US & Canada Versions: 84. Bonny Barbara Allen
[Somewhat complete for now with 439 versions. Texts from Cox, Brown are also attached to Recording and Info page (40 versions). I have put about 12 recordings on and have a number of recordings (Charles Seeger's for example) left to put on. The Notes section has not been edited. Several texts need to be added from the bottom of this page.]
[My collection now has 439 versions, many of which have never been accessible and are not listed in the Roud Index. Barbara Allen is the most widely known and collected Child ballad in North America, appearing in collections from Jamaica to Newfoundland. It's popularity also extended to recorded versions and in 1927 the ballad was recorded by the immensely popular Vernon Dalhart in NYC. Vance Randolph's notes include this curious comment, "There are several commercial records of this ballad, of which those by Al Craver (Columbia 15126-D) and Vernon Dalhart (Brunswick 117) are probably the best." It should be noted that Dalhart and Craver are the same person!! Craver is one of the many pseudonyms Dalhart used to record for different companies so he could record the same song more than once. Dalhart recorded Barbara Allen seven times from 1927 to the early 1930s under a variety of aliases.
Bradley Kincaid recorded it in 1928 and popularized it on WSL radio out of Chicago where it was his most requested song. Other early recordings include Frank Luther and his Pards, Newton Gaines, Doc Hopkins, The Vagabonds (1933) and Merle Travis (1945). There have been hundreds of recordings since 1945 by some of the leading recording artists. Most of these, of course, are cover songs and not traditional- so they won't appear here.
Early "collected" North American traditional texts come from (1) the Stevens/Douglass manuscripts (New England c. 1841), (2) Walter S. Chatham of PA, (1777-1855) no date given but possibly dating to the 1700s (3) The Old Album of William A. Larkin (1866) (4) Davis R, traditional through a family back to c. 1798 (5) 1799, traditional through the Hubbard family (this version has never been published) and (6) from c. 1798, a single stanza from an old manuscript (Flanders U). The printed versions (broadside single sheets and music collections) date back at least to 1829 in Boston. In 1917 Kittredge reported a version c. 1820: "Barbara Allen," etc., a garland printed in Philadelphia about 1820 (Harvard College, 25276.43.81). I have not tried to obtain that copy.
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Abraham Lincoln is reported (Albert Jeremiah Beveridge - 1928) to have sung it as a boy growing up in Indiana. Another online source says," Abraham Lincoln once said that everything he was or hoped to be he owed to his mother, Nancy Hanks Lincoln. For Abe, one of the most important influences of his mother was her regular reading and singing to the children in the evenings together in their simple log home in Kentucky. She loved to sing old English ballads. Abraham Lincoln is reported to have said in later years that "Barbara Allen" was his mother's favorite song."
In Abraham Lincoln, 1809-1858 - Volume 1 - Page 69 by Albert Jeremiah Beveridge - 1928, Nathaniel Grigsby tells us that: "we sung what is called carnel Songs and love songs, I cannot repeat any of them at this time we sung a song called Barbra allen also we sung the Silk Merchant daughter."
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Curious is an African-American version first published in 1888: A Dusky Barbara Allen. It appeared in Harper's New Monthly Magazine, Volume 77, Issues 457-562 edited by Henry Mills Alden. No source is given except that the ballad was sung by African-Americans in Virginia. There is an incomplete verse in Harper's version- stanza 8 is missing the last two lines. It was corrected in a later publication of the song in "Songs We Used To Sing," August 12, 1912. The correction was made by adding two standard lines:
I cannot keep you from death,
So farewell," said Bob-ree Allin
It was again reprinted by Dorothy Scarborough under the title Bob-ree Allin in her book, On the Trail of Negro Folk-Songs (1925) after she was sent a copy by Alphonso Smith. Scarborough, "A Negro version of Barbara Allan, from Virginia, was sent to me by Professor C. Alphonso Smith. I had wondered if the Negroes had failed to appreciate and appropriate this most familiar and beloved of all the ballads, and so I was pleased at this contribution. This is sung in Albemarle, Wythe, and Campbell Counties, Virginia."
It also appears as Reed Smith's Version F "Bobree Allin" in his South Carolina Ballads. The incomplete stanza 8 has been "edited" without comment apparently by adding the last two lines from Stanza 5. The same version appears as Davis's Version C in Traditional Ballads of Virginia. Davis refers to the publication of the song in "Songs We Used To Sing," August 12, 1912.
Since Scarborough, Smith and Davis didn't know about the 1888 Harper's New Monthly Magazine (Volume 77) publication, there is likely an earlier source than Harper's, now unknown- since the 1912 printing referes to specific locations in Virginia- "Albemarle, Wythe, and Campbell Counties."
Other African-America versions were recorded by Aunt Maria Jones, the singer of Sharp version P (1918), who was an old woman of 85 who had been a slave, Hule ("Queen") Hines (1939) and a great version by Moses Platt (1933). These versions show the ballad had currency in the African-American community in the 1800s and early 1900s.
Blues artist Roscoe Holcomb recorded a solo harmonica instrumental version titled, Barbara Allen Blues. Blues singer Josh White also recorded a version of Barbara Allen.
* * * *
Charles Seeger, the renowned American musicologist (1886 –1979), collected field recordings from all over the country (recorded between 1933-54) on a quest to locate the definitive “Barbara Allen” tune. Drawing samplings from North Carolina to Michigan to California, he selected 30 renditions to study, 15 sung by women and 15 by men. The Southern Folklife Collection houses his compilation of the recordings on the "Versions and Variants of Barbara Allen," (See: Recordings & Info Page) accompanied with a detailed draft brochure (1964).
After listening to the recordings and categorizing them according to musical mode into versions and variants, Seeger concludes that “no such entity as ‘the Barbara Allen tune’ can be set up, however, two versions have such distinct characters.”
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Barry et all in British Ballads from Maine-1 from page 200 writes: "Was Barbara Allen a real person? We feel sure of it. No other woman in balladry stands out so "in the roud" with incident, motive and action all so consistently sequent. If she was not an actual person, then it took genius to invent her."
Phillips Barry speculated that the ballad was based on the lives of Barbara Villiers and King Charles II (ref. Brown Collection notes by Hudson). He died before presenting any factual evidence and his postulation was not proven and no evidence has since come forward. Barry also postulated that he knew the identities of Little Musgrave; Lady Barnard and Lord Barnard (known under various names) the leading characters of Child 81. He never came forward with additional information although he had the opportunity to do so.
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Ed Cray in his article (see headnotes on main page) "Comments on the texts" identified four main types of texts by their opening stanzas. These have been examined by the Traditional Ballad Index and may be correlated with Bronson's 4 main music types. Coffin story types (see below A-G) do little to organize the ballad by age.
Cray says the oldest versions begin with "Martinmas time" of which there are two types, the traditional type represented by Child C and the print type, represented by Child A (printed in Glasgow in 1740) and The Forget-Me Not Songster which is similar but has an added stanza. The songster version, with an additional "gift" stanza, represents the older tradition of Child A. I will also identify this as a "Scottish" type represented by Child A. As pointed out by Riley (1957 thesis), there are very few traditional versions with the Martimas opening and most of those appear to be based on Child A. Here are Cray's words:
Conjecturally, the oldest texts are those which begin: "It fell about a Martinmas time /When the green leaves were a- fallin'." These "Martinmas" versions , more specifically the traditional Scottish variants represented by Child C, may contain a legacy motif where in the dying lover leaves Barbara a series of gifts, including a bowl of his heart's blood. (Child thought the legacy mean stuff and did not print an available text which contained it. No "Martinmas" texts were found among the AAFS recordings available for this study.
Two other variants of the "Martinmas" group are less old: Child A, which in spite of a lively history in print has rarely been collected from oral tradition; and a Forget-me-not Songster text, identifiable by the hero's offer to make Barbara mistress of seven ships This latter variant has entered oral tradition in the United States - a tribute to the popularity of the songster which reportedly had multiple press runs in the 1840's totaling one million copies. The Child A text, from Allan Ramsay's Tea-Table Miscellany, seemingly has been most reprinted in those literary collections of "olden ballads", which rarely were distributed among the folk; the Forget-me-not Songster, on the other hand, was aimed at the mass, and therefore the folk, market.
Versions of The Forget-Me Not Songster type may be found in Flanders A-C, with A and B taken from print (see also Mackenzie A). The critical 4th stanza which is the main difference from Child A is also part of the "gifts" stanzas:
O see you not yon seven ships,
So bonny as they are sailing,
I'll make you mistress of them all,
My bonny Barbara Allan.
The source of this stanza is unknown, however, as Cray pointed out (Larkin's version): traditional versions pre-date this stanza. Child C, the only traditional version given by Child, has a reference to ships. Buchan's manuscript similarly has this stanza:
21. O see ye not yon seven ships,
Sae merrily's they're sailin';
The freights o' them are coming in,
To tocher Babie Allan.
Davis T, for example, of Irish original I have dated 1798 also has a similar stanza. It appears that the c.1845 Songster version was taken from tradition or an unknown print version rather than arranged from Child A by an editor.
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The Gifts, or Promised Gifts and the Dowery (Tocher)
In the second paragraph of his headnotes (ESPB) , Child refers to the gifts bestowed to Barbara Allen by her lover as he's dying:
The Scottish ballad is extended in Buchan's Manuscripts, I, 90, Motherwell's Manuscript, p. 671, to forty-one stanzas. In this amplified copy, which has no claim to be admitted here, the dying lover leaves his watch and gold ring, his Bible and penknife, a mill and thirty ploughs, nine meal-mills and the freights of nine ships, all to tocher Barbara Allan. This is the ballad referred to by Charles Kirkpatrick Sharpe in Stenhouse's edition of the Museum, IV, 300*, as sung by the peasantry of Allandale. Doubtless it was learned by them from some stall-print. Here is the ship stanza from Buchan's MS, dated c. 1830:
21. O see ye not yon seven ships,
Sae merrily's they're sailin';
The freights o' them are coming in,
To tocher Babie Allan.
Melinda S. Collins in Ideology and Folksong Re-creation, page 128; 2007 reports this about Child C from Motherwell:
In a version from Motherwell's MS, the young man's ungallant claim that he woos Barbara Allen for her “tocher good” rather than for her “bonny face” or “beauty bonny” elicits her retort: “If it be not for my comely face/ Nor for my beauty bonnie/ My tocher good ye'll never get paid/ Down on the board before ye” (Child 1956:278).
A "tocher" is Scottish for dowery which is a marriage settlement given the groom by the bride's family. Version of these gifts are somewhat rare in the US and Canada. The addition of the gift stanza (4th stanza) in The Forget-Me Not Songster is one of the main differences between the Songster version and the Glasgow version which is Child A:
O see you not yon seven ships,
So bonny as they are sailing,
I'll make you mistress of them all,
My bonny Barbara Allan.
A similar promise is made to The House Carpenter's wife by the Demon Lover (Child No. 243: James Harris):
Says he, "I've got six ships at sea,
All sailing to dry land,
One hundred and ten of your own countrymen,
Love, they shall be at your command."
So is this a matter of borrowing or is there a tradition of gifts in rare versions of Barbara Allen that need to be explored? Child doesn't not given the test of the extended Scottish version by Buchan and it has been available until I obtained a copy from the Harvard Library. Here are the entire gifts stanzas:
17. Put in your hand at my bed stock,
An' there ye'll find a warran';
Ye'll find my watch, an' my gowd ring,
Gie that to Babie Allan.
18. Put in your hand at my bed head,
An' there ye'll find a warran';
Yell find my bible an pen-knife,
Gie that to Babie Allan.
19. O see ye not yon thirty ploughs,
Sae merrily's they're eering
The rents o' them are coming in,
To tocher Babie Allan.
20. O see ye not yon nine meal-mills,
Sae merrily's they're shealin';
The rents o' them are coming in,
To tocher Babie Allan.
21. O see ye not yon seven ships,
Sae merrily's they're sailin';
The freights o' them are coming in,
To tocher Babie Allan.
In BFSSNE, No. 10, 1935, Barry says that these versions (Bob'ry Allen 1934, has the gift of a napkin with a diamond ring plus a blood- letting stanza) are of Irish origin.
Virginia T, from Cape Breton, NS, also has gifts and bloodletting:
4 "Look up, look up at my bed's head,
A gold watch you'll see hanging;
It has been mine, but it shall be thine,
Hard-hearted Barbara Ellen.
5 "Look down, look down at my bedside,
A basin you'll see sitting
With just a drop of my heart's blood;
It was shed for Barbara Ellen."[1]
6 "Bring down, bring down ten thousand pounds,
Ten thousand pounds and fifty,
And give it to this pretty maid
That came so far to see me."
Similar also is the following Virginia fragment sent by Mr. Henry A. Wise from the Eastern Shore of Virginia (from Davis, 1929 headnotes):
"O Jimmie, don't you remember the time
When you walked into the tavern,
And passed the health of the ladies ail around,
And slighted Barbara Allen?"
"You go look under the head of my bed,
And there you'll find a basin;
And in that basin, one drop of my blood
To remember Barbara Allen."
"You go look under the foot of my bed,
And there you'll find a napkin;
And in that napkin a gay gold ring
For the love of Barbara Allen.
A different, more modern gift is given here (Brown Collection):
7 'When I am dead, look under my head
And you will find two rolls of money.
Go share it with those fair young girls,
And share with Barbara Allen.' [NC Brown F. 'Barbara Allen.']
Similar to the version above from the Brown Collection is this stanza from Cox F:
6 "Look under my head, when I am dead,
An' you'll find three rolls of money;
Go share 'em wid those ladies 'round,
An' done [don't] slight Barbara Allen." [Cox, F 1893, WV]
* * * *
Barbara Allen is known throughout North America. The Appalachian region with Virginia and North Carolina leading the way is the largest repository. Cecil Sharp collected a large number of versions in both states from 1916-1918. Davis reported ninety-two variants in Virginia (gives 36 in TBVa, 1929) and the Brown Collection of NC Folklore gives around 40 versions in Volume 2 and 4 (1952). Added to the Brown Collection in NC are both the Lunsford Collection, the Greer Collection and the Abrams Collection with more than two dozen more versions and recordings. Some of the sheet music of Greer has not been included and will be added when I do the sheet music. Bascom Lamar Lunsford's collection of six NC texts is now included. West Virginia (Cox, Musick, Botte, etc.) is well represented as is South Carolina and Georgia. Kentucky (Sharp, etc.) follows Virginia and North Carolina while Tennessee (Sharp, Boswell etc.) is represented by a number of collectors books.
Barbara Allen is also well-represented in the more Western regions such as the Ozarks (Arkansas, Missouri and Oklahoma) and is found in neighboring states of Iowa (Stout) and Illinois. Belden was first to collect followed by Vance Randolph who gives 15 versions from Arkansas and Missouri and his wife (Mary Celeste Parlour) and her associates later compiled over 26 versions in the same states. The Moores (Ballads and Folk Songs of the Southwest) found 36 versions in Oklahoma in their first year of collecting (late 1930s).
* * * *
Because of the vast numbers of versions collected, many of the versions were not given in full and still reside in MS form in various collections including; WPA collection; Moore collection, Belden (Missouri Folk-lore Society) collection; and Davis (Virginia Folklore) collection. The exact number of collected but unpublished versions in collections is unknown but I surmise it would number in the hundreds.
* * * *
R. Matteson 2012; 2015]
Illustration from the Forget-Me-Not Songster c. 1845
CONTENTS: (To access individual versions click on highlighted title below or the title attached to this page on the left hand column)
1) Barbara Allen- Doyle/Dever (VA) c.1798 Davis R: From Traditional Ballads of Virginia; Davis, 1929. Sung by Mrs. Leona Dever of Mustoe, Va. Highland County. "She learned it from her mother, Mrs. Acy Doyle who learned it from her father, an Irishman, who came to this country from Ireland either in 1798 or 1800. It's unlikely the Barbara was sung in 3 syllables. The date is given but may be conjecture- more info is needed. This is an older version with Martimas.
2) Barbery Allen- Webb (CT) pre1798 Flanders U: Single stanza from Flanders; Ancient Ballads 1961. copied from a manuscript book of music and texts purchased for the files of the Flanders Ballad, collection by Mrs. W. H. Beardsley of Springfield, Vermont, August 6, 1951. It is incomplete; begins at page 23. On page 50 is "Charles Webbs Book 1798." This version predates 1798, assuming the manuscript is legitimate. Unfortunately it's only one stanza which resembles the English broadside of c. 1690.
3) Barbry Allen- Hubbard/Johnson (VA-TN-IL) c.1799: My date, assuming Rebecca (Hubbard) Johnson (b. 1792 in VA) learned this when a girl. From an personal message from Mudcat: "transcribed it from the singing of my mother and great aunts. This was handed down from at least as far back as my great-great-great grandmother Rebecca (Hubbard) Johnson (b. 1792 in VA). From her it was passed to my great-great grandmother Ona Lacey (Johnson) Bishop, to my great grandmother Adeline (Bishop) Puckett, to my grandmother Lula (Puckett) Turner (and her sisters), to my mother, Ruby (Turner) Clark."
