. FA 2350; 1966]
Copyright by Folkways Records and Service Corp. 165 W. 46th st. NYC. NY. USA
CLARENCE ASHLEY and TEX ISLEY
SIDE ONE: Band 6
THE HOUSE CARPENTER (Child 243)
Tom's 1928 recording of THE HOUSE CARPENTER (Columbia 15444) is perhaps the finest single record he made as a young man. Oddly enough, it seems to have been recorded as the result of a prank Tom played a Columbia A and R man, who didn't know just what he was getting when Ashley offered a "lassy makin'" (i. e. song associated with molasses stir-offs and similar community social events) tune. Many professional old-time entertainers knew a number of very old ballads and lyric songs which they did not offer to recording companies simply because the songs had strong personal or family associations for them, or were too long or thought not entertaining enough for the mass media. Tom Ashley's sense of mischief was thus responsible for one of the rare early recordings of a Child Ballad. Tom's Carolina Tar Heel partner, Dock Walsh, sang a HOUSE CARPENTER version non-modal in character: Cf The Carolina Tar Heels CAN'T YOU REMEMBER WHEN YOUR HEART WAS MINE Victor 40219, 1930.
Well met, well met, said an old true love
Well met, well met, said he
I'm just returning from the salt, salt sea
And it's all for the love of thee.
Come in, come in, myoid true love
And have a seat by me
It's been three fourths of a long, long year
Since together we have been.
Well, I can't come in or I can't sit down
For I haven't but a moment's time
They say you're married to a house carpenter
And your heart can never be mine.
Says, it's I could have married a king's daughter dear
I'm sure she'd have married me
I forsaken her crowns of gold
And it's all for the love of thee.
Will you forsaken your house carpenter
And go along with me
I will take you where the grass grows green
On the banks of the deep blue sea.
Said, it's she picked up her little babe
And kisses she gave it three
Says, stay right here, my darling little babe
And keep your papa company.
Then it's she jumped on the snow white steed
And him on the dapple gray
They rode till they come to the banks of the sea
Three hours before it came day.
Hadn't been on the ship but about two weeks
I'm sure it was not three
Till his true love began to weep and to mourn
And she weeped most bitterly.
Says, it's are you a-weeping for my silver and my gold
Says, it's are you a-weeping for my store
Are you a-weeping for that house carpenter
Whose face you'll never see anymore.
Says, it's I'm not a-weeping for your silver or your gold
Says, it's I'm not a-weeping for your store
I am a-weeping for my darling little babe
Whose face I'll never see anymore.
Hadn't been on the ship but about three weeks
I'm sure it was not four
Till they sprung a leak in the bottom of the ship
And they sinken for to rise no more.
------------------
House Carpenter: A Song's Journey Through the Archives
By Tom Tierney, Director, Sony Music Archives Library
Somewhere in the middle of the November 1961 recording sessions that produced Bob Dylan’s first Columbia Records release, the song “House Carpenter” was retrieved from Bob’s repertoire and set to tape: it was not ultimately selected for the album’s final tracklist, but the performance easily equaled if not surpassed that of other songs put on the record.
Where did the 20-year old find this ancient ballad? Well, for one, he almost certainly heard it for the first time on the “Ballads” volume of “The Anthology Of American Folk Music,” compiled by Harry Smith for Folkways in 1952. The version used there (without permission, incidentally) was a Columbia Records recording from 1930, by the one-eyed clawhammer banjo player Clarence “Tom” Ashley.
This card from the Sony Music Archives documents the release of “House Carpenter.” The song’s matrix number, W194982, is the unique indentifying number assigned to the master by Columbia, and 15654-D the number of the record itself (the 15000 block of numbers is the label’s legendary “hillbilly” series). The song, recorded on April 14, 1930, was released in May 1931 with an initial order from the Bridgeport (“Bpt.) factory for 765 copies, with an additional (and unbelievably paltry) 35 for the west coast from the Oakland, California, plant. The handwritten “588” and “30” usually indicate sales figures per month, but mysteriously, these numbers were written in boxes that would indicate sales prior to the release of the song. Human error or some arcane clerical shorthand lost to history?
At any rate, the song received its most famous recording 31 years later: here’s a Columbia Records “job sheet” cataloging that day’s events at Studio A in New York City:
The man with the blue pen was John Hammond, and he oversaw this, the second session for “Bob Dylan,” November 22, 1961, from 2:30 to 5:25pm. (With nine songs laid down, that’s a hair under 20 minutes per song on average.) The “CO” numbers assigned to each song are unique identifiers for each Columbia Records session master in New York (Hollywood recordings received an HCO number, Nashville NCO, etc.) And there’s a card for those too:
The CBS Artist Contract Cards (which are neither contracts nor cards: discuss) also list Columbia recording session data, but from more of an a&r and release schedule perspective than from a recording studio perspective.
These documents were created by the Columbia A&R department prior to release: a pencil strikethrough indicated that the master was released on album or single (entries for masters left in the can were left unmolested). The two songs on this page that made it to “Bob Dylan,” “See That My Grave Is Kept Clean” and “Fixin’ To Die,” have mono and stereo lp numbers (and release date) entered to the far left of “Grave,” and the mono and stereo matrix numbers of the lp to the near left.
Thankfully, no one at Columbia in 1991 went back and added strikethroughs to the songs that were released for the first time on Volume One of “The Bootleg Series”: likewise, we promise to refrain from any future note-taking on any vintage company documentation.
Note: Clarence Ashley's recording of "The House Carpenter" was compiled by the legendary Harry Smith on the first of the Anthology of American Folk Music LP sets released by Folkways in 1952. Enormously influential on a generation of musicians since then, the Anthology is currently in print and available, and strongly recommended.
Bob Dylan's recording of "House Carpenter" is found on "The Bootleg Series, vol. 1-3: Rare and Unreleased 1961-1991"