 |
|||
|
Heading for Home THE TUNINGS are given after each set of notes. To make it easier, I give the key in which the song is sung, then the actual pitch of each string. For the 5-string banjo, begin with the tuning of the 5th string, then progress with the 4th, 3rd, 2nd and lst. With the Appalachian dulcimer, I begin with the string nearest the player's body. I double the higher strings so that the dulcimer has four strings instead of three. THE SONG TEXTS - scroll down for notes and texts for all of the songs on the album.
HEADING FOR HOME words and music: Peggy Seeger © 1999 Peggy Seeger, administered by Bucks Music I wrote this song after meeting Crystal Nicholas, of Greene, Maine. in October 1999. Crystal is a painter - when I asked her what she painted she told me she paints Maine. At my behest, she sent me some slides of her work plus some examples of the work of other Maine painters. Whilst looking at these wonderful and imaginative images of a state that I seldom visit, I was blessed with a vision. Sounds melodramatic but it was definitely a vision of my place in the universe, small and precious only as we all are to ourselves and to our friends, family, acquaintances and workmates. I felt as if I was looking at pictures of home. Feeling my age, I felt less afraid of going on (back?) to the Real Home from whence we come. The song began its life with four verses, which I sang for the first time on a radio show in Chicago. My friend and agent, Josh Dunson, was present and he felt that the song was missing political and social involvement. He elaborated and I distilled his suggestions into verse 3, which I believe made the song complete. Thank you, Josh. (Peggy Seeger) 5-string BANJO TUNING: sung in the key of Eb; tuning: low Bb, low Eb. low Bb, D, F - so Eb; when recording, I put a 3rd string in 5th-string position so that the low Bb on the 5th string (which matches the pitch on the 3rd string) will not buzz. If you don't do that and just tune the 5th string down then you will have to play very gently so that the string doesn't buzz and go out of tune. My face to the sky, my back to the wind The cradle and grave, the fruit and the seed, Always on the move with banner unfurled,
The memory of love will burn in my heart
COUNTRY BLUES Peggy's version is based on that sung by Moran Lee "Dock" Boggs (Virginia). Boggs had learned it as "Hustling Gamblers" ca. 1914-18 from Homer Crawford, a traveling photographer, fiddler, banjo picker, and singer. The song is part of a family that includes "Darling Corey" and "Little Maggie." Dock Boggs first recorded the re-named "Country Blues" in 1927 for Brunswick Records (Brunswick 131). This recording was re-released in 1952 on Folkways FA 2953 Anthology of American Folk Music, Volume 3: Songs (itself reissued on SFW 40090 in 1997), in 1983 on RBF 654 His Twelve Original Recordings, and in 1998 on Revenant RVN 205 Country Blues: Complete Early Recordings (1927-29). Transcriptions appear in Sing Out!, vol. 14, no. 3, July 1964; Reprints from Sing Out! vol. 12 (1973); and Anthology of American Folk Music edited by Josh Dunson, and Ethel Raim (New York, Oak Publications, 1973). Boggs recorded the song again for Mike Seeger in 1963. This rendition was released on Folkways FA 2351 Dock Boggs (1964), Verve Folkways FV 9025 The Legendary Dock Boggs (1966), and Smithsonian Folkways SFW 40108 Dock Boggs: Complete Early Recordings (1927-29). (Joe Hickerson, August 2003). Peggy comments: Most of the songs of this genre, like Dock Boggs' version. have a male anti-hero. As I have a precedent in Hally Wood's version of "The Streets of Laredo", in which the main character is not a dying cowboy but a dying whore, I have engineered a sex change in "Country Blues" and altered nomenclature and small details accordingly. Both genders can have country blues. 5-string BANJO TUNING: sung in the key of F-minor; tuning: high
A, low F, low C, Eb, F Now when I had plenty of money, good people, My papa told me a plenty, kind people, O, if I had-a listened to my momma, good people, All around this old jailhouse you see me, good people, Dig a hole, dig a hole in the meadow, kind people, And when I'm dead and buried