4) Bonny Barbara Allan- Broadside; Boston 1829
Barbara Allen- United States Songster (OH) 1836
Barbara Allan- Michie (VA) c1840 Davis BB
Barbara Allen- Stevens (NY) 1841 Pioneer Songster
Barbara Allan- Forget-Me-Not Songster (MA) 1845
Barbara Allan- Southern Warbler (SC) 1845
Bonny Barbara Allen- Chatham (PA) c.1850s
Barbara Allan- (MA) c.1860 Sheet Music- Macfarren
Barbara Ellen- Chandler (MO) 1862 Belden K
Barbara Allen- (SC) c1862 Reed Smith D
Barb'ry Allum- (PA) 1863 Charley Fox's Minstrel's
Barbry Allen- Larkin (IL) 1866 Musick
Barb'ry Allen- Sullivan (VT-IR) 1867 Flanders G
Barbara Allen- Hubbard (UT) 1872 Hubbard B
Barbara Allen- Collom (MI) c.1875 Gardner A
Barbary Allen- Stanley (IO-IL) pre1876 Stout A
Barbra Allen- Whittaker (MO) c.1877 Randolph D
Barbara Allen- Delorme (VT-NY) 1879 Flanders C
Barb'ra Allen- Gaines (MS-TX) c1885 Dobie A
Barbara Allen's Cruelty- (NY) 1888 Harper's
Dusky Barbara Allen- (VA) 1888 African-American
Bobree Allin- (VA) pre-1888 Davis C; Smith F
Barbara Allen- Mulhollan (AR-MO) 1888 Randolph H
Barbree Allen- Jepson (UT) 1888 Hubbard A
Barbra Allen- McDowell (MO) c.1889 Randolph N
Barbara Allen- Boylan (OH) pre1890 Eddy D
Barbry Allen- McCord (MO) c.1892 Randolph J
Barbro Allen- (NC) 1893 Edmands JOAFL
Barbara Allen- Keely (WV) 1897 Cox F
Barbry Allen- Chapman (MO) c.1898 Randolph A
Barbry Allen- Cornett (KY) 1898 Roberts/REC
Barbara Allen- McDowell (TN) c.1898 McDowell B
Barbara Allen- Young (VT) c1900 Flanders A
Barbry Allen- Carr (TN) 1900 Burton/Manning
Barbara Allen- Williams (MO) 1903 Belden A
Barbara Allen's Cruelty- (MO) 1903 Belden B
Barbara Allen- Walters (MO) 1903 Belden C
Barbery Allen- Cotton (MO) 1903 Belden D
Barbara Allen- Galbraith (SK) pre1903 Cass-Beggs
Barbra Allen- Lowry (MO-IN) 1905 Belden E
Barbara Allen- Williams (MO) pre-1906 Belden H
Barbara Allen- Baker/Keller (WV) pre1906 Cox A
Barbara Allen- Clark (TN) c. 1906 McDowell A
Oh Mother, Mother- Clark (NJ) 1907 Barry MS
Barbara Allen- Pettit (KY) 1907 Kittredge JOAFL
Barb'ra Ellen- Smith (KY) 1907 Sharp F
Barbara Allen- Carter (NJ) 1907 Barry MS
Barb'ra Allen- (KY) 1909 Beatty JAF
Barbara Allen- Kent (Miss.) pre-1909 Perrow A
Barbara Allen- Holliman (Miss.) pre-1909 Perrow B
Barb'ra Allen- MacKinney (GA) 1910 Sharp B
Barbara Ellen- Wagoner (NC) 1911 Brown Z
Barbara Allen- Ames(MO) pre1911 Belden N
Barbara Allen- (SC) published 1912 Reed Smith E
Barbara Ellen- Gilbert (VA) 1912 Davis A
Barba Allen- Scott (TN) c.1912 Anderson D
Barbara Allen- Crawford (NC) 1913 Pound B
Barbara Allen- Compton (SC) 1913 Reed Smith A
Barbara Allen- (SC) c1913 Wise/ Reed Smith C
Barbara Allen- Barnwell (NC) 1913 Brown A
Barbara Allen- Crowell (NC) pre1913 Brown C
Barbara Allen- McCoy (GA) 1914 Sharp A
Barbara Allen- (KY) c. 1914 McGill BOOK
Barb'ra Ellen- Gay (GA) 1914 Sharp C
Barbara Allen- Maxie (VA) 1914 Davis H
Barbara Allan- Hale (VA) 1914 Davis J
Barbara Allen- Mrs. L.G. Davis (VA) 1914 Davis O
Barbary Ellen- Goodwin (VA) 1914 Davis Q
Barbara Allen- Hall (VA) 1914 Davis U
Barbara Allan- (VA) 1914 Jones/ Davis X
Barbara Allen- Adams (VA) 1914 Davis AA
Bonny Barbara Allen- Wynkoop (VA) 1914 Davis EE
Barbara Allen- Grogan (NC) 1914 Smith/ Brown O
Barbara Ellen- Lang (WV) 1915 Cox G
Barbara Allen- Colbird (VA) 1915 Davis E
Barbara Allen- Kegley (VA) 1915 Davis G
Barbry Allen- McDade (VA) 1915 Davis W
Barbara Allan- Ed Davis (VA) 1915 Davis Y
Barbara Allen- Painter (VA) 1915 Davis Z
Barbara Allen- (VA) 1915 Stone/ Davis GG
Barbara Allen- (NC) c1915 Rawn/ Brown P
Barbary Ellen- Cunningham (WV) 1915 Cox E
Barbara Allen- (NC) c.1915 Greer/ Brown 4O
Barbary Allen- Norton (TN) 1916 Sharp E
Barbara Ellen- Pearson (VA) 1916 Davis B
Barb'ra Ellen- Johnson (NC) 1916 Sharp D
Barbara Allen- (KY) Wyman/Brockway 1916 BOOK
Barb'ra Ellen- Hensley (NC) 1916 Sharp G
Barbara Allen- Case (MO) pre1916 Belden M
Barbara Allen- (GA) 1916 Rawn/Peabody
Barbara Ellen- Wiley (VA) 1916 Davis L
Barbara Allen- (VA) 1916 Davis N
Barbara Allen- Barbour (VA) 1916 Davis V
Barbara Ellen- Jenkins (WV) 1916 Cox B
Barbara Ellen- Starkey (WV) 1916 Cox C
Barby Ellen- McAtee (WV) 1916 Cox D
Barbry Ellen- Pine Mountain children(KY)1916 Wells
Barbary Allen- Gwynne (TN) 1916 Sharp MS
Barbara Allen- Funderburk/Trull (NC) 1916 Brown Q
Barb'ra Ellen- Howard (KY) 1917 Sharp K
Barb'ra Ellen- Sloan (KY) 1917 Sharp L
Mary Ellen- Henson (KY) 1917 Sharp M
Barb'ra Ellen- Lewis (KY) 1917 Sharp N
Barbara Ellen- Texas Gladden (VA) 1917 Davis I
Barbara Allan- Garrison (VA) 1917 Davis M
Barbara Ellen- Rodes (VA) 1917 Davis S
The Love of Barbara Ellen- maid (WV) 1917 Cox H
Barbara Ellen- Vanhook (KY) 1917 Sharp MS
Barb'ra Ellen- Pratt (KY) 1917 Sharp MS
Barb'ra Ellen- Hornby (TN) 1917 Sharp MS
Barbara Ellen- Parsons (TN) 1917 Sharp MS
Barb'ry Ellen- Smith (KY) 1917 Sharp MS
Barb'ra Ellen- Melton (KY) 1917 Sharp MS
Barbara Allen- Drohon (KY) 1917 Sharp MS
Slowly Slowly Rose She Up- Godfrey(NC) 1917 Sharp
Barb'ra Ellen- Townsville (KY) 1917 Sharp MS
Barbree Ellen- Dunagan (KY) 1917 Sharp MS
Barb'ra Ellen- Sloan sisters (KY) 1917 Sharp MS
Barb'ra Ellen- Jones (KY) 1917 Sharp MS
Barbara Allen- Mayo (VA) 1918 Sharp O
Barbara Allen- Jones (VA) 1918 Sharp P
Barb'ra Ellen- Rathbone (NC) 1918 Sharp MS
Barb'ra Ellen- Plegne (NC) 1918 Sharp MS
Barbara Ellen- Boone (NC) 1918 Sharp MS
Barbara Ellen- Snipes (NC) 1918 Sharp MS
Barb'ra Ellen- Dooley (VA) 1918 Sharp MS
O Mother, Mother- Seagle (NC) 1918 Sharp MS
Barb'ra Ellen- Bennett (NC) 1918 Sharp MS
Barby Ellen- Smith (DC) 1918 Flanders L
Barbary Ellen- Langille (NS) 1919 Makenzie C
Barbara Allen- Colvord (NC) 1919 Brown AA
Barbara Allen- Dickson (VA) 1920 Stone/ Davis DD
Barbro Allen- Ulhs (TN-TX) c. 1920 Dobie B
Barbara Allen- Alley/Wilson (VA) 1921 Davis D
Barbara Allen- Hart (VA) 1921 Stone/Davis F
Barbara Allen- Hurt (VA) 1921 Davis P
Barbary Allen- (NC) c.1921 Sutton/Brown 4S
Barbara Allen- Mulleins (VA) 1921 Davis CC
Barb'ra Allen- (NC) c.1921 Sutton/Brown 4S1
Barbara Allan- O'Bryhin (VA) 1922 Stone/ Davis K
Barbara Ellen- McKay (VA-NS) 1922 Davis T
Barbara Allen- Brooks (WV-NC) 1922 Cox I
Barbara Allen-Tillett (NC) 1922 Brown E
Barbary Allen- Shepherd (NC) 1923 Carter JOAFL
Barbara Allen- student (NC) 1923 Allen/ Brown G
Barbara Allen- Sears (VA) 1923 Davis FF
Barbara Allen- Meredith (NC) 1923 Brown D
Barb'ra Allen- Long (MS) pre-1923 Hudson No. 14
Barbara Allen- (KY) 1923 Raine; Mountain Ballads
Barbara Allen- Pritchard (NC) 1924 Chappell
Barbra Allen- young woman (MO) 1924 Randolph F
Barbara Allan- Day (NC) c1925 Greer MS LV2
Barbra Allen- Littrell (NC) 1925 Lunsford D
Barbara Allen- (NC) c.1925 Greer Collection
Boberick Allen- black woman (TX) c1925 Dobie C
Barbara Allen- Greer (NC) c1925 Greer MS LV3
Barbara Allen- Riddle (NC) pre-1926 Henry A
Barbru Allen- Crocker (MS) pre-1926 Hudson B
Barbara Allen- Easley (MS) pre-1926 Hudson C
Barbra Allen- Bickerstaff (MS) pre-1926 Hudson A
Barbara Allen- Womble (MS) pre-1926 Hudson D
Barbry Allen- Wilbur (MO) 1926 Randolph E
Barbra Allen- Davis/Gordon (GA) 1927 Sandburg
Barbara Allen- (NY) 1927 Dalhart REC
Barbara Allen- (NC) c1927 Blaylock / Brown B
Barbara Allen- Scott (NC) c1927 Brown F
Barbara Allen- Scarborough (NC) 1927 Brown Y
Barbara Allen- Leary (ME) 1927 Barry C
Barbry Allen- Thornton (MO) 1927 Randolph B
Barbara Allen- Kincaid (KY) 1928 REC
Barbara Allan- Kerr (GA) 1928 JOAFL
Barbey Ellen- Proctor (TN) 1928 Henry B
Barbara Allen- Frank Luther (NY) 1928 REC
Barbara Allen- Sharp (SC) 1928 Reed Smith B
Barbara Allan- Harrison (NS) pre1928 Mackenzie A
Barbara Ellen- Thompson (NS) 1928 Mackenzie B
Barbara Allen- Carr (ME) 1928 Barry A
Barbara Allen- Marston (ME) c.1928 Barry B
Barbara Allen- Franklin (NC) 1929 Henry C
Barbary Ellen- Caldwell (KY) 1930 Jean Thomas
Barbara Allen- Forgy (AR) 1930 Randolph G
Barbara Allen- (NC) c. 1930 Lunsford A
Barbry Allen- (NC) c. 1930 Lunsford B
Barbry Allen- Woody (NC) c. 1930 Lunsford C
Barbara Allen- (NC) c. 1930 Lunsford E
Barbara Allen- W. Franklin (NC) 1930 Henry D
Barbara Allen- Dusenbury (AR) 1931 Randolph K
Barb'ry Allen- Merrill (NH) 1931 Flanders R
Barbara Allen- Kennison (VT) 1931 Flanders S
Barbara Allen- Starke (VA) 1931 Davis BB*
Ballet of Barbara Allen- Owens (VA) 1931 Scarb A
Barbara Ellen- (KY) 1931 Jean Thomas
Barbara Allen- Roberts (NC) pre1931 Scarborough F
Barbara Ellen- Callahan (NC) c1931 Scarborough H
Barbara Ellen- Bowerman(NC) c1931 Scarborough G
Barberie Allen- Clawson (NC) c1931 Scarborough I
Barbara Allen- Moses (KY) 1931 Fuson
Barbara Allen- Thomas (NS) 1931 Fauset A
Barbara Allen- Thomas (NS) 1931 Fauset B
Bar'bra Allen- C. Robinson (KS-NY) 1931 booklet
Mary Alling- Degreenia (VT-CT) pre1932 Flanders E
Barbara Allen- Boyd (NC) 1932 Lunsford F
Barbara Allen- Bowman (VA) 1932 Davis AA*
Barbry Ellen- McConnell (VA) c.1932 Davis DD*
Barbara Allen- Goodman (TN) 1932 Anderson A
Barbery Allen- Harmon (TN-GA) 1932 Anderson B
Barbara Allen- Williams (TN) 1932 Anderson C
Barbara Allen- Norton (TN) 1932 Anderson E
Hard-hearted Barbery Allen- Havens (TN) 1932 F
Barbara Ellen- Carnes (TN) 1932 Anderson G
Barbra Allen- McGinley (TN) 1932 Anderson H
Barbra Allen- (TN) 1932 Anderson I
Barbara Allen- Schell (NC) 1933 Matteson BOOK
Barb'ry Ellen- Sizemore (KY) 1933 Niles A
Barbara Allen- Doten (VT) 1933 Flanders B
Barbara Allen- Williamson (VA) 1933 Davis CC*
Barbary Allen- Barbour (IL) 1933 McIntosh
Barbary Allen- Shepherd (NC) 1933 Carter JAF
Barbrie Allen- Bays (CA-VA) 1934 Bronson
Barbara Allen- Grace (AR) 1934 Randolph I
Barbry Allen- Grubb (VA) 1934 Davis EE*
Barbra Allen- Reynolds (VA) 1934 Stone/ Davis HH*
Barbara Allen- (TN-VA) c.1934 Cambiaire
Bob'ry Allen- Fredin (ME) 1934 Barry BFSSNE
Barbara Allen- Finley (IL) 1934 McIntosh B
Barbara Allen- Merritt (IN) 1935 Brewster B
Barbara Allen- Elliott (IN) 1935 Brewster C
Barbara Allen- Hopkins (IN) 1935 Brewster D
Barbary Allen- Corn (IN) 1935 Brewster E
Barbara Allen- Shriver (IN) 1935 Brewster F
Barbara Allen- Bryant (IN) 1935 Brewster H
Barbara Allen- Mason (IN) 1935 Brewster I
Barbara Allen- Leslie (IN) 1935 Brewster J
Barbara Allen- Rothrock (IN) 1935 Brewster L
Barbara Allen- Waller (IN) 1935 Brewster M & N
Barb'ra Allan- McClellan (MI) 1935 Gardner B
Barbery Ellen- Nelson (NS) c.1935 Creighton A
Barbara Ellen- Roast (NS) c.1935 Creighton B
Barbara Allen- Vaught (NC) 1935 Brown BB
Barbara Allen- Johnson (VT-NY) 1935 Flanders H
Barb'ra Allen- Morris (VA) 1935 Wilkinson A
Barb'ra Allen- Hall (VA) 1935 Wilkinson B
Barb'ra Allen- Mace (VA) 1935 Wilkinson D
Barbara Allen- Pennington (MS) 1936 Hudson E
Barbara Allen- McAdams (MS) pre-1936 Hudson F
Barbara Ellen- Quillen (AL-MS) pre-1936 Hudson H
Barbara Allen- White (MS) pre-1936 Hudson I
Barbara Allen- Swetnam (MS) pre-1936 Hudson J
Barbara Allen- McAdams 2 (MS) pre-1936 Hudson K
Barbery Allen- Flowers (MS) pre1936 Hudson L
Barbara Allen- Gillespie (MS) pre-1936 Hudson N
Barbara Allen- Tarwater (TN) 1936 Seeger REC
Barbara Allen- student (MS) pre-1936 Hudson P
Barbara Allen- Heckel (IN) 1936 Brewster A
Barbara Allen- Huffman (IN) 1936 Brewster G
Barbara Allen- Lomax (IN) 1936 Brewster K
Barbara Allen- Marlor (NC) 1936 Cowell LOC REC
Barb'ry Allen- Critzer (VA) 1936 Wilkinson C
Barb'ry Allen- Hite (VA) 1936 Wilkinson E
Barbara Allan- Ockerman (IO) pre1936 Stout B
Barbry Ellen- Keen (VA) pre1936 Scarborough B
Barbara Allen- P. Morris (VA) c1936 Scarborough C
Barbara Allen- Douglass(NC) c1936 Scarborough D
Barbare Ellen- DeWelse (VA) 1936 Scarborough E
Barbara Allen- (KY) 1936 Sulzer
Barbary Allen- Doyel (MO) 1936 Barbour JAF
Barbara Allen- (TN) 1936 Crabtree A
Barbara Allen- (TN) 1936 Crabtree B
Barbara Ellen- (TN) 1936 Crabtree C
Barbry Allen- (TN) 1937 Campbell A, BTFLS
Barbary Allen- (TN) 1937 Campbell B, BTFLS
It Was in the Month of May- Borusky (WI) 1937
Barbara Allen- Nye (OH) c.1937 Lomax REC
Barbara Allen- Ford (WI) 1937 REC Cowell
Barbara Allen- Bost (NC) 1937 Brown K
Barbara Allen- Graham (CA) 1938 Robertson REC
Barbara Ellen- Jones (NC) 1938 Abrams MS 15
Barbara Allen- Curtis (MO) 1938 Randolph L
Barbara Allen- Betty Bostic (NC) c.1938 Abrams Col
Barb'ra Allen- Testerman (TN) pre1938 Henry E
Barbry Allen- Stowe (TX) 1938 Owens B
Barbara Allen- Kettler (IL) pre1939 Neely
Bobby Allen- Hines (FL) 1939 Lomax REC
Barbara Allen- Milam (NC) 1939 Brown H
Barbara Allen- Kuvkendall (NC) 1939 Brown V
Barbara Allen- Eggers (NC) 1939 Brown 4A1
Barbara Allen- Nathan Hicks (NC) 1939 Brown 4A2
Barbara Allen- Pittman Bros. (NC) 1939 Brown 4A3
Barbara Allen- Trivett (NC) 1939 Abrams/Brown 4A5
Barbara Allen- Proffitt (NC) 1939 Brown 4B
Barbara Allen- Bostic (NC) 1939 Brown 4G
Barbara Allen- Beaker (NC) c.1939 Brown FF
Barb'ra Allen- Buchanan (NC) 1939 Brown GG
Barbara Allen- Wiseman (NC) 1939 Brown II
Barbry Ellen- Creaser (NH-IR)1939 Flanders I
Barb'ra Allen- Fairbanks (VT) 1939 Flanders Q
Barbara Allen- Parno (NC) c1939 Abrams MS LV5
Barba Allen- Nora Hicks (NC) c.1939 Abrams MS
Barbara Ellen- Moores (OH) pre1939 Eddy A
Barbara Ellen- Ports (OH) pre1939 Eddy B
Barb'ra Allen- Housley (OH) pre1939 Eddy C
Barbara Allen- Darling (OH) pre1939 Eddy E
Barb'ry Ellen- Harmon (MA) pre1939 Linscott
Barbara Ellen- Robertson (OH) pre1939 Eddy F
Barbaree Allen- Meade (TX-CA) 1939 Cowell REC
Barbara Allen- (NY) pre1939 Thompson A
Barbara Allen- (NY) pre1939 Thompson B
Barbara Allen- (NY) pre1939 Thompson C
Barbra Allen- Barr (CA) 1939 Cowell REC
Barbara Allen- Judd/Spainhour (CA) 1940 REC
Barbara Allen- Johnson 1 (NC) 1940 Brown W
Barbara Allen- Johnson 2 (NC) 1940 Brown X
Barbara Allen- Stovall (NC) 1940 Brown CC
Barbara Allen- (NC) 1940 Abrams /Brown 4A
Barbara Allen- Timmons (NC) 1940 Brown 4A4
Barbara Allen- York (NC) 1940 Abrams/Brown 4A6
Barbary Allen- L. B. Fish (NH) 1940 Flanders K
Barbara Allen- Hundley (NC) 1940 Abrams REC
Barbara Allen- Burleson (NC)1940 Abrams Collection
Barbry Allen- Walker (NC) 1940 Abrams REC
Barbara Allen- Reitzle (NC) 1940 Abrams REC
Barbara Allen- Hash (TN) pre-1940 McDowell C
Barbara Allen- Short (MO) 1941 Randolph M
Barbry Allen- Oxford (AR) 1941 Randolph O
Barbara Allen- Richards (NH) 1941 Flanders D
Barbrew Allen- King (NC) 1941 Warner B
Barb'ra Allen- Horton Barker (NC) 1941 Abrams REC
Barbry Allen- (CO) 1941 Ives JAF
Barb'ra Allen- Reynolds (ME-NH) 1941 Flanders V
Barb'ry Allen- Barlow (ME) 1942 Flanders F
Barb'ry Allen- Cox (ME) 1942 Olney- Flanders M
Barbara Allen- Hattie Smith (ME) 1942 Flanders N
Barbry Allen- Mahon (AR) pre1942 Wolf E
Barb'ra Allen- Petroske (AR) c.1942 Parler I
Barbara Allen- Medars (NC) 1943 Niles B
Barbara Allen- Tucker (MD) pre1943 Carey
Barbara Allen- Martin (NC) pre1943 Brown I
Barb'ra Allen- Clark (ON) c1943 Fowke REC
Barb'ry Allen- Craven (GA) 1945 Arnold/McNeil
Barbaree Allen- Pat Fyre (NC) 1945 Brown EE
Barbry Allen- Williams (NC) 1945 Abrams REC
Barbara Allen- Nicholson (IN) 1946 Moser REC
Barbary Ellen- Osbourne (AR) pre1946 Randolph C
Barb'ra Allen- (NC) pre1946 Abrams MS LV4
Barbara Allen's Cruelty- Long (MD) 1947 Matteson
Barbry Allen- Maud Long (NC) 1947 Loc REC
Barbry Allen- McAlexander (VA) 1948 Davis FF*
Barbry Allen- Gregory (TN) 1949 Boswell
Bobr'y Allen- Wharton (VA) 1950 Leach JOAFL
Barbry Ellen- Aylward (NL) c.1950 Leach
Barbara Allen- Simmons (GA) 1950 Morris A
Barbara Allen- Irish (GA) 1950 Morris B
Barbara Ellen- McClellan (GA) 1950 Morris C
Barbara Allen- Scoldes (GA) 1950 Morris D
Barbery Allan-Sanford (NS) pre1950 Creighton C
Barbara Ellen- Hyson (NS) pre1950 Creighton D
Barbara Ellen- Greenough (NS)pre1950 Creighton E
Barbara Ellen- Henneberry (NS)pre1950 Creighton F
Barbara Allan- Bray (NS) pre1950 Creighton G
Barbry Allen- Martin (AR) 1950 Parler T
Barbry Ellen- Minnick (AR) 1951 Parler U
Barbry Ellen- Briscoe (AR) 1951 Parler V
Barbry Allen- Henry (AR) 1951 Parler W
Barbara Allen- Cooper (UT) 1952 Hubbard C
Barb'ra Ellen- Thomas (AR) 1952 Parler Z
Barbara Allen- Burl Ives (NY) 1953 Songbook
Barbry Ellen- Ritchie (KY) pre-1953 Music & REC
Barbara Allen- Couch (KY) 1953 REC Roberts
Barb'ry Allen- Glenn (AR) 1954 Parler A
Barberry Allen- Bush (MA) 1954 Flanders T
Barbra Allen- Crymes (AR) 1954 Parler S
Barbara Allen- Mulcahy (VT-IR) 1955 Flanders J
Barbara Allen- Sawyer (VT) 1955 Flanders O
Barb'ra Allen- Gibson (AR) 1956 Parler BB
Barbara Allen- Keener (WV) 1957 Musick A
Barbara Allen- Glasscock (WV) 1957 Musick B
Barbara Allen- Coffin (ME-VT) 1957 Flanders P
Barbara Allen- Floyd (SC) 1937 Lomax/Joyner
Barbara Allen- Buttery (AR) 1958 Parler E
Barbara Allen- Griffin (AR) 1958 Parler F
Barbra Allen- Haslett (MO) 1958 Max Hunter A
Barbry Allen- Sutterfield (AR) 1958 Max Hunter E
Barbra Allen- Owens (AR) 1958 Parler Q
Barbry Allen- Brewer (AR) 1958 Parler R
Barbree Allen- Winn (OK) 1958 Parler X
Barbry Allen- Isringhouse (AR) 1959 Wolf D
Barbara Allen- Childress (AR) 1959 Parler B
Barbara Allen- Smith/Holley (OK) 1959 Parler D
Barbra Allen- Nelson (KY) 1959 Roberts B
Barbry Allen- J.D. Cornett (KY) 1959 REC
Barbry Allen- Ward/Potter (VA) 1959 REC
Barbra Allen- Pompey (MO) 1960 Max Hunter B
Barbry Allen- Williams (AR) 1960 Parler C
Barbara Allen- Sargent (AR) 1960 Parler G
Barbry Allen- W. F. Bell (AR) 1960 Parler H
Barbra Allen- Moore (AR) 1960 Parler K
Barbry Allen- Souter (AR) 1960 Parler L
Barbra Allen- Smith (AR) 1960 Parler M
Barbry Allen- Caudle (AR) 1960 Parler O
Barb'ra Allen- Atchley (AR) 1960 Parler P
Barbry Allen- Barnes (AR) 1961 Wolf C
Barbry Allen- Driftwood (AR) 1962 Wolf A
Cowboy's Barbara Allen- Bray (WY) 1962 Thieme
Barbary Allen- Frasier (ON) 1962 Fowke
Barbara Allen- Fox (AR) 1962 Parler J
Barbry Allen- Martin (AR) 1962 Parler N
Barbry Allen- Fendley (AR) 1963 Wolfe
Barbra Allen- Slagel (MO) 1963 Parler Y
Barbry Allen- Reaves (OK) 1963 Parler AA
Barbry Allen- Fendley (AR) 1963 Wolf B
Barbara Allen- Atwood (VT) pre-1964 MacArthur
Barb'ru Allen- Hedy West (GA) 1965 REC
Barbara Allan- Lowery (OK) pre1964 Moores
Barbry Ella- Hogan (TN) 1965 Burton/Manning
Barbry Allen- Hartsell (TN) 1965 Burton/Manning
Barbara Allen- Riddle (AR) 1965 Max Hunter C
Barbue Ellen- Tab Ward (NC) 1966 Burton/Manning
Barbry Allen- Tom Ashley (NC) 1966 Burton/Manning
Barbara Allen- Coyle (TN) 1966 Burton/Manning
Barbry Allen- Hawkins (TN) 1966 Burton/Manning
Barb'ry Allan- (KY) 1967 Jameson
Barbry Ellen- Buna Hicks (NC)1969 Burton REC
Barbara Allen- Lena Harmon (NC) 1969 Burton REC
Barbra Allen- Hunter (MO) 1969 Max Hunter D
Barbry Allen- Gilbert (AR) 1969 Max Hunter F
Barbry Allen- Bell (AR) 1969 Max Hunter G
Barbra Allen- Winkle (MO) 1969 Max Hunter H
Barbra Allen- Wright (WV) 1969 Bush
Barby Allen- Rohrbaugh (WV) 1971 Boette
Barbra Allen- Campbell (OK) 1971 Max Hunter I
Barbry Allen- Wilson (WV) 1975 Gainer
Barb'ry Ellen- Tucker (KY) 1976 Rounder REC
Barbara Allen- Dan Tate (VA) pre1978 REC Yates A
Barbara Allen- Thacker (GA) 1980 Rosenbaum
Barbra Allen- Seena Helms (NC) 1980 Helms REC
Barbry Allen- Workman (KY-WV) 1982 Seeger REC
Barbara Allen- Arwood (NC) 1983 Yates B
----------------
Traditional Songs of Tristan da Cunha
Peter A. Munch
The Journal of American Folklore
, Vol. 74, No. 293 (Jul. - Sep., 1961), pp. 216-229
Published by: American Folklore Society
Traditional Songs of Tristan da Cunha
Barvery Allen [no informant named]
Look down, look down by my bed-side,
And there you'll find a basin
With my gold watch and silver chain,
Give that to Barvry Allen.
