The Three Sisters- Combs (KY) 1917 Sharp I
[From English Folk Songs from the Southern Appalachians, Sharp/Karpeles 1932, version I, w/music. Sharp's notes follow. There a chance the informant is related to Josiah Combs who also attended Hindman School in the early 1900s.
R. Matteson 2014]
Notes from Sharp, 1917 edition: No. 4. The Two Sisters
Texts without tunes:—Child, No. 10.
Texts with tunes:—Christie's Traditional Ballad Airs, i., pp. 40 and 42. Journal of the Folk-Song Society, i., 253, and ii., 282. English County Songs, p. 118. Northumbrian Minstrelsy, p. 61. Child, v., pp. 411 and 412 (three tunes). "Binnorie," arranged
by Dr. Arthur Somervell. American variants:—Journal of American Folk-Lore, xviii., 130 (with tune); xviii., 130 (without tune); xix., 233.
I. [The Three Sisters] Sung by Miss ELSIE COMBS at Hindman School, Knott Co., Ky., Sept. 20, 1917;
Pentatonic Mode 3.
There lived a lord in the old country,
Bow down,
There lived lord in the old country,
Bow down to me,
There lived a lord in the old country,
He had daughters one, two, three.
I'll be true to my love
If my love be true to me.