Bluegrass Messengers

The Two Brothers- Huff (KY) 1917 Sharp I

[Not necessarily a local title. From Cecil Sharp and Maud Karpeles: English Folk songs from the Southern Appalachians; Oxford, 1932.

R. Matteson 2012, 2014]

I. The Two Brothers. Sung by Mrs, OLLIE HUFF at Berea, Knox Co., Ky., May 31, 1917
Heptatonic. Ionian.

1. There's two little brothers going to school.
The old-est to the youngest called:
Come go with me to the green shady grove
And I'll wrestle you a fall.

2 They went to the green shady grove,
Where they wrestled up and down.
The oldest to the youngest said:
You've given me a deadly wound.

3 Rip my shirt from off my back,
Rip it from gore to gore,
And then tie up those bleeding wounds,
And they won't bleed no more.

4 He ripped his shirt from off his back,
Ripped it from gore to gore,
And then tied up those bleeding wounds,
And they did bleed no more.

5 When you go home tell mother dear,
If she isn't quarrelling about me,
Tell her I'm laid at the new church-yard,
Let be what church it may.

6 She mourned and she mourned,
She mourned for little Willie,
She nearly mourned him out of his grave
To come home and be with her.