Look down, look down by my bed-side,
And there you'll find a towel
With my gold watch and silver chain,
Give that to Barvry Allen.
As I was walking in the church yard,
I heared those bells a-tolling,
And as they tolled, they seemed to say:
"Cruelhearted Barvry Allen!"
As I was walking in the church yard,
I heard those bells a-tolling,
And as they tolled, they seemed to say:
"Young man, I think you're dying."
"Dying, oh no, that never can be!
A kiss from you will cure me."
"A kiss from me you never shall get!
Keep your poor heart from breaking."
-------------------
Barbara Allen
I. N. (Nick) Marlor, vocal.
Recorded November, 1936, in Boyd’s Cave, North Carolina, by Si
dney Robertson [Cowell]. Library of Congress Archive of
American Folk Song L54.
Nick Marlorís lengthy rendition is a
fine example of a strong
old-time mountain vocal style applied to a
classic ballad. Marlor was from Madison County, North Carolina, in the Great Smoky Mountains, an area
that folk singer and collector Bascom Lamar Lunsford called ìthe heart of folk music in the United Statesî
and that even today maintains a strong tradition of ol
d-time singing. Both the song and the performance are
typical of the southern-Appalachian singing tradition.
Marlorís style is high-pitched, loud, and tense, and disp
lays a variety of ornamental
and dramatic devices that
make his performance a tour de force of Southe
rn-mountain techniques
Oh, don't you remember the month in May,
When golden flowers were blooming?
Sweet William on his deathbed lay, (repeat)
For the love of Barbary Allen. (repeat)
He sent his neighbor down to the town,
And sent him [to?] her dwelling;
"Oh, better never will I be
Till I get Barbary Allen."
"Oh, better never will you be,
For you'll never get Barbary Allen."
So slowly she got up her bed,
And slowly she went to him,
And all she said when she got there, (repeat)
"Young man, I think you're a-dying." (repeat)
"Oh yes, I'm sick and mighty sick,
And feel very much like dying,
And better never will I be
Till I get Barbary Allen."
"Well to say, I will
I never be any better,
For you'll never get Barbary Allen."
He turned his deathbed plumb to the wall,
He busted out to crying,
"Adieu, adieu to the ladies all around, (repeat)
Be kind to Barbary Allen." (repeat)
Oh, don't you remember those long summer days,
When you'd went to the town a-drinking?
You drunk the health to the ladies all around, (repeat)
And slighted Barbary Allen. (repeat)
She had not got very far from the town,
Till she heard them death bells rattle;
She looked to the east, and she looked to the west,
Till she saw the corpse a-coming.
"Go set me down that gentle little lad,
And let me look upon him."
They motioned up to where she screamed,
For to think she was so hardhearted.
"O mother, O mother, O mother,î she cried,
"You would not let me have him;
O mother, O mother, O mother,î she cried,
"You would not let me have him.
"Go dig my grave in yon churchyard,
And dig his in another,
And on my breast lay a red rose bush,
And on his lay a green brier.
"And let them grow as high as the house,
Till they can't grow no higher,
And make them tie in a true love's knot, (repeat)
Both live and die together." (repeat)
The young man died a Saturday night,
And Barbary died on Sunday,
And the old woman died for the love of both, (repeat)
And she died on Easter Sunday. (repeat
-------------------
1) Excerpt from The British Traditional Ballad in North America
2) Kittredge 1917: BONNY BARBARA ALLAN (Child, No. 84)
Illustration in 1888 Harper's New Monthly Magazine
-------------------------
Games and Songs of American Children; Page 78; by William Wells Newell - 1883
No. 19.
Barbara Allen.
In the first quarter of the century, this celebrated ballad was still used in New England as a children's game or dance at evening parties. We have here, perhaps, the latest English survival, in cultivated society, of a practice which had once been universal. It is noteworthy that while, in the town of which we speak [Keene, New Hampshire], the establishment, at the period alluded to, of a children's dancing-school was bitterly opposed, and the children of "church members" were hardly permitted to attend, no such prohibition applied to amusements like this, which were shared in irrespective of sectarian prejudice, by boys as well as by girls.
Our informant describes the performers as standing in couples, consisting each of a boy and a girl, facing each other. An elderly lady, who was in particular request at children's parties on account of her extensive stock of lore of the sort, sang the ballad, to which the dancers kept time with a slow metrical movement, balancing without any considerable change of place. At the final words, "Barbara Allen," which end every stanza, a courtesy took the place of the usual refrain. The whole performance is described as exceedingly pretty, stately, and decorous. It cannot be doubted that the version of the ballad sung was traditional, but we have not been able to secure it.
___________________________________________
[Reed Smith; South Carolina Ballads, 1928. His notes follow. Smith gives version A-F with F being published previously in Harper's New Monthly Magazine, Volume 77, Issues 457-562-- and for F Smith gives no source. F was printed by Scarborough in 1925 and also by Davis in 1929. Curiously, F was sung in Virginia not South Carolina. Smith's versions G-M's texts are not given but the sources are listed.]
BONNY BARBARA ALLEN
(Child, No. 84)
OF all the ballads in America "Barbara Allen" leads both in number of versions, number of tunes, and in geographical distribution. It is found all over the United states. As in the case of "Lord Lovel," its wide American popularity is not due entirely to oral tradition, but in certain measure to print. This ballad has appeared in ten song books and several broadsides. See A. H. Tolman, "Some Songs Traditional in the United States," JAFL,vol. XXIX, p. 60, note 2; and G.L. Kittredge, "Ballads and songs," JAFL, 101 XXX, p. 317. It was first published in America in the American Songster, Baltimore, 1836, and next in the southern Warbler, Charleston, 1845. Recently, it was included in Heart songs, Boston, 1909. This collection of old favorites was the result of a contest in music al popularity conducted by the National Magazine, and is described as "contributed by 25,000 people."
The tunes "Barbara Allen" is sung to are as varied as is texts. Six different airs are recorded from New England, and many from all the southern states differing not only from each other, but from the scotch melody in Thompson's select Melodies of Scotland, 1822, and the English air in Duncan's The Minstrelsy of England, 1905. The two South Carolina melodies printed below are entirely different, as are the tunes in Heart Songs and in Campbell and Sharp.
"Bonny Barbara Allen" was first printed in England in The Tea-Table Miscellany, 1740, and next in Percy's Religues, 1765. The same year 1765, Goldsmith wrote in his third essay: "The music of the finest singer is dissonance to what I felt when our old dairy-maid sung me into tears with 'Johnnie Armstrong's Last Goodnight,' or '"The cruelty of Barbara Allen.' " It was, however, known at least a hundred years earlier. Percy makes the following reference to it in his Diary under the date of January 2, 1666; "In perfect pleasure I was to hear her [Mrs. Knipp, an actress] sing, and especially her little Scotch song of 'Barbara Allen.' There is no way of telling how much earlier the song was composed, for of course neither the first appearance of a ballad in print nor the first published contemporary reference to it has any necessary relation to its age. A ballad may be current in oral tradition several hundred years before it gets into print. or, for that matter, it may arise, flourish, and die out without being recorded in writing at all, and thus disappear without leaving a trace of its ever having existed.
Campbell and Sharp give ten texts and ten tunes, and Cox gives nine full texts and describes three others. Sharp gives a good text and tune and speaks of the ballad's English prevalence as follows, "There is no ballad that country singers are more fond of than of 'Barbara Ellen,' or 'Barborous Ellen' or, or 'Edelin,' as it is usually called. I have taken down as many as twenty-seven variants." For other English references, see Sharp, Notes, p. xx; and for American references, Cox's headnotes, p. 96
_________________________________
[From EFFSA, 1917 Sharp/Cambell and 1932 Sharp/Karpeles. Notes from the 1932 edition. ]
No. 24. Barbara Allen.
Texts without tunes -.—Child's English and Scottish Popular Ballads, No. 84. Gavin Greig's Folk-Song of the North-East, ii, arts. 165 and 166. Ashton's Century of Ballads, p. 173. Miss Burne's Shropshire Folk-Lore, p. 543. Garret's Merrie Book of Garlands, vol. ii. A. Williams's Folk Songs of the Upper Thames, pp. 204 and 206. D. Scarborough's On the Trail of Negro Folk Songs, p. 59. Journal of American Folk-Lore, xix. 285 ; xx. 250; xxii. 63 ; xxviii. 144; xxix. 161.
Texts with tunes :—Christie's Traditional Ballad Airs, I. 87 and 89. Journal of the Folk-Song Society, 111 and 265; ii. 15 and 80. Kidson's Traditional Tunes, P- 37- Journal of the Irish Folk-Song Society, i. 45. Chappel's Popular Music of the Olden Times, ii. 538. Kidston's Garland of English Folk Songs, p. 74. Joyce's Ancient Irish Music, p. 79. Rimbault's Musical Illustrations of Bishop Percy's Reliques, No. 53. Gavin Greig's Last Leaves, No. 32. Folk Songs from Somerset, No. 22 (also published in English Folk Songs, Selected Edition, i. 20, and One Hundred English Folk-Songs, p. 20). Thomson's Scottish Songs, iii. 29. Cox's Folk Songs of the South, pp. 96 and 523. Reed Smith's South Carolina Ballads, p. 129. W. R. Mackenzie's Ballads and Sea Songs of Nova Scotia, No. 9. Wyman and Brockway's Lonesome Tunes} p. 1. Journal of American Folk-Lore, vi. 132 ; xxii. 74 (tune only); xxxv. 343 ; xxxix. 97 and 211. Musical Quarterly, January 1916, p. 20 (tune only). British Ballads from Maine, p. 195. Davis's
Traditional Ballads of Virginia, pp. 302 and 577. McGill's Folk Songs of the Kentucky Mountains, p. 40. Sandburg's American Songbag, p. 57.
Aunt Maria Jones, the singer of version P, was an old coloured woman of 85 who had been a slave. She sang very beautifully, in a wonderfully musical way and with clear and perfect intonation.
________________________________________
In 1927, L. D. Bertillion, Mineola, TX, wrote to J. Frank Dobie. The following is a short extract:
About 38 or 40 years ago a bunch of our most up to date people of the cowhorse region at Youngsport, Texas on the Lampasas River in Bell Co., Texas met for a little sociable of some kind, and the entertainment features being slim some one suggested [new] songs, to which all eagerly agreed,....It came time for Mr. Abe Richards to sing. So he was one of those unabashed self important cow punchers from way up the cow house. .... He removed both spurs in order not to scar the floor, turned down an old-fashioned rawhide chair for a head prop." He sang Barbara Allen. "Now then I confess it was new to me, and a number of others considered Mr. Richards rather up to date in music, and all would have been well save for the fact that one or two of the audience remembered their grandmothers sing the song, and I believe it was a favorite cowboy song in Texas before the pale faces became thick enough to make the Indians consider a massacre worth while...."
________________________________________
[Notes from Traditional Ballads of Virginia; Davis, 1929. There is no texts for HH-JJ so I have not included a separate entry for these three versions:
HH. "Barbara Allen." Collected by Miss Martha M. Davis, of Harrisonburg, Va. Sung by old people in Rockingham County. December 14, 1914. "These old people," Miss Davis writes, " know it only by oral transmission." Music only.
II. "Barbara Allen." Collected by Miss Martha M. Davis. Sung by Mrs. N. W. Hough, of Lynchburg, Va. Campbell County. December 12, 1914. Music only.
JJ. "Barbara Allen." Collected by Mr. Cecil J. Sharp. Sung by Mr. N. B. Chisholm, of Woodridge, Va. Albemarle County. September 28, 1916. Music only. Printed by Campbell and Sharp, p. 98.
Very few of the titles are technically correct (they should be Barb'ra Allen or two syllable titles), John Stone in particular always gives the standard generic title. ]
TRADITIONAL BALLADS OF VIRGINIA
BONNY BARBARA ALLAN (Child, No. 84)
For the Virginia ballads, "Barbara Allen" is facile princeps in the number of items collected, both of texts and of music. Her ninety-two Virginia progeny are something of a record achievement, certainly for a lady who, according to the ballad, scorned her lover. One is thankful she did not encourage him! Many of these ninety-two items are, of course, mere repetition and fragmentation; but when all refuse is set aside, a surprising number of healthy and differing texts remain, of which some thirty-six are here presented. Many of the excluded texts were discarded only after an editorial-pang, and have perhaps an equal claim to appear. An even dozen melodies, many of them quite similar but never identical, uphold the ballad's prestige in the musical line.
The ballad is known in Virginia as "Barbara Allen" or "Barbara Ellen" - with variant spellings - once as "Barbara Allen's Cruelty." In market contrast to the fidelity with which Barbara's name is preserved are the many titles of her lover. In the texts that follow he appears as Sweet William (9 times), Sweet Willie (4 times), Young Jimmy (3 times), Young Jimmy Grove (2 times); once each he is William, Willie, William Ryley, Sweet Jimmy, Young Jimmy Groves, Sweet Jimmy Grove, Young Jimmy Grame, Sir James Graham, Sir James the Graham (and Sweet Jimmy), Sir James of the Grave, Young Jamie Grove, John Green, and Johnny; and once (not counting the "music only " fragments) he is unnamed.
Both the Child A and B versions are represented in the Virginia texts, with many variations, additions, and combinations of the two. To record, with references, all the variations and affiliations of the Virginia texts would require a statistician, not an editor. But certain interesting features may be here pointed out, and some slight guidance offered through the texts that follow.
In the first place, the familiar "rose-and-brier" ending (see head-note to Virginia 18, above), which does not appear in any Child version of the ballad, appears more or less regularly in Virginia texts. Whether or not this was originally supplied from "Fair Margaret and Sweet William," as is suggested also by the hero's name in many variants and by a general similarity of theme in the two ballads, the ending has become an integral part of the most popular Virginia version of "Barbara Allen." Excluding fragments, there are only some half dozen Virginia texts without this ending (see L-O). These conclude usually with Barbara's farewell exhortation to "the virgins all" to "shun the fault she fell in." Cf. Cox, A 16, p. 98.
Still more interesting and important is the fact that the young man's defense of himself against Barbara's accusation of his slighting her appears with some regularity in the Virginia texts (see A-I, L, and P). No much defense is found in any Child version. Moreover, in Virginia A and B, two stanzas of accusation from Barbara are replied to in turn by the man. In A he distinguishes clearly between his love for her and his interest in "the ladies all." In B he defends himself against the first accusation and pleads guilty to the second. Dr. Smith's article on "Ballads Surviving in the United States" (Musical Quarterly, II, 109-129) has some interesting comments on these additional stanzas. Having just quoted Child A in full, he remarks: "The printed versions vary but little from the incidents as here narrated. But the story as a story has always seemed to me to be flawed by the silence of Sir John under the accusation brought against him. The reader infers, of course, that Barbara's charge in stanza, five is unjust but, in view of the tragic denouement, artistic balance demands some sort of exculpatory answer from Sir John. At any rate, I felt a sense of profound relief when a version came in from Buchanan County, Virginia, with four additional stanzas. The singer had never seen a printed copy of the song but, had always heard it sung with these stanzas in place of stanza five. [Here he quotes Virginia A 7-10.] It is possible of course that this better constructed version may be as old as any version known to us." And he proceed to establish this fact.
Virginia texts C-I, L, and P all have one stanza of accusation, one of defense. J has one stanza of accusation and another, also by Barbara elaborating its consequences, with no defense offered by the man. In K the man acknowledges the slight, as in B 8. In several other texts the accusation is made without reply from the man, the usual Child A form. The two stanzas of accusation and two of self-defense are extremely rare. An excellent text of this sort from northern Louisiana, sent by Professor Pierce Butler, of the H. Sophie Newcomb Memorial College, New Orleans, found its way into the Virginia collection, and the four significant stanzas may be given here in comparison with Virginia A and B:
"Oh, do you remember last Saturday night
When you sat in the alehouse drinking,
You drank to the health of a pretty fair maid,
Nor thought of Barbara Allen."
"Oh, yes, I remember last Saturday night
When I sat in the alehouse drinking.
I drank to the health of a pretty fair maid,
But I thought of Barbara Allen."
"And do you remember that night at the ball,
With the lights about us gleaming?
You danced with many a pretty fair maid,
And you slighted Barbara Allen."
"Oh, yes, I remember that night at the ball,
With the lights about us gleaming.
I danced with many a pretty fair maid,
But I dreamed of Barbara Allen."
And more properly, belonging here are the three analogous stanzas of a Virginia text sent by Mr. Henry A. Wise from the Eastern Shore of Virginia. The full text, though recorded, is not to be found among the Virginia archives, but Reed Smith's head-note gives these stanzas in which the lover replies so differently:
"O Jimmie, don't you remember the time
When you walked into the tavern,
And passed the health of the ladies ail around,
And slighted Barbara Allen?"
" You go look under the head of my bed,
And there you'll find a basin;
And in that basin, one drop of my blood
To remember Barbara Allen."
"You go look under the foot of my bed,
And there you'll find a napkin;
And in that napkin a gay gold ring
For the love of Barbara Allen.;
In P and Q the young man in his farewell breathes an ominous curse for Barbara, and in P Barbara returns the curse in her dying farewell. Usually the man dies with a mere farewell to Barbara or with kind expressions for her; sometimes he even heaps gifts upon her. And Barbara is elsewhere uniformly repentant at the close.
In R-T the young man offers presents to Barbara (seven ships in R) or leaves her money (five thousand pounds in S) or does both (a gold watch and ten thousand pounds and-fifty in T). In U Barbara rides away in a fine carriage, possibly a present from her lover. The victim's generosity stands out in contrast to Barbara's cruelty and adds to the poignancy of the tragedy.
These texts S and T especially, may be thought of as showing some connection with the ballad in Buchin's MS., mentioned by Child, in which the dying lover leaves his watch and gold ring, his Bible and pen- knife, a mill and thirty ploughs, nine meal-mills and the freights of nine ships, all to tocher Barbara Allan."
V, like A, mentions that Barbara is chosen from three maids or three ladies with whom she dwells - a detail not found in Child.
In W Barbara blames her cruelty on her mother (as quite explicitly in J 9), and the mother also joins the lovers in death, as she does also in X and Y, but without being otherwise implicated in the tragedy. In many versions, after the mother has been called on to make the daughter's bed, the father is called on to dig the daughter's grave - a quite natural division of labor.
Of the miscellaneous later variants, has a line contaminated from "Pretty Peggy- O." In AA the messenger is a nephew of the sick man; in BB a little boy is hired, and Barbara resides in Strawberry Town (cf. Cox D). CC-JJ are fragments or music only.
C is an especially interesting Negro version of the ballad, Miss Scarborough, who "had wondered if the Negroes had failed to appreciate and appropriate this most familiar and beloved of all ballads," was especially pleased when Dr. Smith sent her this text. Another Negro text has an occasional "Lord, hand me down" refrain and the ending
"Lord, Lord, hand me down.
That the last of Bober Allen."
A frequent shift of the angle of narration is to be noted in many Virginia texts. Child B changes from first to third person after the first stanza, but the shifting is hardly carried to the protean extreme of Virginia D and other Virginia texts which more or less follow Child B. See the footnote to Virginia D.
Five of the twelve melodies in the book were printed by Dr. Smith in his Musical Quarterly article, along with two British melodies, and from the comparison he draws important conclusions about the relationship of British and American ballad airs. He says: "Among the following musical arrangements of Barbara Allen, one from Scotland, one from England, and five recently
transcribed from the lips of the singers in Virginia, no one of whom understood music, the differences are so great that it would hardly be safe to select any two and say that they are related by direct derivation, though four are current in the same county: [Here are printed seven notations of the ballad: A, from " Select Melodies of Scotland"; B, from "The Minstrelsy of England"; C, from Rockingham County, Va. (Virginia HH); and D, E, F, and G, from Campbell County, Va. (Virgina AA, II, H, and U, respectively)].
"Even if a similar strain be heard in A, C, and F, and if E be found to suggest G, the relationship would seem to be collateral rather than lineal. Priority, in other words, can hardly be affirmed of any of these melodies until more data be thrown upon the scales. When Pepys in 1666 lauded the 'little Scotch song of Barbary Allen' and when Goldsmith a century later declared that 'the music of the finest singer is dissonance to what I felt when our old dairy-maid sung me into tears with Johnny Armstrong's Last Goodnight or the Cruelty of Barbara Allen, both may have been praising, so far as we know, a melody unrecorded in books and heard today, if heard at all, only in some shadowed lane or mountain cove or lonely farm-house of the United States. Who can say?"
For other American texts and melodies, see Barry, No. 22; Belden, No. 7; Bulletin, Nos. 2-10; Campbell and sharp, No. 21 (Georgia, North Carolina, Tennessee, Kentucky, Virginia); Cox, No. 16, and p. 523 (nine texts and two melodies); Heart songs, p. 247; Hudson, No. 13 and Journal, XXXIX, 971 Mississippi); Jones, p. 301 (fragment); Journal, VI, 131 (Edmands, North Carolina); XIX, 286 (Belden, Missouri, Indiana); XX, 256 (Kittredge, Kentucky); XXII, 63 (Beatty, Kentucky); XXVI, 352 (Pound, Nebraska, fragment); XXVIII, 144 (Perrow, Mississippi); XXIX, 160 (Tolman, Virginia), 198 (Rawn and Peabody, Georgia, fragment); XXXV, 343 (Tolman and Eddy, Ohio, fragment and melody, Kentucky, fragment and melody); XXXIX, 211 (M.E. Henry, North Carolina); McGill, p. 40; Mackenzie, p. 100; Mackenzie, Ballads, No. 9, and p. 393; Pound, Syllabus, p.9 (fragment); Pound, Ballads No. 3; Sandburg, p. 57; Scarborough, p. 59 Virginia, sent by C. A. Smith); Shearin, p. 3 (fragment); Shearin and Combs, p. 8; Shoemaker, p. 122; C. A. Smith, p. 12 (British version), p. 13 (Virginia, fragment), p. 20; (Great Britain, Virginia, seven melodies only); Reed Smith, No. 8; Reed Smith, Ballads, No. 8; Wyman and Brockway; p. 1. For additional references, see Cox, p. 96; Journal, XXIX, 160; XXXI 317; XXXVI 343
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Flanders; Ancient Ballads 1961, notes by Coffin:
Barbara Allen
(Child 84)
In America, "Barbara Allen" has the widest geographical spread and overall currency of any ballad. It is not quite so popular in Britain, in spite of the well-known comments by Samuel Pepys and Oliver Goldsmith concerning its excellence. Nor are there Western or Northern European analogues, although a spanish romance treats the same theme (certainly not a unique one) and a Serbian song (see WF VIII, 371); is strikingly similar. The ultimate source of the Anglo-American texts has never been located, nor has James Graeme, the hero of the Scottish tradition, been identified "Barbara Allen" has a tradition in print, on broadsheets in song books, on the stage, that is particularly vigorous across Britain and America. As a result, the plot of the spiteful girl and the unhappy lover is much the same wherever the song is found. Nevertheless, all sorts of minor variations have crept into the texts. The ballad may open in the spring or at Martinmas; the lover's name may be William, James, David, etc., etc.; he may give Barbara gift as he dies; he may curse her; she may curse him; she may blame her parents for the whole mess; and so forth. Frequently, at least in this country, the song ends with a cliche: the "rose and briar" Stanza, the "turtle-dove" Stanza or a warning to "ye virgins all." Detailed discussions of the local texts are given by most editors. The best are in Arthur K. Davis' Traditional Ballads of Virginia (Cambridge, Mass., 1929), 302-4; in C. A. Smith's treatment the song in Musical Quarterly, II, 109; and in W. Roy MacKenzie's Ballads and Sea-Songs from Nova Scotia (Cambridge, Mass., 1928), 35. Coffin, 89-90, also gives a list of interesting variations that have occurred in the American texts. From such discussions one can see that the "rose-briar" ending (Flanders E-G), nor found in child, and the references to the tavern toasts in which Barbara was slighted (most of the Flanders texts) are the characteristic New World traits.
Flanders A-C follow Child A in the Martinmas opening and the hero's name. undoubtedly such texts stem from the Scottish tradition represented in J. S. Locke's Forget-Me-Not Songster, printed in Boston and known all over the Northeast. Flanders D f. are of the child B, a seventeenth-century broadside, type. This is the most widespread form of the song. The basin of blood and the gifts offered by the dying man to Barbara (see Flanders D, F, and G, for example) are not in Child B, though common enough in the northern American regions. As the song has been frequently localized, it is likely that Flanders E, entitled "Mary Alling," recalls some nineteenth-century belle. In a similar way, Flanders O may reflect local events. Phillips Barry, British Ballads from Maine, 200, notes a tale told around Newburg, Vermont, about a certain Barbara Allen who was jilted by her lover in favor of a girl he described as an "angel without wings." The Flanders H 1-3 and K 1-2 series offer interesting comparisons for the study of ballad variations and transmission. Flanders J, where the lover points to the basin where he "threw up" his heart's blood, teeters on comedy. And L, mentioning the Christmas Day Kissing, is unique.
Any song as popular as "Barbara Allen" will have many uses. Benjamin A. Botkin, American Play-Party Song (Lincoln, Nebraska, 1837), 58, cites its development as a game song. Coffin, 87-88 (American); Dean-Smith, 51, and Belden, 60-61 (English); and Greig and Keith, 67-70 (Scottish) give one a start on an extensive bibliography of texts from oral tradition. See Kitmedge's notes in JAF, XXIX, 160-61, and XXX, 3I7, for song book and broadside references. Phillips Barry, British Ballads from Maine, 195-200, includes it.
With the exception of the Smith tune, all of the tunes for Child 84 are related. They can be subdivided as follows: 1) Richards, Degreenia, Reynolds; 2) Barlow; 3) Sullivan, Wilson, Armstrong, Halvosa, Fairbanks (which is also related to the Richards group, see end of line 1); 4) Bush; 5) Merrill; and 6) Braid, which is also close to the Sullivan group, at the beginning. Of the great multitude of related tunes, only a selected few, rather closely related ones are given. Relations are found for groups I and 4 to a greater extent than for the others.
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[From the Brown Collection; Volume 2, 1952. Some texts have music from Vol. 4 added. There are also several additional texts FF-II in Vol. 4. Texts are lettered A-II representing 35 texts-- some however are not given, others not given in full. Several versions have the full text in the Abrams or Greer collections. Several additional partial versions are presented Volume 4, the music to Volume 2. The Brown editors' notes follow.]
27. Bonny Barbara Allan (Child 84)
Of all the ballads in the Child collection this is easily the most widely known and sung, both in the old country and in America. Scarcely a single regional gathering of ballads but has it, and it has been published in unnumbered popular songbooks. See BSM 60-1. Mrs. Eckstorm in a letter written in 1940 informed me that she and Barry had satisfied themselves, before Barry's death, that as sung by Mrs. Knipp to the delight of Samuel Pepys in 1666 it was not a stage song at all but a libel on Barbara Villiers and her relations with Charles II; but so far as I know the details of their argument have never been published. The numerous texts in the North Carolina collection may conveniently be grouped according to the setting in three divisions: (1) those that begin in the first person of Barbara's lover (or at least of the narrator), (2) those that begin with a springtime setting, and (3) those that begin with an autumnal setting. Of course those in group 1 may also have either the springtime or the autumnal setting. The rose-and-brier ending is likely to be attached to any of the texts. The lover's bequests to Barbara, a feature not infrequent in modern British versions but unusual in America, appears once in the North Carolina texts, in F. The first person of the lover commonly is dropped after the opening stanza, but in F it holds through four stanzas. Not all of the texts are given in full.
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Belden: Ballads and Songs; 1940 notes
Barbara Allen
(Child 84)
Whether originally a stage song (as might be conjectured from Pepys's entry of January, 1666) or not, Barbara Allen, has become, and remains, the most widely known and sung of all the ballads admitted by Child to his collection. Its persistence in print-broadside, stall, and songbook-down to the present might be looked upon as cause or as effect of its popularity; probably it is both. At least it is probable that most of the marks of its form in recent reports are due to printed versions. Child had a number of American texts but considered none of them worthy of mention. He knew too of versions in which the rover makes bequests to Barbara, but considered them base matter, not fit for preservation. It might be convenient to list some of the features by which modern texts are distinguished. One is the time of year. In most texts, including child B, a seventeenth century English broadside, it is the merry month of May, when green buds they are swelling, or all equivalent; in others it is Martinmas, when the leaves are falling (Child A, Ord, LL, one of the Maine and one of the Nova Scotia texts, and six from the Southern states). The bequests, not found in any of the texts admitted to Child's canon, appear in LL, Ord, texts from Oxfordshire, Somerset, and Newfoundland, but infrequently in the United States and not at all in Missouri. The taunt about leaving her out in the drinking of healths, found in Child A, Ord, and a Hampshire text, is almost unfailing in American copies; and so is the rose and briar ending, which does not appear in the Child versions. On the whole, however, the texts recently recorded are so much alike that it does not seem necessary to reproduce here all the copies in the Missouri collection. six of them were printed in JAFL XIX.
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From Folk Songs from Middle Tennessee, The Boswell Collection, 1997. Wolfe's notes follow.
Barbara Allen
By far the ballad collected most often in Tennessee is this account of Sweet William and his unforgiving lover, Barbara Allen. The Boswell collection contains no fewer than twelve versions, making it the most popular song in his archives; Edwin Kirkland's "A Check List of the Titles of Tennessee Folksongs" lists no fewer than thirty-three versions. It is generally considered the most
common of all traditional ballads nationwide; there are reports that it was sung during Colonial days, and Abe Lincoln sang it as a boy growing up in Indiana. Its earliest mention in English tradition comes from 1666, when Samuel Pepys mentions it in his Diary (January 2 and 6, 1666); it appears in Bishop Percy's Reliques in 1765, and in an essay by the poet William Goldsmith of about the same time; he describes a maid who sings the ballad about "Barbara Allen's Cruelty." By 1888 it was even found as a children's game song in New England (Newell). The full histories of the piece can be found in Child (number 84), Belden (60 ff.), Randolph (l:126 ff.), and Sharp and Karpeles (1:183 ff. ).
The version here came from Martha Corwin Gregory of Brentwood, who sang it on July 14, 1949. She probably learned it from her maternal grandmother, a Latham. The Lathams were plantation owners in Carrollton, Alabama.
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Mellinger Henry Songs from the Southern Highlands
Collected & Edited By Mellinger Edward Henry, 1938
BONNY BARBARA ALLAN
(Child, No. 84)
This ballad was first printed in The Tea-Table Miscellany, 1740, and next in Percy's Reliques, 1765. Reed Smith, No. 8, states ten texts have been discovered in South Carolina running from five to sixteen stanzas and declares that, "Of all the ballads in America 'Barbara Allan' leads both in number of versions and number of tunes." He adds that it has appeared in ten song books and several broadsides. Cox, in his headnote, No. 16, says that twelve variants have been found in West Virginia. Campbell and Sharp, No. 21, give ten texts and ten tunes. C. Alphonso Smith quotes a Virginia version in "Ballads Surviving in the United States" (Musical Quarterly, 2, No. 1, p. 120). James Watt Raine gives a Kentucky version of nineteen stanzas with tune in "The Land of the Saddle Bags," p. 115, Pound, No. 3, gives two versions, one from Missouri and one from North Carolina. See also Wyman and Brockway, p. 1; Adventure Magazine, March 10, 1925; ibid., March 10, 1926; New Jersey Journal oj'Education, Feb., 1927; Scarborough, 59; R. W. Gordon, New York Times Magazine, Oct. 9, 1927; Josephine McGill, Folk Songs oj the Kentucky Mountains, 40; Mackenzie, "The Quest of the Ballad," 100; Reed Smith {South Carolina Ballads, Harvard University Press, 1928), 129; Barry-Eckstorm-Smyth, p. 195; Belden, No. 7; Davis, No. 24 (ninety-two versions have been found in Virginia); Mackenzie, Ballads and Sea Songs from Nova Scotia, No. 9; Barry, No. 22; Heart Songs, p. 247; Pound, Syllabus, p. 9; Sandburg, p. 57; Shearin and Combs, p. 8; Shoemaker, p. 122 (2nd edition); Bradley Kincaid, My Favorite Mountain Ballads and Old-Time Songs, p. 14; Hudson, Specimens of Mississippi Folk-Lore, No. 13. Note also the following references to the Journal: Edmands, VI, 132; Belden, XIX, 285; Kittredge, XX, 256; Beatty, XXII, 63; Pound, XXVI, 352; Perrow, XXVIII, 144; Tolman, XXIX, 160; Rawn and Peabody, XXIX, 198; Tolman and Eddy, XXXV, 343; Henry, XXXIX, 211; Hudson, XXXIX, 97; Henry, XLII, 268. Add Randolph, p. 183; Thomas, pp. 29, 94; Brown, p. 9; Jones, p. 13; Fuson, 47; PTFLS, No. 10, pp. 146—149.
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Excerpt from: The British Traditional Ballad in North America by Tristram Coffin 1950, from the section A Critical Biographical Study of the Traditional Ballads of North America
84. BONNY BARBARA ALLEN
Texts: Adventure Mgz, 4 lo '25, 4 10 '26 / Allen, Cowboy Lore, jj American Songster (Kenedy, Baltimore, 1836), 7 / Anderson, Coll Bids Sgs, 33 / Barry, Brit Bids Me, 195 / Berea Quarterly, XVIII, 12 / Beadle's Dime Songs of the Olden lime (N.Y., 1863), 38 / Belden, Mo F-S, 60 / Boletin Latino Americano de Musica, V, 280 / Botkin, Treasry Am F-L, 820 / Botsford, Sgs of Amcas, 26 / Brewster, Bids Sgs 2nd, 99 / Brown Coll / Bull Tenn FLS, II, # i, 234; IV, #3, 73 / Bull U SCdfr 162, #8 / Cambiaire, Ea Tenn Wstn Va Mt Bids, 66 / Chappell, F-S Rnke Alb, 32 / Charley Fox's MinstreVs Companion (Turner & Fisher, Philadelphia) / Cox, F-S South, 96 / Cox, W. Va. School Journal and Educator, XLIV, 305 / Crabtree, Overton Cnty, 204 / Davis, Trd Bid Va, 302 / Downes and Siegmeister, Treasry Am Sg, 34 / Duncan, No Hamilton Cnty, 69 / Eddy, Bids Sgs Ohio, 53 / Everybody's Songster (Sanford and Lott, Cleveland, 1839) / Farm Life, March 1927 / Fauset, F-L N Sc, 1 13 / Focus, III, 445; IV, 10 1, 1 60; V, 282 / The Forget-me-not Songster (Turner & Fisher, Philadelphia), 129 / Fuson, Bids Ky Hghlds, 47 / Gardner and Chickering, Bids Sgs So Mich, 50 / Gordon, F-S Am, 69 / Grapurchat, East Radford (Va.) State Teachers College, 8 25 '32 / Greenleaf and Mansfield, Bids Sea SgsNewfdld, 26 / Harper's Mgz (June 1888), 35; (May 1915), 907 / Haun, Cocke Cnty, 62 / Heart Songs, 247 / Henry, Beech Mt F-S, 12 / Henry, F-S So Hghlds, 82 / Henry, Sgs Sng So Aplchns, 248 / Hudson, F-S Miss, 95 / Hudson, F-T Miss, 14 / Hudson, Spec Miss F-S, # 13 / Hummel, Oz F-S / Jones, F-L Mich, 5 / JAFL, VI, 132; XIX, 286; XX, 256; XXII, 63; XXVI, 352; XXVIII, 144; XXIX, 160, 1985 XXXV, 343; XXXIX, 97, 211 ; XLII, 268, 303; XLV, 13; XLVI, 28; XLVIII, 310; XLIX, 207; LII, 77 / JFSS, I, 265 / Kennedy, Effects Isolation, 320 / Ky Cnties Mss. / Kincaid, Fav Mt Bids, 14 / Kolb, Treasry F-S, 2 / Leach-Beck Mss. / Linscott, F-S Old NE, 163 / Lomax, Adv Bid Hunter, 243 / Luther, Amcns Their Sgs, 15 / Macintosh, So III F-S, 7 1 MacKenzie, Bids Sea Sgs N Sc, 35 / MacKenzie, Quest Bid, 100 / Mason, Cannon Cnty, 23 / McDonald, SelctdF-S Mo, 30 / McGill, F-S Ky Mts, 40 / Minish Mss. / Musical Quarterly, II, 121 5 IV, 296 / Morris, F-S Fla, 428 / Musick, F-L Kirksmlle, 6 / Neal, Brown Cnty, 52 / Neely and Spargo, Tales Sgs So III, 137 / N.J. Journal Educ., XVI, #6, 7 / N.Y. broadside: H. J. Wehman #395, Harvard Univ. Library / NTFLQ, II, 55; IV, ijg/N.r. Times, 10-9- '27; Niles, Anglo-Am Bid Stdy Bk, 18 / Niles, More Sgs Hill-Flk, 6 / North American Review, CCXXVIII, 219-20 / Owens, Studies Tex F-S, 30 / 162 Popular Songs (Vickery, Augusta, 1895) / Ozark Life V, #7 / Perry, Carter Cnty, 140 / Pound, Am Bids Sgs, 7 / Pound, Nehr Syllabus, 9 / PTFLS, VII, in;X, i6l&ame, LandSddleBags, 115 / Randolph, 0* F-S,1, 126/Randolph, TbeOzarks, 183 / Rayburn, Oz Cntry, 232 / Sandburg, Am Sgbag, 57 / Scarborough, On Trail N F-S, 59 / Scarborough, Sgctchr So Mts, 83 / Scott, Sing Am, 56 / Sewanee Review, XIX, 315; SharpC, Eng F-S So Aplchns, #21 / SharpK, Eng F-S So Aplchns, I, 191 / Shearin and Combs, Ky Syllabus, 8 / Shoemaker, Mt Mnstly, 127 / Shoemaker, No Pa Mnstly, 122 / SFLQ, II, ji / Reed Smith, SC Bids, 129 / Smith and Rufty, Am Anth Old Wrld Bids, 30 / Stout, F-L la, $/The Pearl Songster (Huestis, N.Y., 1846), 104 / The Southern Warbler (Charleston, 1845), 275 / The Virginia Warbler (Richmond, 1845), 275 / The Vagabonds, Old Cabin Songs for Fiddle and Bow, n. d., 7 / Thomas, Devil's Ditties, 94 / Thomas, Sngin Gatbrn, 6 /Thompson, Bdy Bts Brtcbs, 377 / Trifet's Monthly Budget of Music, 1892 / Univ. of Virginia Mgz (April 1913), 329 / Va FLS Butt, #s 210 / Wheeler, Ky Mt F-S, 39 / Wilson, Bckaods Am, 99 / Wyman and Brockway, Lnsme Tunes, I.
Local Titles: Ballet of Barbara Allen, Barbara Allen (both names with many variants), Barbara Allen's Cruelty, Barbara Ellen, Barbarous Ellen, Edelin, Hard-hearted Barbery Ellen, (The Sad Ballet of) Little Johnnie Green, Sir John Graham, The Love of Barbara Allen.
Story Types: A: A young man lies on his death-bed for the love of Barbara Allen. He requests a servant to bring her to him (the man usually delivers the message in person, though in some texts a letter is sent). She comes without too much enthusiasm and remarks that the lover looks as though he were dying. In response to his pleadings, she accuses him of slighting her in tavern-toasting or at a ball. He defends himself, but she continues to scorn him. He dies of remorse. Later, when she hears the funeral bells, she repents and dies. Sometimes the rose-briar theme is added.
Examples: Cox, F-S South (E); Davis (A); SharpK (A).
B: The story is like that of Type A, but the lover accepts Barbara's scorn without offering a defense to any accusations that are stated. Not all these texts have accusations.
Examples: Belden (K), Brewster (A), Davis (J).
C: The same story as that of Type A, but the lover acknowledges the justice of Barbara's charge.
Examples: JAFL, XX, 256.
D: The story may follow Type A or B, but the lover curses Barbara in the end. Examples: Brewster (D), Eddy (A), Davis (Q).
E: This type resembles Type D, but Barbara curses the lover in return.
Examples: Davis (P).
F: The story may be of either the A or B type, but the man lavishes gifts on Barbara in direct contrast to her cruelty.
Examples: Davis (S, T); JAFL, XXIX, 161; NTFLQ, II, 55.
G: The story is like that of Type A or B, although the mother (or both parents) is usually blamed by Barbara for causing her to be cruel and the mother (or both mothers) joins the lovers in death.
Examples: Davis (W); Scarborough, Sgctchr So Mts (F); SharpK (B, C)
H : The story is the same as that of Type A, but a view is given of the courtship where Sir James the Graeme (See Child 213) tells Barbara she will be mistress of seven ships if she marries him. He then slights her at the tavern, and the regular story ensues.
Examples: MacKenzie, Bids Sea Sgs N Sc (A).
I: A Negro version exists which, in its fragmentary form, reveals that "Boberick Allen" is a man. The other girls can't see why "I" follow him. He goes to town and back attempting to see "me" follow him, but he can't because "I was away somewhere".
Examples: PTFLS, VII, m ; X, 149 (C).
Discussion: The popularity of this song is undoubtedly due to its inclusion in ten or more early nineteenth century songbooks and on innumerable broadsides. Certainly it is extreme in its number of texts and minor variations, although the basic story outline is amazingly consistent.
In America, the girl's name seldom varies much beyond the to-be-expected spelling changes, but that of her lover takes many forms: the first name may be William, Willie, James, Jemmy, Jimmy, John, etc.; and the last name, often not given, Grove, Groves, Green, Grame, Graham, Hilliard, Ryley, Rosie, etc. The rose-briar motif is frequently found, even though it is not in Child's texts, sometimes with the names Lord Thomas and Fair Eleanor (Eddy, Bids Sgs Ohio, F) or Sweet William being present as well. If this ending is lacking, another conventional close such as the "turtle dove and sparrow" stanza ( SharpK, Eng F-S Aplcbns, D) or "a warning to all virgins" (Davis, Trd Bid 7 a, M) usually is substituted. The time of year is most often May as in Child B, but Martinmas (Child A) and autumn (Gardner and Chickering, Bids Sgs So Mich) are not uncommon. For detailed discussions of various texts of this song, see Davis, op. cit., 3024; C. A. Smith in the Mttsical Quarterly, II, 109; and MacKenzie, Bids Sea Sgs N Sc, 35 in particular. However, most of the early editors devote some time to this ballad.
The important narrative changes are included in the story types above. The main story variations center about the actions of Barbara and her lover concerning the accusation, defense, and parting. The Child story is simpler than that of most of the American versions. The curse of the lover on Barbara, the lavishing of gifts by the lover on Barbara, Barbara's curse of the lover, the lover's acknowledgement of the justice of Barbara's charges, the onstage views of the courtship, the parental problems, and the suicide of the motter(s) are all absent in Child and enter with the broadside and songbook texts and the subsequent widespread oral tradition. The mitigation of the cruelty reflected in Types C and G is typical. Type I reflects a complete degeneration and has been discussed in my descriptive essay. In general, in America, Barbara is remorseful, the lover denies the slighting or mention of the slighting is omitted, and the lover accepts his fate objectively more or less as in Child A and B.
Other minor, but notable, variations include the attempt of the lover to embrace Barbara, who avoids him, in some texts, by "skipping all over the room" (see SharpK, op. cit., B); Barbara's riding out of town on a white horse, the information that she is "a poor blacksmith's daughter" and her lover "the richest man in Stonington" being included (see Thompson, Bdy Bts Brtcbs, 379); the basin of blood or tears by the bed (see the Mich., Me., Newf., and other northern versions); and the shift of person (first to third) by the narrator (see Davis, op. cit., D; Gardner and Chickering, Bids Sgs So Mich, 50; and Child B).
Newell, Games and Songs of American Children, 78 cites Barbara Allen as an old New England child's game and evening party dance. He gives no text. Also see Botkin, Am Play- Party Sg, 58.
Cambiaire, Ea Tenn Wstn Va Mt Bids, 68 notes that there is a very old Spanish romance with the same theme. However, the motif is a universally popular one. See WF, VIII, 371 for a Serbian variation.
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Kittredge 1917 JAF: BONNY BARBARA ALLAN (Child, No. 84)
Many American copies are registered in this Journal, 29: 160-161, where Tolman prints a Virginian text. See also 20: 256-257; 22: 74 (tune only); 25 : 282 (tune only); 26: 352; 27: 59, 62-63; 28: 200-202. Compare Belden, No. 7; F. C. Brown, p. 9; Virginia Folk- Lore Society, Bulletin, No. 2, p. 3; No. 3, P. 4; No. 4, P. 7; No. 5, p. 8; B. L. Jones, "Folk-Lore in Michigan," p. 5; Cox, 45: 159 (JAFL 29:400); South Carolina Folk-Lore Society, Bulletin, No. I (1913), p. 4; "Berea Quarterly," October, 1915 (18: 12, 15). C. Alphonso Smith reports the ballad from Tennessee ("Summer School News," July 31, 1914, I : I, No. 12, Summer School of the South). Words and tune (from Knott County, Kentucky) are given in Wyman and Brockway, "Lonesome Tunes," I : 1-5; and in McGill, "Folk- Songs from the Kentucky Mountains," pp. 39-44. Professor W. M. Hart has communicated a variant from North Carolina. To the references to American song-books in JAFL 29: 160, note 2, may be added: "The American Songster," Baltimore, 1836 (John Kenedy, editor and publisher), pp. 7-10 (so also in later editions: New York, Nafis and Cornish, about 1840; Cornish, Lamport & Co., 185o); "Barbara Allen," etc., a garland printed in Philadelphia about 1820 (Harvard College, 25276.43.81).
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Excerpt from: The Forget-Me-Not Songsters and Their Role in the American Folksong Tradition
by Norm Cohen
American Music, Vol. 23, No. 2 (Summer, 2005), pp. 137-219
5. "Barbara Allan"/"Bonny Barbara Allan" [Child 84] Most probably the best-known imported ballad in American folk tradition, "Barbara Allen" (spelled "Allan" in the songsters) has been collected in the field over 500 times in the last century. The earliest reference to it is an oftcited entry for January 2, 1666, in Samuel Pepys's Diary recording his evening at Lord Bruncker's: "... but, above all, my dear actress Mrs. Knipp, with whom I sang, and in perfect pleasure I was to hear her sing, and especially her little Scotch song of 'Barbary Allen.' "Pepys had first met Mrs. Elizabeth Knipp (also spelled Knepp) on the preceding December 6. She was beautiful, could sing, and had a very unpleasant husband-a triple threat in consequence of which the lusting diarist could not keep his hands off her. Their friendship rapidly escalated (or should one say, descended) into a degree of intimacy that soon became intolerablet o Pepys's wife. On January5 ,1666:
" ... and so to Greenwich, and after sitting with them a while at their house, home, thinking to get Mrs. Knipp but could not, she being busy with company; but sent me a pleasant letter writing herself Barbary Allen;" and on the following day: " ... having wrote a letter to her in the morning, calling myself Dapper Dicky in answer to hers of Barb. Allen ... " The latter is (according to a footnote) a reference to another Scots song in which a girl laments her lover's absence.[67]
It has been argued that the January 2 reference was not to the traditional ballad: in a head note to the ballad, editor Belden wrote, Mrs. [Fannie Hardy] Eckstorm in a letter written in 1940 informed me that she and [Phillips] Barry had satisfied themselves, before Barry's death, that as sung by Mrs. Knipp to the delight of Samuel Pepys in 1666 it was not a stage song at all but a libel on Barbara Villiers and her relations with Charles II; but so far as I know the details of their argument have never been published. [68]
The absence of said details in this case rather reminds one of mathematician Fermat's handwritten marginal comment in his copy of a number theory textbook that he had discovered a marvelous proof of the theorem under discussion, but the margin was too narrow to contain it. Without any record of Eckstorm and Barry's evidence (and contrariwise the suggestive evidence in the two correspondents' use of ballad characters as noms-de-plume), we must reluctantly consign their comments to the dustbin of dubious demonstrations and assume that Pepys indeed heard the ballad that we know by that name. In any event, "Barbara Allen" has appeared in cheap print (broadsides, chapbooks, songsters) with such frequency that it is impossible to disengage the oral from the printed tradition. In his study, "'Barbara Allen': Cheap Print and Reprint, "Ed Cray reported that the FMNS version of "Barbara Allen" contained at least one stanza not present in any previous versions, whether from cheap print or oral sources. [69]
The opening stanza is:
It fell about the Martinmas day,
When the green leaves were falling,
Sir James the Graham in the west country
Fell in love with BarbaraA llan.
The fourth of the eighteen stanzas is the one Cray singled out as most distinctive:
O see you not yon seven ships,
So bonny as they are sailing,
I'll make you mistress of them all,
My bonny BarbaraA llen.
(Notwithstanding the last line, the title of this version is "Barbara Allen," not "Bonny Barbara Allen.") From the fact that four recoveries from American folk tradition included this unique stanza, Cray concluded that those singers had learned their texts from the FMNSs-evidence to him of the significant impact of the songsters on oral tradition. Because none of the songsters with the "Bonny Barbara Allen" version was available to Cray at the time of his study, he was unaware of the complication of that second text, though its existence does not negate any of his conclusions.
The "Bonny Barbara Allen" version (in FMNS Types II, III, IV, VI, and VII, all probably dating from 1844-49) is only nine stanzas long. Its opening stanza is:
It was in and about the Martinmas time,
When the green leaves were falling,
That Sir John Greme in the west country
Fell in love with Barbara Allan.
It too has close (if not derivative) relatives among field-collected versions. But for some minor Americanizations in spelling, it is identical with a Glasgow broadside version printed in 1855. An editorial note on the latter claims it was taken from the fourth volume of Allan Ramsay's early and influential collection, Tea Table Miscellany, which is very close to it and even closer to the FMNS text. Also, except for spelling changes and a few textual differences, the text is the same as "Sir John Grehme and Barbara Allan. A Scottish Ballad" in Percy's Reliques. [70]
Something about the indifferent editorial practices of the compilers of the FMNSs can be concluded from the presence of both versions in three of the thirteen songster types. The source of the latter version can then be assumed to be earlier cheap print; but what of the source of the unique first version? Did its first typesetter (from whom later ones must have copied) have access to a now lost previous printed text? Did he himself (they were almost all men) know a traditional version? Did he make up the stanza? The latter possibility cannot be ruled out: many men of distinguished literary accomplishment (e.g., Ben Franklin) did service as printers and/or typesetters. The answer to this question is not presently at hand; we can hope that further research will provide it.
However, there is evidence that suggests that the FMNS text was not the first published with the added "seven ships" stanza. I base this assertion on a unique "Barbry Allen" written down by William A. Larkin(s) in 1866 in a manuscript collection of ballad and song texts and autograph verses.[71] Larkin's version is very close to the FMNS version-including the (slightly altered) "ships" stanza-though it contains sufficient differences to assure us that it was not copied directly from that source. In fact, two differences suggest that Larkin's comes directly from a predecessor of the FMNS text, and is actually superior to the latter as far as the narrative goes. One of these two differences involves the alteration of a single word; the other, the addition of two stanzas. The word in question appears in the fifth stanza, where the FMNS text reads:
But it fell out upon a day
At the wine as they were drinking
They toasted their glasses around about
And slighted Barbara Allan.
Here, the Larkin stanza replaces the pronoun "it"
with "they" (that is, the two lovers-not the "they" of the third line), which makes more sense story-wise. The added stanzas in Larkin's writing are the last two of the ballad. The FMNS version ends abruptly with
Oh mother, mother make my bed,
O make it soft and narrow,
Since my love died for me to-day,
I'll die for him, to-morrow.
The Larkin text has two more stanzas, ending with the common rose and brier motif-a much neater conclusion. One hesitates to construct elaborate edifices on such slender foundations, but they are at the very least suggestive of an earlier source for the FMNS text.
A third, different version of "Barbara Allen" also appeared in some songsters of the same period. It contains eight double stanzas and begins with the half-stanza:
In Scarlet Town, where I was born,
There was a fair maid dwellin',
And every youth cried well awa'-
Her name was Barbara Allen. [72]
Footnotes:
67. See Robert Latham and William Matthews, eds., The Diary of Samuel Pepys, a New Complete Transcription(Berkeley: University of California Press, 1972), 7, 5, where the editors refer to British Museum H. 1601 (226) G 309 (66).
68. NCF 2:111. A one-page typescript in the Barry collection at Harvard's Houghton Library (box 13), signed PB., outlines the argument, but it was never published.
69. Cray," 'Barbara Allen."
70. Allan Ramsay, Tea Table Miscellany (Edinburghr, pt. 1750), 343, quoted by Albert B. Friedman, The Viking Book of Folk Ballads of the English-Speaking World (New York: Viking, 1956), 88; Thomas Percy, Reliques of Ancient English Poetry 3, vols. (Philadelphia: 1823, and other editions), vol. 3, no. 7.
71. See Ruth Ann Musick," The Old Album of William A. Larkin," JAF 60 (July-Sept. 1947): 201-51.
72. For example, The American Songster (N ew York: N . C. Nafis, 1839 [CPMS P-085046], and New York: Nafis and Cornish; Nafis, Cornish and Co., and John B. Perry, n.d. [CPM SP-085047]).
_____________________________________________
Barbary Ellen, sung by Jody Stecher
Away low down in Stony Town when red leaves they were fallin'
Little Jimmy Grove from the west country came courtin' Barbary Ellen
So early early in the spring when green buds they were swellin'
Little Jimmy Grove on his death bed lay for lovin' Barbary Ellen
And oh he hired a little boy to run for him an errand
He sent him down into the town and bring him Barbary Ellen
Arise arise her mother cries, arise and go ye nigh him
Oh mother oh mother don't you mind the time you told me to deny him?
Slowly slowly she drew nigh to the place where he was dwellin'
Young man young man you're going to die for slighting Barbary Ellen
She came to the door and she entered in the place where he was lyin'
And every word she said to him : young man I think your dyin'
I'm low, I'm low, I'm low I know, and death is in my dwellin'
No better, no better I never will be if I can't have Barbary Ellen
You're very low and bound to go and death is on you dwellin'
No better for me you ever shall be and you can't have Barbary Ellen
Remember down in yonders town you passed the drinks so willin'
You handed wine to the ladies fine and you slighted Barbary Ellen
I remember down in yonder's town and in the tavern dwellin'
I gave my wine to some other girls and my love to Barbary Ellen
In vain, in vain my love has called and death is in me dwellin'
He turned his face to the milk white wall and his back to Barbary Ellen
She started out across the fields and heard the spring birds callin'
And every bird song seemed to sing: hard hearted Barbary Ellen
When she was halfway cross the field she heard those death bells knellin'
They rang so near, they rang so clear: hard hearted Barbary Ellen
As she walked into Stony Town the tears they started swellin'
And every tear she shed appeared: unworthy Barbary Ellen
As she came to the end of town she heard his coffin comin'
She cried aloud for to set him down that she might gaze up on him
The more she gazed the more she mourned until she burst with sorrow
Sweet Jimmy died for me today I'll die for him tomorrow
Mother Oh Mother Oh Mother she cried, you would not let me have him
Mother Oh Mother Oh Mother she cried, you would not let me have him
Mother Oh Mother come make my bed oh make it soft and narrow
Little Jimmy died of pure pure love, I'll die for him of sorrow
They buried Jimmy in one church yard and Barbary in another
And from her breast sprang a red red rose and from his feet a briar
They grew and they grew to the top of the church
They could not grow no higher
They lapped and they tied in a true lover's knot
Red rose around green briar
---------------------
BARBARA ALLEN
Source Peacock, Songs of the Newfoundland Outports 3 (1965) pp.649-661 (version a)
Performer Curtis, Harry
Place collected Canada : Newfoundland : Joe Batt's Arm
Collector Peacock, Kenneth
BARBARA ALLEN
Source Peacock, Songs of the Newfoundland Outports 3 (1965) pp.649-661 (version b)
Performer Stevens, Mrs. Clara
Place collected Canada : Newfoundland : Bellburns
Collector Peacock, Kenneth
BARBARA ALLEN
Source Peacock, Songs of the Newfoundland Outports 3 (1965) pp.649-661 (version c)
Performer Bennett, Freeman
Place collected Canada : Newfoundland : St. Paul's
Collector Peacock, Kenneth
BARBARA ALLEN
Source Peacock, Songs of the Newfoundland Outports 3 (1965) pp.649-661 (version d)
Performer Kinslow, Mrs. Wallace
Place collected Canada : Newfoundland : Isle aux Morts
Collector Peacock, Kenneth
BARBARA ALLEN
Source Peacock, Songs of the Newfoundland Outports 3 (1965) pp.649-661 (version e)
Performer Stevens, Mrs. Clara
Place collected Canada : Newfoundland : Bellburns
Collector Peacock, Kenneth
BARBARA ALLEN
Source Peacock, Songs of the Newfoundland Outports 3 (1965) pp.649-661 (version f)
Performer Nash, William
------------------
---------------------------
Versions and Variants of "Barbara Allen"
Recorded in various parts of U.S. by several collectors, 1933-54. Edited by Charles Seeger.
Sung by:
I. N. Marlor,
George Vinton Graham,
Mrs. T. M. Bryant,
Monroe Gevedon,
Kitty Ritchie Singleton,
May Kennedy McCord,
Mrs. Mary Franklin Farmer,
Mrs. L. L. McDowell,
Mrs. Ollie Womble,
Mrs. Mary Sullivan,
Aunt Molly Jackson,
Mrs. Emma Dusenbury,
Dr. C. L. Watkins,
Samuel Harmon,
Oscar Parks,
Ray Hawks,
Bascom Lamar Lunsford,
Horton Barker,
Mrs. W. L. Martin,
Mrs. G. A. Griffin,
Warde H. Ford,
Clyde Wilson,
Archie Styes,
H. J. Beeker,
Mary and Cora Davis,
the Gant Family,
Sunshine Robinson,
Bill Carr,
Rebecca Tarwater,
Mose (Clear Rock) Platt.
Read also Bonny Barbara Allen by Joseph W. Hendren in Folk Travelers: Ballads, Tales and Talk. Dallas, Texas. Boatright, Mody Coggin. UNT Digital Library. http://digital.library.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metadc38314/m1/53/
WALKER, E.G. Some characteristics of "Barbara Allen" in America. M. English. North Carolina. 1944.
In London city where I was born (Barbree Ellen [Child 84]). Peacock, 1965:654
Songs of the Newfoundland Outports - Volume 3 - Page 654
Kenneth Peacock - 1965
---------------
The new American songster: traditional ballads and songs ... - Page 52
https://books.google.com/books?id=50tBAAAAMAAJ
Charles W. Darling - 1992 - Snippet view - More editions
B - BARBRO ALLEN 1 In London City where I was born And where I got my learning, I fell in love with a blue eyed girl And her name was Barbro Allen. 2 It was in the month of May, When green buds they were swelling, Young William come
-------------
Bob Atcher — Barbary Allen (part 1, part 2) ... 78 RPM, Vinyl record
-----------------
Barbara Allen by Abner Boggs,
Recorded Lomax on September 7, 1937
Pine Mountain, Harlan
https://archive.org/details/afc1937001_1385B1
--------------
By the shores of the silver Lake by Laura I. Wilder 1939
The Ingalls Wilder Family Songbook - Page 29
Dale Cockrell - 2011
In Scarlet town where I was born,
There was a fair maid dwellin';
And every youth cried “Well—a-wa.”
Her name was Barbary Allen.
All in the merry month of May,
When green buds they were swellin'
Young ...
By the Shores of Silver Lake - Page 356
Laura Ingalls Wilder - 2007
It was just the night for fairies to be dancing there. Pa was singing with the fiddle: “In Scarlet town where I was born, There was a fair maid dwellin'; And every youth cried 'Well-a-wa.' Her name was Barbary Allen. “All in the merry month of May,
--------------
Barbary Allen
(as recorded by Sheila Kay Adams, My Dearest Dear CD) 2000
In Scarlet town where I was born
There was a fair maid dwelling
Made every youth cry – Well-a-day
And they called her Barb'ry Allen
It was in the month of May
When all gay flowers were a-bloomin'
Sweet William on his death-bed lay
For the want of Barb'ry Allen
He called his servant to his bed
And bade him quickly leave him
To fetch that fair maid to his side
That fair maid Barb'ry Allen
He searched high and he searched low
Till at last he drew nigh her
Saying – Pretty fair maid, come fly with me
If your name be Barb'ry Allen
Slowly, slowly she got up
And slowly she drew nigh him
But all she said at his bed-side
Was – Young man, I think you're dyin'
Don't you recall last Saturday night
When we's all at the tavern
You raised a toast to the ladies all
But you slighted Barb'ry Allen
Yes, I remember last Saturday night
When we gathered at the tavern
I gave a toast to the ladies all
But my heart to Barb'ry Allen
O take it back, I'll keep it not
You've slighted me so sorely
Come Saturday night, in the tavern near
I'll serve you just as poorly
He turned his face all t'wards the wall
A sigh it did escape him
That night Sweet William breathed his last
From the loss of Barb'ry Allen
As she was riding through the town
She heard the death-bells tollin'
And with each stroke they seemed to say:
Hard-hearted Barb'ry Allen!
O mother, O mother, make up my bed
Make it both long and narrow
Sweet William died for me last night
I'll die for him tomorrow
They found her there the very next morn
As though she's sweetly sleepin'
With a note that said – Farewell to all
I'm finished with my grievin'
They buried William in the old graveyard
And Barb'ry they laid nigh him
And out'n his grave grew a blood red rose
And out'n hers a briar
They grew and grew to the graveyard gate
Where they could grow no higher
And there they tied in a true lover's knot
With the rose wrapped around the briar
----------------
There is no translation given with this, but is from the singing of a man named Alexander Kerr, North River Ridge, Cape Breton, Nova Scotia, Canada The note says:
"The bard of this song re-visits the island of Mull where he was brought up, and finds only empty and desolate homes, evidence that the people have been cleared from the land to make way for English sheep. His final verse asks the younger generation of Gaels not to let their language decline further, even though the old Gaels have gone."
No indication if the words met the tune in Scotland or in Cape Breton.
I hope that I have typed it correctly. Chorus the same tune as the verses. Anyone want to have a bash at translating, feel free.)
O, TEANNAIBH DLUTH IS TOGAIBH FONN
CHORUS: O, teannaibh dluth is togaibh fonn,
Mo chridhe trom air m'aineol;
'S mi fad o eilean nan damh donn,
'S bho thir nan glean 's nan gallan
1. O, bheir an t-soiridh so nis bhuam
Thar chuan is cruach is beannaibh
A dh'ionnsaidh Muile nam beann fuar
O, eilean uaine bharraich.
2. Sud a Righ, nach mi bha thall
An tir nan gleann's nam bealach
Tir nan craobh, sud tir mo ghaoil
Nan lagan fraoich is rannaich
3. Sud na glinn's am faighte 'n aoidh
Gach roinn chum taobh na mara
Tha luchd mo ghaoil an diugh na sgaoil
'S nan aite caoraich Shasunn.
4. Tha 'n diugh gun tigh, gun sgrath, gun chruib
Gun cloich o's cionn na starsnaich
Tha leac-an-teinntein air fas fuar
Le coinntich ruaidh tighinn thairis.
5. Is truagh a'Ghaidhlig bhi na cas
O'n dh'fhalbh na Gaidheil a bh'againn
A ghineil oig tha tighinn nan ait
O togaigh ard a bratach
---------------------
Popular Ballads Recorded in Knoxville, TN 1938 by the Kirklands
[This has been Reprinted from Southern Folklore Quarterly, vol. II, no. 2., pages 65-80. Music and texts from Edwin Capers Kirkland and Mary Neal Kirkland, 1938.
BARBARA ALLEN
(child 84)
The texts of "Barbara Allen" recovered in Knoxville are not significant in themselves, but had no survivals been found of this most widely known popular ballad, that fact would have been remarkable. Two complete texts and two first-stanza fragments have been recorded. As most collectors have stated before, more texts could have been collected but at the expense of missing items less common.
C. One stanza of "Barbara Allen" was recorded July, 1937, by Miss McCauley, who learned it from her father in Orange County, North Carolina.
Barbara Allen
All in the merry month of May,
When the green buds were a-swelling,
Sweet William Grove on his death, bed lay,
For the love of Barb'ra Allen.
--------------------------
The old ballad of cruel Barbara Allen
Publisher Info [Salisbury] : Fowler, printer, Silver-Street, Salisbury, [1785?]
------------------
Shoemaker B, Mt. Mostly, 127, not in PA Minstrelsy
Riley (1957) says, "Another text of nine stanzas with an autumn setting (Shoemaker B) comes from Pennsylvania where it can be traced. back to about 1850. It is the only traditional text examined for this study, in which the tavern scene included the line: When you the cups were fillin' The presence of this line indicates that the text is derived from Percy's "'Sootch" text rather than from Ramsay's."
-------------
Allen, Jules V. Cowboy Lore. San Antonio. 1933
Bales, Virignia Negro Folk Songs in Texas
Beattie, John The American Singer book six
Lucy Cobb, TRaditional Ballads and song of East NC 1927
Broadside; c. 1930s
Wife, children, & friends.
Bonny Barbara Allan.
L. Deming, corner of Merchant's row and Market square, Boston. [n. d.]
BONNY BARBARA ALLAN.
IT was in and about the Martimas time,
When the green leaves were a falling,
That Sir John Graeme in the west country
Fell in love with Barbara Allan.
He sent his man down through the town,
To the place where she was dwelling,
O haste, and come to my master dear,
Gin ye be Barbara Allan.
O hooly, hooly rose she up.
To the place where he was lying,
And when she drew the curtain by,
Young man, I think you're dying.
O it's I'm sick, and very sick,
And 'tis a' for Barbara Allan,
O the better for me ye's never be,
Tho' your heart's blood were a spilling.
O dinna ye mind, young man, said she,
When ye was in the tavern a drinking,
That ye made the healths gae round & round
And slighted Barbara Allan.
He turn'd his face unto the wall,
And death was with him dealing;
Adieu, adieu, my dear friends all,
And be kind to Barbara Allan.
And slowly, slowly rose she up,
And slowly, slowly left him;
And sighing, said, she could not stay,
Since death of life had reft him.
She had not gane a mile but twa,
When she heard the death-bell ringing,
And every jow that the dead-bell gied,
It cry'd, Wo to Barbara Allan.
O mother, mother, make my bed,
O make it saft and narrow,
Since my love dy'd for me to-day,
I'll die for him to-morrow.
Sold Wholesale and Retail, by L. Deming, corner of Merchant's, Row and Market Square, Boston.
Stamped: 1501
---------------
Library of Congress
Barbara Allen http://www.loc.gov/resource/afc1985001.afc1985001_st006
http://cdn.loc.gov/service/afc/afc1985001/afc1985001_st006/afc1985001_st006.pdf
Barbara Allen
BARBARA ALLEN 4121 39A3
Mrs. Sullivan Shafter, 1940
All in the merry month of May
When the green buds they were swellin'
Young Jimmy Gray on his deathbed lay
For love of Barbrew Ellen.
He sent his men unto them then
To the town where she was dwellin'
Saying, you must to my master come
If your name be Barbrew Ellen.
For death is printed on his face
And o'er his heart is stealin'
Oh you must you must come to him
Oh lovely Barbrew Ellen
--------------
Barbara Allen
Newberry, Michigan, September 16, 1938
2354-B
http://www.loc.gov/item/afc1939007_afs02354b/
Styes, Archie
Dates 1938
Location Michigan
Newberry
1. In Scarlet town where I was born,
There was a fair maid dwellin'
Made every youth cry, "Well-a-way!"
Her name was Barbry Allen.
It was all in the month of June
The buds they were a-bvlooming
Sweet William came from the Western states
And courted Barbra Allen.
It was all in the month of June
When flowers were a-blooming,
sweet William on his death-bed lay,
For the love of Barbra Allen.
He sent his servant to the the town
Where Barbra was a-dwelling
Saying, "You master's sick and sends for me,
If your name is Barbra Allen."
---------------
Barbara Allen
Arvin FSA Camp, August 1, 1940
Judd, Lois
Judd, Nathan
Dates 1940
Location Arvin, California
Twas in the merry month of May,
When flowers were a blooming,
----------------------
Barbara Allen
Popular Music. sound recording | 1 10" disc recording. | Duration: 02:54 | Vocal (Category). Baritone vocal solo, with orchestra (Description). For takes 8-10, see BVE-26176. This recording is protected by state copyright laws in the United States. The Library of Congress has obtained a license from rights holders to offer it as streamed audio only. Downloading is not permitted. The authorization of rights ...
Contributor: Victor - Royal Dadmun - Rosario Bourdon - Eaton Faning - John Liptrott Hatton
Original Format: Audio Recordings
Date: 1922-04-05
-----------------
???????????????
Barbara Allen; Micky Reagan
Contributor: Green, John W.
Original Format: Audio Recordings
Date: 1938-08-28
Barbara Allen; Micky Reagan
Saint James, Beaver Island, Michigan, August 28, 1938
2295B-2
----------------
BARBARA ALLEN
Source Philo 1022 (`Adirondack Woods Singer')
Performer Ashlaw, Ted
Place collected USA : New York : Hermon
Collector Bethke, Robert D.
BARBARA ALLEN
Source Journal of American Folklore 45 (1932) pp.13-17 (version c)
Performer Taylor, Mrs. William Gavin
Place collected USA : New Jersey : Arlington
Collector Henry, Mellinger E.
Roud number 54 | Roud number search
BARBARA ALLEN
Source Abernethy, Singin' Texas pp.36-39
Performer
Place collected USA : Texas
Collector
BARBARA ALLEN
Source Edith Fowke Coll. (FO 55)
Performer Molloy, Mrs. Minnie
Place collected Canada : Ontario : Coe Hill
Collector Fowke, Edith
BARBARA ALLEN
Source Edith Fowke Coll. (FO 56)
Performer Keating, Mrs. Vera
Place collected Canada : Ontario : Peterborough
Collector Fowke, Edith
BARBARA ALLEN
Source Edith Fowke Coll. (FO 65)
Performer Bigrow, Mrs. Eva
Place collected Canada : Quebec : Calumet
Collector Fowke, Edith
BARBARA ALLEN
Source Edith Fowke Coll. (FO 67)
Performer Trayner, Mrs. Dave (Sarah Hutchinson)
Place collected Canada : Ontario : Buckthorn
Collector Fowke, Edith
BARBARA ALLEN
Source Edith Fowke Coll. (FO 71)
Performer Kent, Calvin
Place collected Canada : Ontario : Halliburton
Collector Fowke, Edith
BARBARA ALLEN
Source Journal of American Folklore 39 (1926) pp.211-212
Performer Riddle, Miss Mary
Place collected USA : N. Carolina : Black Mountain
Collector Henry, Mellinger E.
BARBARA ALLEN
Source Joyner, Folk Song in South Carolina pp.45-46
Performer Floyd, Minnie
Place collected USA : S. Carolina : Murrells Inlet
Collector Lomax, John A.
BARBARA ELLEN
Source Journal of American Folklore 29 (1916) pp.160-162
Performer Eubank, Mrs.
Place collected USA : Virginia : Ashland
Collector Pope, Emma F.
BARBRA ALLEN
Source Allen, Cowboy Lore pp.78-79
Performer
Place collected USA
Collector
BARBREY ALLEN
Source Roberts & Agey, In the Pine (1978) pp.52-57 (version a)
Performer Cornett, `Banjer' Bill
Place collected USA : Kentucky : Hindmen
Collector Nickles, Catherine (and others)
Roud number 54 | Roud number search
BARBREY ALLEN
Source Roberts & Agey, In the Pine (1978) pp.52-57 (version b)
Performer Nelson, Orin
Place collected USA : Kentucky : Greenup County
Collector Nelson, Mary
Roud number 54 | Roud number search
BARBRO ELLEN
Source Edith Fowke Coll. (FO 69)
Performer Hooker, W.G.
Place collected Canada : Ontario : Durham
Collector Fowke, Edith
Roud number 54 | Roud number search
-------------
In America, Annadeene Fraley sings a good version on Rounder CD 8041 and the Library of Congress previously issued a full LP - Versions and Variants of the Tunes of Barbara Allen (AAFS L54) - devoted to this single ballad.
Annadeene Fraley
J P and Annadeene Fraley: were born in the early depression to small town families during an era when traditional music could be readily encountered locally, although its character was rapidly shifting. Neither J P nor Annadeene was ever confined to an exclusive diet of family-based music, as often proves the case for musicians who possess very large stocks of old songs. J P’s home music background derived largely from his father, Richard, and his circle of friends, who were country fiddlers in the mold of Alva Greene (no recordings of Richard are known to exist, unfortunately). I am less certain of the exact measure of music that Annadeene experienced within her own family circle: they had traveled around the coal camps of both Kentucky and West Virginia quite a bit before she returned to Star Branch, KY, for high school. She had several relatives that played on early West Virginia radio and these seem to have made the biggest early impression upon her.
It is important to appreciate that, although a good detail of indubitable ‘folk music’ could be readily found throughout the Fraleys' home region, it coexisted, quite happily in this period, with more uptown forms of music.
During the early days of their marriage neither J P nor Annadeene played much music. They had four kids to raise and J P labored in the local brickyard while Annadeene sometimes worked in a sewing factory. It was only through a combination of hard work and ingenuity that their economic lot in life gradually improved. Eventually the brick yards shut down and J P went to work for a company that manufactured the huge continuous miners that extract the coal in our underground mines (J P had done a bit of mining when he was young). Because J P was both extremely smart and gifted with people, he gradually advanced within the company until they regularly asked him to travel as their representative to locales all over the world where the big machines were being installed. Eventually these promotions provided the Fraleys with a quite comfortable way of life.
Sometime in the middle '50s J P had entered a local fiddle contest on a whim and won it, much to his surprise as he was utterly out of practice (J P spins the tale hilariously on our NAT website). Pretty soon a guitarist named Hubert Rogers asked him if he wanted to form a square dance ensemble for the dances across the river in Ironton, Ohio. Soon thereafter the group asked Annadeene to sing country-western songs for the round dance interludes.
J P had begun traveling to some of the fiddler's contests that were gradually rejuvenating around the South; in particular, to Harper Van Hoy's pleasant arrangements in Union Grove, North Carolina. Although J P had picked up a fair measure of local melodies through natural osmosis, much of his active repertory consisted in tunes derived from prominent Nashville fiddlers. The conviction that no one else wished to hear the old melodies became deeply rooted amongst most public performers, which is why so many fiddle LPs of the period display such a limited palette of tunes. Such presumptions Gus and I worked hard to reverse; eventually with some success, I believe. But in the short run our policies led to some misapprehensions, as J P struggled to satisfy our demands in the face of worries that he should perhaps be recording something else. In later years, he changed his mind somewhat, as he gradually realized that it was precisely the uniqueness of his local tunes that served as the magnet that slowly began to attract outsiders to the region (Annadeene, in fact, was more prescient about these matters than J P).
Part of the booklet notes, written by Mark Wilson, to the Musical Traditions Records 4-CD set Meeting's a Pleasure (MTCD341-4)
-------
Song played by Carl Rutherford at the Berea College Celebration of Traditional Music on 10-27-95
Group Cornett, "Banjo" Bill (See: In the pines)
Description Tune played on banjo and self recorded by "Banjo" Bill Cornett in Knott County, Kentucky Summer 1961
http://digital.berea.edu/cdm/singleitem/collection/p15131coll4/id/6116/rec/7
----------------
BONNY BARBARA ALLEN
Source Journal of American Folklore 35 (1922) p.343 (version a)
Performer Moores, Mrs. M.M.
Place collected USA : Ohio : Perrysville
Collector Eddy, Mary O.
BONNY BARBARA ALLEN
Source Journal of American Folklore 35 (1922) p.343 (version b)
Performer Brannan, Mrs.
Place collected USA : Kentucky : Lily
Collector Eddy, Mary O.
BARBARA ALLEN
Source Flyright LP 546 (`Goin' to Georgia')
Performer Eller, Vaughn
Place collected USA : Georgia : Hiawassie
Collector Rosenbaum, Art & Margo
Roud number 54 | Roud number search
BARBARA ALLEN
Source Folkways FA 2317 (`Mountain Music of Kentucky')
Performer Cornett, J.B.
Place collected USA : Kentucky : Mason's Creek
Collector Cohen, John
BARBARA ALLEN
Source Brumley, Lamplitin' Songs & Ballads (1977) p.14
Performer
Place collected USA
Collector
BARBARA ALLEN
Source Model Song Book 2 (c1848) p.238
Performer
Place collected
Collector
BARBARA ALLEN
Source Johannsen, The House of Beadle and Adams 3 (1962) p.59 Performer
Place collected USA
Collector
BARV'RY ALLEN; or, BARBARA ALLAN
Source Munch, Song Tradition of Tristan da Cunha (1970) pp.88-90
Performer Swain, Alice
Place collected Tristan da Cunha
Collector Munch, Peter
Roud number 54 | Roud number search
SIR JOHN GRAHAM AND BARBARA ALLEN
Source Shoemaker, Mountain Minstrelsy of Pennsylvania (3rd edn., 1931) pp.129-130
Performer McGonigal, James L.
Place collected USA : Pennsylvania : Pottersdale
Collector Shoemaker, Henry W.
BARBARA ALLEN
Source Kirkland: Southern Folklore Quarterly (1938) pp.70-71 (version a)
Performer Hatcher, Sam
Place collected USA : Tennessee : Knoxville
Collector Kirkland, Edwin Capers & Mary Neal
Roud number 54 | Roud number search
BARBARA ALLEN
Source Kirkland: Southern Folklore Quarterly (1938) pp.70-71 (version b)
Performer Moore, Jack
Place collected USA : Tennessee : Knoxville
Collector Kirkland, Edwin Capers & Mary Neal
Roud number 54 | Roud number search
BARBARA ALLEN
Source Kirkland: Southern Folklore Quarterly (1938) pp.70-71 (version c)
Performer McCauley, Miss
Place collected USA : Tennessee : Knoxville
Collector Kirkland, Edwin Capers & Mary Neal
BARBARA ALLEN
Source Kirkland: Southern Folklore Quarterly (1938) pp.70-71 (version d)
Performer Lewis, Ted
Place collected USA : Tennessee : Knoxville
Collector Kirkland, Edwin Capers & Mary Neal
BARBRA ALLEN
Source Bush, Folk Songs of Central West Virginia 1 pp.72-74
Performer Wright, Mrs. Guy (Tune)
Place collected USA : W. Virginia : Gay
Collector Bush, Michael E.
LIFE DEATH AND LOVE OF BARBARA ALLEN, THE
Source A Collection of the Publications of J. Kendrew of York and Others (BL 1870 c 2) [No.513]
Performer
BARB'RY ALLAN
Source List, Singing About it (1991) pp.281-288 (version a)
Performer Parks, Oscar (Doc)
Place collected USA : Indiana : Deuchars
Collector Lomax, Alan
Roud number 54 | Roud number search
BARB'RY ALLAN
Source List, Singing About it (1991) pp.281-288 (version b) (+ accompanying cassette)
Performer Parks, Oscar (Doc)
Place collected USA : Indiana : Deuchars
Collector Dunford, / Arthur Rosenbaum
Roud number 54 | Roud number search
BARB'RY ALLAN
Source List, Singing About it (1991) pp.281-288 (version c)
Performer Bryant, Mary Vandora McNeely
Place collected USA : Indiana : Evansville
Collector Lomax, Alan
Roud number 54 | Roud number search
BARBARA ALLEN
Source Howard, Dorothy's World (1977) pp.271-275
Performer Howard, Dorothy
Place collected USA : Texas : Sabine Bottom
Collector Howard, Dorothy
Roud number 54 | Roud number search
BARBARA ALLEN
Source WPA Collection, Univ. of Virginia, Charlotteville, No.122 (version a)
Performer Kilgore, Mrs. Lenore
Place collected USA : Virginia : Pound
Collector Adams, John Taylor
Roud number 54 | Roud number search
BARBARA ALLEN
Source WPA Collection, Univ. of Virginia, Charlotteville, No.122 (version b)
Performer
Place collected USA : Virginia : Wise
Collector Adams, John Taylor
Roud number 54 | Roud number search
BARBARA ALLEN
Source WPA Collection, Univ. of Virginia, Charlotteville, No.122 (version c)
Performer Ison, Ruth
Place collected USA : Virginia : Big Laurel
Collector Hamilton, Emory L.
Roud number 54 | Roud number search
BARBARA ALLEN
Source WPA Collection, Univ. of Virginia, Charlotteville, No.122 (version d)
Performer Kilgore, Miss Etta
Place collected USA : Virginia : Wise
Collector Hamilton, Emory L.
Roud number 54 | Roud number search
BARBARA ALLEN
Source WPA Collection, Univ. of Virginia, Charlotteville, No.122 (version e)
Performer Perry, Miss Hattie
Place collected USA : Virginia : Mountain View
Collector Hamilton, Emory L.
Roud number 54 | Roud number search
BARBARA ALLEN
Source WPA Collection, Univ. of Virginia, Charlotteville, No.122 (version f)
Performer Ewell, Miss M.A.
Place collected USA : Virginia : Haymarket
Collector Morton, Susan R.
Roud number 54 | Roud number search
BARBARA ALLEN
Source WPA Collection, Univ. of Virginia, Charlotteville, No.122 (version g)
Performer Thompson, Mrs. J.W.
Place collected USA : Virginia : Big Stone Gap
Collector Hylton, James M.
Roud number 54 | Roud number search
BARBARA ALLEN
Source WPA Collection, Univ. of Virginia, Charlotteville, No.122 (version h)
Performer Tolliver, Mrs. Bill
Place collected USA : Virginia : Norton
Collector Hylton, James M.
Roud number 54 | Roud number search
BARBARA ALLEN
Source WPA Collection, Univ. of Virginia, Charlotteville, No.122 (version i)
Performer Yowell, Mrs. Judy
Place collected USA : Virginia : Culpeper
Collector Jeffries, Margaret
Roud number 54
BARBARA ALLEN
Source WPA Collection, Univ. of Virginia, Charlotteville, No.122 (version j)
Performer Hensley, Mrs. Herbert
Place collected USA : Virginia : Antioch
Collector Morton, Susan R.
Roud number 54 | Roud number search
BARBARA ALLEN
Source WPA Collection, Univ. of Virginia, Charlotteville, No.122 (version k)
Performer Cannaday, Miss Vera
Place collected USA : Virginia : Ferrum
Collector Sloan, Raymond H.
Roud number 54 | Roud number search
BARBARA ALLEN
Source WPA Collection, Univ. of Virginia, Charlotteville, No.122 (version l)
Performer Stump, Virgil
Place collected USA : Virginia : Ferrum
Collector Sloan, Raymond H.
Roud number 54 | Roud number search
BARBARA ALLEN
Source WPA Collection, Univ. of Virginia, Charlotteville, No.122 (version m)
Performer Cannaday, Miss Vera
Place collected USA : Virginia : Ferrum
Collector Sloan, Raymond H.
Roud number 54 | Roud number search
BARBARA ALLEN
Source WPA Collection, Univ. of Virginia, Charlotteville, No.122 (version n)
Performer Edwards, Miss Grace
Place collected USA : Maryland : Baltimore
Collector Smith, Mary E.W.
Roud number 54 | Roud number search
BARBARA ALLEN
Source WPA Collection, Univ. of Virginia, Charlotteville, No.122 (version o)
Performer Gladden, Mrs. Texas
Place collected USA : Virginia : Magnus Hollow
Collector Blair, Gertrude
Roud number 54 | Roud number search
BARBARA ALLEN
Source WPA Collection, Univ. of Virginia, Charlotteville, No.122 (version p)
Performer Thomas, Miss Jean
Place collected USA : Virginia : Big Laurel
Collector Adams, John Taylor
Roud number 54 | Roud number search
BARBARA ALLEN
Source WPA Collection, Univ. of Virginia, Charlotteville, No.122 (version u)
Performer Baldwin, Clay
Place collected USA : Virginia : Scott County
Collector Hamilton, Emory L.
BARBARA ELLEN
Source WPA Collection, Univ. of Virginia, Charlotteville, No.122 (version q)
Performer Hamilton, Mrs. Goldie
Place collected USA : Virginia : Esserville
Collector Hamilton, Emory L.
Roud number 54 | Roud number search
BARBARA ELLEN
Source WPA Collection, Univ. of Virginia, Charlotteville, No.122 (version r)
Performer Johnson, Mrs. Polly
Place collected USA : Virginia : Wise
Collector Hamilton, Emory L.
Roud number 54 | Roud number search
BARBARA ELLEN
Source WPA Collection, Univ. of Virginia, Charlotteville, No.122 (version s)
Performer McNeil, Mrs. Nanny
Place collected USA : Virginia : Wise
Collector Hamilton, Emory L.
Roud number 54 | Roud number search
BARBARA ELLEN
Source WPA Collection, Univ. of Virginia, Charlotteville, No.122 (version t)
Performer Wells, Joe
Place collected USA : Virginia : Esserville
Collector Hamilton, Emory L.
Roud number 54 | Roud number search
BARBARA ELLEN
Source WPA Collection, Univ. of Virginia, Charlotteville, No.122 (version v)
Performer Medley, Grandma Rena
Place collected USA : Virginia : Wise
Collector Hamilton, Emory L.
Roud number 54 | Roud number search
BARBARA ELLEN
Source WPA Collection, Univ. of Virginia, Charlotteville, No.122 (version w)
Performer Wagoner, Mrs. Alice
Place collected USA : Virginia : Endicott
Collector Sloan, Raymond H.
Roud number 54 | Roud number search
BARBARA ELLEN
Source WPA Collection, Univ. of Virginia, Charlotteville, No.122 (version x)
Performer Wooding, Mrs. Nancy C.
Place collected USA : Virginia : Danville
Collector Scales, Bessie A.
BARBARA ALLEN
Source E.C. Beck Collection (Clarke Historical Lib, Central Michigan Univ) [Folder for Beck the Troubadour p.1]
Performer
Place collected USA : Michigan?
Collector Beck, Earl Clifton
Roud number 54 | Roud number search
BARBARA ALLEN
Source Williamson, Canadian Folk Music Journal 19 (1991) pp.3-13
Performer
Place collected Canada
Collector
Roud number 54 | Roud number search
BARBARA ALLEN
Source Pack, Old Time Ballads & Cowboy Songs (c1933) pp.70-71
Performer Pack, Loye
Place collected USA
Collector
Roud number 54 | Roud number search
BARBARA ALLEN
Source Sizemore, Old Fashioned Hymns & Mountain Ballads (1933) p.12
Performer
Place collected USA
Collector
BARBARA ALLEN
Source Musical Traditions MTCD 323 ('Far in the Mountains 3')
Performer Arwood, Garrett & Norah
Place collected USA : N. Carolina : Pigeon Roost
Collector Yates, Mike
BARBARA ELLEN
Source McDonald, Study of Selected Folk-Songs of S. Missouri (1939) pp.30-32
Performer Hilton, John
Place collected USA : Missouri : Spokane
Collector McDonald, Grant
BARBARY ALLEN
Source WPA Collection, Univ. of Virginia, Charlotteville, No.122 (version y)
Performer Hooker, John
Place collected USA : Virginia : Danville
Collector Scales, Bessie A.
BARBERY ELLEN
Source WPA Collection, Univ. of Virginia, Charlotteville, No.122 (version bb)
Performer Blevins, Rev. George Wesley
Place collected USA : Virginia : Wise
Collector Adams, John Taylor
BARBRE ELLEN
Source WPA Collection, Univ. of Virginia, Charlotteville, No.122 (version z)
Performer Kilgore, Mrs. Lenore
Place collected USA : Virginia : Big Laurel
Collector Adams, John Taylor
Roud number 54 | Roud number search
BARBREE ALLEN
Source Robert W. Gordon Collection (American Folklife Center, LOC) Cylinder A91 item NC 134
Performer Matthews, Effie
Place collected USA : N. Carolina
Collector Gordon, Robert W.
Roud number 54 | Roud number search
BARBRO ALLEN
Source WPA Collection, Univ. of Virginia, Charlotteville, No.122 (version aa)
Performer Kilgore, Mrs. Lenore
Place collected USA : Virginia : Big Laurel
Collector Adams, John Taylor
JOHN GRAHAM AND BARBARA ALLEN
Source WPA Collection, Univ. of Virginia, Charlotteville, No.122 (version cc)
Performer Hensley, Mamie
Place collected USA : Virginia : Bridgetown
Collector Morton, Susan R.
Roud number 54 | Roud number search
SIR GEORGE GREHEME AND BARBARA ALLEN
Source WPA Collection, Univ. of Virginia, Charlotteville, No.122 (version dd)
Performer Hays, Miss Minnie
Place collected USA : Virginia : Big Laurel
Collector Adams, John Taylor
BARBARA ALLEN
Source Library of Congress AAFS recording 3200 A1
Performer Wilson, Clyde (Slim)
Place collected USA : Missouri : Springfield
Collector Robertson, Sidney
Roud number 54 | Roud number search
BARBARA ALLEN
Source Library of Congress AAFS recording 1385 B1
Performer Boggs, Abner
Place collected USA : Kentucky : Pine Mountain
Collector Lomax, Alan & Elizabeth
Roud number 54 | Roud number search
BARBARA ALLEN
Source Library of Congress AAFS recording 665 B3
Performer Moore, Alec
Place collected USA : Texas : Austin
Collector Lomax, John A.
Roud number 54 | Roud number search
BARBARA ALLEN
Source Library of Congress AAFS recording 4228 B
Performer Barr, Alex
Place collected USA : California : Alemeda
Collector Robertson, Sidney
Roud number 54 | Roud number search
BARBARA ALLEN
Source Library of Congress AAFS recording 2354 B1
Performer Stice, Archie
Place collected USA : Michigan : Newberry
Collector Lomax, Alan
Roud number 54 | Roud number search
BARBARA ALLEN
Source Library of Congress AAFS recording 324 A
Performer Jackson, Aunt Molly
Place collected USA : Kentucky (New York)
Collector Lomax, Alan / Mary Elizabeth Barnicle
Roud number 54 | Roud number search
BARBARA ALLEN
Source Library of Congress AAFS recording 1778 A1 & 2
Performer Lunsford, Bascom Lamar
Place collected USA : N. Carolina : Asheville (New York)
Collector Hibbitt, George W. & William Cabell Greet
Roud number 54
BARBARA ALLEN
Source Library of Congress AAFS recording 3638 B2
Performer Steffen, Bernard
Place collected USA : New York
Collector Halpert, Herbert
Roud number 54 | Roud number search
BARBARA ALLEN
Source Library of Congress AAFS recording 1990 A-10 in.
Performer Atkins, Bill
Place collected USA : Kentucky : Pineville
Collector Barnicle, Mary Elizabeth
Roud number 54 | Roud number search
BARBARA ALLEN
Source Library of Congress AAFS recording 3312 B4
Performer Carr, Bill
Place collected USA : Florida : Cherry Lake Farms
Collector Valiant, Margaret
Roud number 54 | Roud number search
BARBARA ALLEN
Source Library of Congress AAFS recording 1002 B2
Performer Nye, Capt. Pearl R.
Place collected USA : Ohio : Akron
Collector Lomax, John A.
Roud number 54 | Roud number search
BARBARA ALLEN
Source Library of Congress AAFS recording 302 B
Performer Dartey, Curtis
Place collected USA : Kentucky : Ashland
Collector Thomas, Jean
Roud number 54 | Roud number search
BARBARA ALLEN
Source Library of Congress AAFS recording 3112 A1 & 2
Performer Watkins, Dr. C.L.
Place collected USA : Mississippi : Vancleave
Collector Halpert, Herbert
Roud number 54 | Roud number search
BARBARA ALLEN
Source Library of Congress AAFS recording 975 A
Performer Sassor, Edna
Place collected USA : Florida : High Springs
Collector Morris, Alton C.
Roud number 54 | Roud number search
BARBARA ALLEN
Source Library of Congress AAFS recording 67 B2
Performer Gant Family
Place collected USA : Texas : Austin
Collector Lomax, John A. & Alan
Roud number 54 | Roud number search
BARBARA ALLEN
Source Library of Congress AAFS recording 3809 A2
Performer Graham, George Vinton
Place collected USA : California : San Jose
Collector Robertson, Sidney
Roud number 54 | Roud number search
BARBARA ALLEN
Source Library of Congress AAFS recording 844 B2
Performer Beeker, H.J.
Place collected USA : N. Carolina : Boone
Collector Lomax, John A.
Roud number 54 | Roud number search
BARBARA ALLEN
Source Library of Congress AAFS recording 1540 B
Performer Collins, Howard
Place collected USA : Kentucky : Smithsboro
Collector Lomax, Alan & Elizabeth
Roud number 54 | Roud number search
BARBARA ALLEN
Source Library of Congress AAFS recording 3172 A
Performer Marlor, I.N.
Place collected USA : N. Carolina : Boyd's Cove
Collector Robertson, Sidney
Roud number 54 | Roud number search
BARBARA ALLEN
Source Library of Congress AAFS recording 3019 A1
Performer Fairless, James D.
Place collected USA : Mississippi : Iuka
Collector Halpert, Herbert
Roud number 54 | Roud number search
BARBARA ALLEN
Source Library of Congress AAFS recording 1409 A1
Performer Napier, Lilian
Place collected USA : Kentucky : Pine Mountain
Collector Lomax, Alan & Elizabeth
Roud number 54 | Roud number search
BARBARA ALLEN
Source Library of Congress AAFS recording 4097 A
Performer Judd, Lois & Rosetta Spainhard
Place collected USA : California : Arvin
Collector Todd, Charles L. & Robert Sonkin
Roud number 54 | Roud number search
BARBARA ALLEN
Source Library of Congress AAFS recording 4097 B1
Performer Judd, Lois & Rosetta Spainhard
Place collected USA : California : Arvin
Collector Todd, Charles L. & Robert Sonkin
Roud number 54 | Roud number search
BARBARA ALLEN
Source Library of Congress AAFS recording 3215 A1
Performer McCord, May Kennedy
Place collected USA : Missouri : Springfield
Collector Robertson, Sidney
Roud number 54 | Roud number search
BARBARA ALLEN
Source Library of Congress AAFS recording 988 B1
Performer Mauldin, Mrs. Annie Mae
Place collected USA : Florida : High Springs
Collector Morris, Alton C.
Roud number 54 | Roud number search
BARBARA ALLEN
Source Library of Congress AAFS recording 987 B1
Performer MacClellan, Mrs. C.S.
Place collected USA : Florida : High Springs
Collector Morris, Alton C.
Roud number 54 | Roud number search
BARBARA ALLEN
Source Library of Congress AAFS recording 919 A
Performer Burgess, Mrs. Cora & Mrs. George L. White
Place collected USA : Texas : Grand Saline
Collector Lomax, John A.
Roud number 54 | Roud number search
BARBARA ALLEN
Source Library of Congress AAFS recording 876 A2
Performer Dusenbury, Mrs. Emma
Place collected USA : Arkansas : Mena
Collector Lomax, John A. / Laurence Powell
Roud number 54 | Roud number search
BARBARA ALLEN
Source Library of Congress AAFS recording 3236 B1
Performer Dusenbury, Mrs. Emma
Place collected USA : Arkansas : Mena
Collector Robertson, Sidney / Powell, Laurence
Roud number 54 | Roud number search
BARBARA ALLEN
Source Library of Congress AAFS recording 955 B4
Performer Griffin, Mrs. G.A.
Place collected USA : Florida : Newberry
Collector Lomax, John A.
Roud number 54 | Roud number search
BARBARA ALLEN
Source Library of Congress AAFS recording 916 B3
Performer Preece, Mrs. Hallie May
Place collected USA : Texas : Austin
Collector Lomax, John A.
Roud number 54 | Roud number search
BARBARA ALLEN
Source Library of Congress AAFS recording 3783 A & B1
Performer Newman, Mrs. J.U.
Place collected USA : N. Carolina : Elon College
Collector Collins, Fletcher
Roud number 54 | Roud number search
BARBARA ALLEN
Source Library of Congress AAFS recording 3181 A2
Performer McDowell, Mrs. L.L.
Place collected USA : Tennessee : Smithville
Collector Robertson, Sidney
Roud number 54 | Roud number search
BARBARA ALLEN
Source Library of Congress AAFS recording 3183 A1
Performer McDowell, Mrs. L.L.
Place collected USA : Tennessee : Smithville
Collector Robertson, Sidney
Roud number 54 | Roud number search
BARBARA ALLEN
Source Library of Congress AAFS recording 2861 A1
Performer Farmer, Mrs. Mary Franklin
Place collected USA : N. Carolina : Crossnore
Collector Halpert, Herbert
Roud number 54 | Roud number search
BARBARA ALLEN
Source Library of Congress AAFS recording 4121 A3
Performer Sullivan, Mrs. Mary
Place collected USA : California : Shafter
Collector Todd, Charles L. & Robert Sonkin
Roud number 54 | Roud number search
BARBARA ALLEN
Source Library of Congress AAFS recording 3424 B
Performer Turner, Mrs. Mattie Wueen
Place collected USA : N. Carolina : Waynesville
Collector Chase, Richard
Roud number 54 | Roud number search
BARBARA ALLEN
Source Library of Congress AAFS recording 3023 A1
Performer Gravett, Mrs. Mildred
Place collected USA : Mississippi : Iuka
Collector Halpert, Herbert
Roud number 54 | Roud number search
BARBARA ALLEN
Source Library of Congress AAFS recording 1036 B
Performer Floyd, Mrs. Minnie
Place collected USA : S. Carolina : Murrells Inlet
Collector Lomax, John A.
Roud number 54 | Roud number search
BARBARA ALLEN
Source Library of Congress AAFS recording 908 B2
Performer Morgan, Mrs. Minta
Place collected USA : Texas : Bells
Collector Lomax, John A.
Roud number 54 | Roud number search
BARBARA ALLEN
Source Library of Congress AAFS recording 3030 B1
Performer Womble, Mrs. Ollie
Place collected USA : Mississippi : Banner
Collector Halpert, Herbert
Roud number 54 | Roud number search
BARBARA ALLEN
Source Library of Congress AAFS recording 3426 B!
Performer Jones, Mrs. R.
Place collected USA : Virginia : Whitetop
Collector Chase, Richard
Roud number 54 | Roud number search
BARBARA ALLEN
Source Library of Congress AAFS recording 1750 B2
Performer Bryant, Mrs. T.M.
Place collected USA : Indiana : Evansville
Collector Lomax, Alan & Elizabeth
Roud number 54 | Roud number search
BARBARA ALLEN
Source Library of Congress AAFS recording 3343 A1 & 2
Performer Meade, Mrs. Virginia
Place collected USA : California : Hollywood
Collector Robertson, Sidney
Roud number 54 | Roud number search
BARBARA ALLEN
Source Library of Congress AAFS recording 201 A1
Performer Platt, Mose (Clear Rock)
Place collected USA : Texas : Sugarland
Collector Lomax, John A. & Alan
Roud number 54 | Roud number search
BARBARA ALLEN
Source Library of Congress AAFS recording 1556 A2
Performer Gewvedon, Munroe
Place collected USA : Kentucky : West Liberty
Collector Lomax, Alan & Elizabeth
Roud number 54 | Roud number search
BARBARA ALLEN
Source Library of Congress AAFS recording 1728 B1
Performer Parks, Oscar
Place collected USA : Indiana : Deuchars
Collector Lomax, Alan & Elizabeth
Roud number 54 | Roud number search
BARBARA ALLEN
Source Library of Congress AAFS recording 3111 B
Performer Roberts, Q. Carl
Place collected USA : Mississippi : Vancleave
Collector Halpert, Herbert
Roud number 54 | Roud number search
BARBARA ALLEN
Source Library of Congress AAFS recording 1347 B1
Performer Hawks, Ray
Place collected USA : Virginia : Galax
Collector Lomax, John A. & Bess
Roud number 54 | Roud number search
BARBARA ALLEN
Source Library of Congress AAFS recording 2087 B-8 in.
Performer Tarwater, Rebecca
Place collected USA : Washington DC
Collector Seeger, Charles
Roud number 54 | Roud number search
BARBARA ALLEN
Source Library of Congress AAFS recording 303 B1
Performer Day, Rosa
Place collected USA : Kentucky : Ashland
Collector Thomas, Jean
Roud number 54 | Roud number search
BARBARA ALLEN
Source Library of Congress AAFS recording 1447 A1
Performer Bailey, Vergie
Place collected USA : Kentucky : Hyden
Collector Lomax, Alan & Elizabeth
Roud number 54 | Roud number search
BARBARA ALLEN
Source Library of Congress AAFS recording 3285 A1
Performer Ford, Warde H.
Place collected USA : Wisconsin : Crandon
Collector Robertson, Sidney
Roud number 54 | Roud number search
BARBARY ALLEN
Source Library of Congress AAFS recording 1489 A2
Performer Davis, Mary & Cora
Place collected USA : Kentucky : Manchester
Collector Lomax, Alan & Elizabeth
Roud number 54 | Roud number search
BARBRY ALLEN
Source Library of Congress AAFS recording 3101 A
Performer Walker, Mrs. Carrie
Place collected USA : Mississippi : Magee
Collector Halpert, Herbert
Roud number 54 | Roud number search
BARBRY ALLEN
Source Library of Congress AAFS recording 2814 A4
Performer Swindel, Mrs. Hettie
Place collected USA : Virginia : Freeling
Collector Halpert, Herbert
Roud number 54 | Roud number search
BARBRY ALLEN
Source Library of Congress AAFS recording 2956 A
Performer Long, Mrs. Theodosia Bennett
Place collected USA : Mississippi : Saltillo
Collector Halpert, Herbert
Roud number 54
BARBRY ELLEN
Source Library of Congress AAFS recording 2762 A2
Performer Kilgore, Etta
Place collected USA : Virginia : Wise
Collector Halpert, Herbert
Roud number 54 | Roud number search
BARBRY ELLEN
Source Library of Congress AAFS recording 2855 B2
Performer Hicks, Mr. & Mrs. Nathan
Place collected USA : N. Carolina : Rominger
Collector Halpert, Herbert
Roud number 54 | Roud number search
BARBRY ELLEN
Source Library of Congress AAFS recording 2939 B3
Performer Kilgore, Mrs. Vera
Place collected USA : Tennessee : Monteagle
Collector Halpert, Herbert
Roud number 54 | Roud number search
BARBRY ELLEN
Source Library of Congress AAFS recording 2745 A2
Performer Martin, Mrs. W.L.
Place collected USA : Virginia : Hillsville
Collector Halpert, Herbert
Roud number 54 | Roud number search
BARBRY ELLEN
Source Library of Congress AAFS recording 2882 B1 & 2
Performer Harmon, Samuel
Place collected USA : Tennessee : Maryville
Collector Halpert, Herbert
Roud number 54 | Roud number search
BARBY ELLEN
Source Library of Congress AAFS recording 2755 A1
Performer Martin, Mrs. W.L.
Place collected USA : Virginia : Hillsville
Collector Halpert, Herbert
Roud number 54 | Roud number search
BARBARA ALLEN
Source Mary Elizabeth Barnicle-Tillman Cadle Collection (Archives of Appalachia, E. Tenn. State Univ.) Disc BC-236
Performer Atkins, Bill / Garland, Jim
Place collected USA : Kentucky : Pineville
Collector Barnicle, Mary Elizabeth
Roud number 54 | Roud number search
BARBARA ALLEN
Source Mary Elizabeth Barnicle-Tillman Cadle Collection (Archives of Appalachia, E. Tenn. State Univ.) Disc BC-335
Performer Garland, Sade
Place collected USA : Kentucky : Dorton Branch
Collector Barnicle, Mary Elizabeth
Roud number 54 | Roud number search
BARBARA ALLEN
Source Mary Elizabeth Barnicle-Tillman Cadle Collection (Archives of Appalachia, E. Tenn. State Univ.) Disc BC-422
Performer Canupp, Ruby
Place collected USA : Tennessee : Knoxville
Collector Cadle, Tillman
Roud number 54 | Roud number search
BARBARA ALLEN
Source Mary Elizabeth Barnicle-Tillman Cadle Collection (Archives of Appalachia, E. Tenn. State Univ.) Disc BC-470
Performer Estep, Evelyn / Nix, Leola
Place collected USA : Virginia : Roda
Collector Cadle, Tillman
Roud number 54
BARBRA ALLEN
Source Mary Elizabeth Barnicle-Tillman Cadle Collection (Archives of Appalachia, E. Tenn. State Univ.) Disc BC-485
Performer
Place collected USA
Collector Cadle, Tillman
Roud number 54 | Roud number search
BOBERICK
Source Bales: PTFS 7 (1928) pp.111-112
Performer
Place collected USA : Texas
Collector Bales, Mary Virginia
Roud number 54 | Roud number search
BARBARA ELLEN
Source Folkways FA 2358 ('American Folk Song Festival')
Performer Day, Rosie
Place collected USA : Kentucky
Collector Thomas, Jean
Roud number 54 | Roud number search
BARBARA ELLEN
Source West Virginia Folklore 3:4 (Fall 1953) p.60
Performer Gerwig, Mrs. Viola D.
Place collected USA : W. Virginia : Braxton County
Collector
BARBARA ELLEN
Source West Virginia Folklore 3:4 (Fall 1953) p.60
Performer Gerwig, Mrs. Viola D.
Place collected USA : W. Virginia : Braxton County
Collector
BARBARA ALLEN
Source Journal of American Folklore 25 (1912) p.282
Performer C., A.
Place collected Canada : Nova Scotia : Antigonish
Collector Barry, Phillips
BARBARA ALLAN
Source Wehman Bros.' Good Old-Time Songs No.2 (1910) pp.120-121
Performer
BARBARA ALLEN
Source Foy, Old Time Songs, Mountains Ballads & Hill-Billy Tunes (1931) p.27
Performer Foy, Jack
Place collected USA : Tennessee
BARBARA ALLEN
Source Old Homestead OHCS 124 ('Early Radio 1')
Performer Mainer, Wade
BARBARA ALLEN
Source Duncan, Ballads & Folk Songs Collected in Northern Hamilton County (1939) pp.66-74 (version a)
Performer Francisco, Mrs. Grace
Place collected USA : Tennessee : Sale Creek
Collector Duncan, Ruby
Roud number 54 | Roud number search
BONNIE BARBARA ALLAN
Source Haun, Cocke County Ballads & Songs (1937) p.62
Performer Haun, Mrs. Magie
Place collected USA : Tennessee : Cocke County
BARBREE ALLAN
Source Duncan, Ballads & Folk Songs Collected in Northern Hamilton County (1939) pp.75-81 (version b)
Performer Gentry, Pearl Green
Place collected USA : Tennessee : Sale Creek
Collector Duncan, Ruby
BARBRO ALLEN
Source Duncan, Ballads & Folk Songs Collected in Northern Hamilton County (1939) pp.75-81 (version c)
Performer Potter, Mrs. Hallie Lee
Place collected USA : Tennessee : Sale Creek
Collector Duncan, Ruby
Roud number 54 | Roud number search
BONNY BARBARA ALLAN
Source Perry, A Sampling of the Folklore of Carter County, Tennessee (1938) p.140
Performer Heaton, Ed
Place collected USA : Tennessee : Carter County
Collector
Roud number 54 | Roud number search
BONNY BARBARA ALLAN
Source Perry, A Sampling of the Folklore of Carter County, Tennessee (1938) p.142
Performer Potter, Anne
Place collected USA : Tennessee : Carter County
Collector
Roud number 54 | Roud number search
BONNY BARBARA ALLAN
Source Perry, A Sampling of the Folklore of Carter County, Tennessee (1938) p.144
Performer Cable, Mrs. Pauline
Place collected USA : Tennessee : Carter County
Collector
Roud number 54 | Roud number search
BONNY BARBARA ALLAN
Source Kennedy, Cultrural Effects of Isolation on a Homogeneous Rural Area (1942) p.320
Performer
Place collected USA : Tennessee : Macon County
BONNY BARBARA ALLAN
Source Mason, Folk Songs and Folk Tales of Cannon County, Tennessee (1939) p.23
Performer Macon, Esten
Place collected USA : Tennessee : Readyville
Collector
BONNY BARBARA ALLEN
Source Duncan, Ballads & Folk Songs Collected in Northern Hamilton County (1939) pp.75-81 (version d)
Performer Phillips, Jean
Place collected USA : Tennessee : Sale Creek
Collector Duncan, Ruby
BARBARA ALLEN
Source Atchison , Mountain Ballads (1934) p.23
Performer Atchison, Tex & his Lone Star Rangers
Place collected USA
BARBARA ALLEN
Source New World NW 223 ('I'm on my Journey Home')
Performer Marlor, I.N. (Nick)
Place collected USA : N. Carolina : Boyd's Cave
Collector Cowell, Sidney Robertson
BARBARA ALLEN
Source Twos and Fews DC379CD ('I Want to Go Where Things are Beautiful')
Performer Workman, Nimrod
Place collected USA : Tennessee : Mascot
Collector Seeger, Mike
BARBARY ALLEN
Source Solomon, Sweet Bunch of Daisies (1991) pp.24-25
Performer Hornsby, Jim
Place collected USA : Alabama : Tallassee
Collector Norrell, Harriet / Olivia Solomon
------------------
Cecil Sharp Manuscript Collection (at VWML) (CJS1/11/44)
Collector: Campbell, Olive Da Rawn, Isabel N.
Barbara Allen- Sung by Alice
Findley, 1914, Berry School, Georgia
In London town where I was bornd [sic]
And where I got my learning
I fell in love with a pretty little miss,
And her name was Barbara Allen.
I courted her for seven long years,
And she said she would not have me,
[upcoming]
-------------
Cecil Sharp Manuscript Collection (at VWML) (CJS1/11/38)
Collector: Campbell, Olive Da Dame, Daisy G.
Barbry Allen (Fourth Version) Louisa Hensley,
Knott County, Kentucky 1909
In the merry month of May
The green buds were a-swelling
A young man on his death bed lay
in love with Barbry Allen.
They sent a servant to the town,
When he got where she was dwelling,
[upcoming]
------------------
[From: Cecil Sharp Manuscript Collection (at VWML) (CJS1/11/36)
from Collector: Campbell, Olive Dame
This version was acquired by Campbell's collection which was a collaboration with other members of the Council of Southern Mountain Workers, in this case it was Isabel Rawn of the Martha Berry School of Georgia.
R. Matteson 2015]
Barbara Allen- Ida Westmoreland, 1910 White County, Georgia.
In Scarlet town, where I was born,
There was a fair maid dwelling
Made every youth cry, "well away!"
Her name was Barbara Allen.
All in the merry month of May,
When green buds were swelling,
Young Johnny grove on his death bed lay,
For love of Barbara Allen.
And death is printed on his face,
[text upcoming]
-------------------
[From: Cecil Sharp Manuscript Collection (at VWML) (CJS1/11/39) Collection: Campbell, Olive Dame
Barbara Allen (Second Version) Performer: not named; Date: Dec 1907; Knott County, KY. collected Katherine Pettit,
All in the late season of the year,
The yellow leaves were falling,
Sweet William he took sick[1],
All for the love of Barbra Allen.
As she was walking through the street
She heard the death bells ringing
She though she heard her true love say,
"Come here, Barbara Allen."
[upcoming]
-----------------
[This was collected by Rawn in Georgia and given to Campbell.
Collector: Campbell, Olive Dame/ Rawn, Isabel N.
Cecil Sharp Manuscript Collection (at VWML) (CJS1/11/42)]
Barbara Allen- sung by Ora Walker, Snider GA, 1914.
Away down in London where I was born,
And where I got my learning
I fell in love with a blue-eyed girl
Her name was Barbara Allen.
He courted her for seven long years
She said she would not have him.
Straight way back home Sweet William went
In love with Barbara Allen.
[upcoming]
--------------
[this contradicts the Sharp C entry] Cecil Sharp Manuscript Collection (at VWML)
Barbara Allen
First Line: In London town where I was raised
Performer: Gay, Roxy
Date: 1914
Place: USA : Georgia : Berry School
Collector: Campbell, Olive Da Rawn, Isabel N.
------------------
Glen Neaves and the Virginia Mountain Boys: Country Bluegrass from Southwest Virginia
Virginia Mountain Boys FW03830 / FA 3830 - 1974
band 8. Barbara Allen: Sung by Bobby Harrison and accompanied by Bobby Harrison (guitar) and Ivor Welton (mandolin). Child 183; Sharp #24. This ancient ballad of British Isles origin has been widely
popular for hundreds of years in America and the British Isles.
The verses sung by Bobby Harrison are authentiC, and the
language has not been altered to the present day vernacular.
Although the tune is simplified, their presentation preserves
the droning sound of the older traditions. It is interesting
to compare this version with the strictly traditional performance of Granny Porter accompanied on the fidcUe by Wade Ward (Asch
Records AH383l) .
1. Was in the sunny month of Kay,
When flowere were a bloomin',
Sweet William on his deathbed lay,
For the love of Barbara Allen.
2. He sent his servant to the town,
The towm where she was dwe1lin';
Saying Master dear has sent me here,
If your name be Barbara Allen.
3. Then slowly, slowly, ahe got up,
And slowly ahe went to him.
And all ahe said when she got there,
Young man, I think you're dyin'.
4. Oh don't you remember the other day,
When we were in the tavern.
You drank your health to the ladies there,
And it Slighted Barbara Allen.
5. He turned his face unto the wall,
He turned his back upon her.
Adieu, adieu to all my friends,
Be kind to Barbara Allen.
6. She looked to the east, she looked to the west
She saw his corpse acomin'.
o set him down for me she cried,
That I may gaze upon him.
7. The more she looked, the more she grieved,
She bursted out to cryin'.
Say'n pick me up and carry me home,
Por I feel like I am dyin'.
8. They buried William in the old church,
They buried Barbara by him.
Prom William' B grave, grew a red red rose,
Prom Barbara's grew a briar.
9. They grew to the top of the old church wall,
And they could grow no higher.
They wrapped on top into a knot
The rose around the briar.
---------------
Cecil Sharp Manuscript Collection (at VWML) (CJS1/11/35)
Collector: Campbell, Olive Dame
Barbara Allen- Sung by Carrie Henderson, September 1916; Walnut, NC.
One day one day in the month of May
When all gay flowers were blooming,
Sweet William on his death bed lay,
For the love of Barbara Allen.
He sent his servants to the town,
He sent them to her tavern,
Saying: Master's sick and very sick,
And for your sake he's dying.
[upcoming]
-------------------------
Cecil Sharp Manuscript Collection (at VWML) (CJS1/11/41)
Collector: Campbell, Olive Dame; Rawn, Isabel
Barbara Allen or Sweet William- Sung by Mabel Spraggins,
1914; Berry School, Georgia.
In those three months in the month of May
When those sweet buds were swelling
Sweet William on his death-bed lay,
For the love of Barbara Allen.
He sent his servant to the town
Where Barbara was a-dwelling,
[upcoming]
---------------------
16 Debra Cowan - Barbara Allen
The traditional folksongs and ballads of one Kentucky family as they were taught by Hattie Mac Tyler Cargill to her grandson, Acie Cargill.
Acie Cargill: Songs and Ballads of
HATTIE MAE TYLER CARGILL
Introduction
My grandma, Hattie Mae Tyler Cargill, was the last of the Tyler ballad singing
family from Kentucky. The Tylers were very private people and kept their music
in the family. They had their own way of tuning all the instruments and their
own ways of playing them, and they only allowed family members to know those techniques.
When I was very young, my grandma used to sing to me and make me repeat the words
and melodies back to her many times until I had them perfect. I guess I was the
one who was chosen to preserve her tradition. I learned to accompany her on a
small homemade fretless instrument that I now know was a primitive dulcimer. In
this way, my ear was trained in the various scales that she sang in. She played
a specially tuned parlor guitar in a strange style with the thumb playing the
bass notes and with the index finger being thrust downward all the way to full
extension, and she was very accurate with the noting, as I remember.