JACKIE ROVER Peggy learned "Jackie Rover" from Norman Cazden's book Merry Ditties (1958) which in turn was a reprint of the second half of his Abelard Folk Song Book (1958). Milt Okun also sings this version on Riverside RLP 12-603 Merrie Ditties. The book says: "We have adapted the lines from a Massachusetts version" and "the tune somewhat resembles The Bold Soldier." To me the tune smacks of "Blow the Candles Out." A number of English examples are cited by Peter Kennedy in his Folksongs of Britain and Ireland (1975) with titles referring to various place names ("Has[z]elbury Girl" [or Happisburgh, Aylesbury, Salisbury]) as well as "Jack the Rover," "The Ups and Downs," and the earlier "Maid of Tottenham." Versions from Arkansas and Missouri ("To Market, To Market" and "Tottingham Fair") are given in Vance Randolph and G. Legman's Roll Me in Your Arms: "Unprintable" Ozark Folksongs and Folklore Volume I: Folksongs and Music (1992). Legman dates the earliest printing of "Maid of Tottenham" to London 1656 and cites further North American versions from Idaho, North Carolina, and Ontario (nothing from Massachusetts). The 1939 printing in Louis W. Chappell's Folk-Songs of Roanoke and the Albermarle (as sung 1924 by Columbus Hooker in East Lake, North Carolina) is explicit: "ribbon" is "garter;" "tender arms" are "pretty little thighs;" the final verse is "Since I lost my maidenhead, Although I let her go, You are a ducking (sic) son of a bitch, And I'm your fancy whore." Legman lauds this as "the very first erotic ballad openly published in America." He refers to a 1953 Ontario version "Derby Town" collected by Edith Fowke as "the most vivid." Legman and others posit a probable precursor of this ballad as Child 110 "The Knight and Shepherd's Daughter" and possibly Child 111 "Crow and Pie." (Joe Hickerson, August 2003) On business to market, butter and cheese to buy They rode on together so pleasant was the scene. O, sir, would you be willing, sir would you be kind Now since you've been so forward, tell to me your name They talked on a little further, being so inclined
DEAR COMPANION Peggy recalls learning this song from Bonnie Dobson at a Canadian folk club in 1960. In her notes to her Prestige LP (issued with three prefixes, 13031, 14007 and 7801!) Bonnie comments that she learned the song from Dr. James Butler of Vancouver, British Columbia, with the text derived from Sharp and the tune the work of Bob Coltman. Bob Coltman's melody sounded a bit familiar ("Jealous Brothers"?), and when I played it to some friends, the following possible cognates also came to mind: "Adieu False Heart," "Going To the West," and "Silver Dagger." Cecil Sharp's lone version (vol. 2, p. 109 in English Folk Songs from the Southern Appalachians [1932]) was obtained in 1916 from Mrs. Rosie Hensley of Carmen, NC. It has four verses and a tune closely resembling "Wondrous Love." This version also appeared in the widely distributed pocket songbook Songs of All Time, which was published in 1957 for the Council of the Southern Mountains by the Co-operative Recreation Service of Delaware, Ohio. The verses of "Dear Companion" have traveled widely through a number of related southern U.S. lyric folksongs, most notably "Fond Affection." In Scotland it was called "Go and Leave Me (If You Wish It)." Titles in American folksong collections include "Broken Vow(s)," "The Broken Heart," and "Thou Hast Learned To Love Another." Guthrie Meade in his vast 2002 compendium, Country Music Sources: A Biblio-Discography of Commercially Recorded Traditional Music, divides the "Dear Companion" family and its relations as follows: "Fond Affection" (including "Goodbye Booze," "When the Cold, Cold Clay Is Laid Around Me," "If You Ever Learn To Love Me," "Lay Me Where the Sweet Flowers Blossom," "Fair Young Lover," "Pretty Little Girls Are Made To Marry"); "Go and Leave Me If You Wish To;" "Many Times With You I've Wandered;" "Bye and Bye You Will Forget Me" (dating from 1884); "The Railway (Railroad) Flagman's Sweetheart;" "Broken Hearted Lover;" "Darling Do You Know Who Loves You;" "Little Darling Pal of Mine;" and "Columbus Stockade Blues." Meade follows this grouping with a similar one which includes "Thou Hast Learned To Love Another" (dating from ca. 1849); "We Have Met & We Have Parted" (dating from ca. 1870); and "Lover's Farewell." (Joe Hickerson, August 2003) Once I had a dear companion O, go and leave me if you want to Many a night while you lie sleeping When I see your baby laughing I am writing you a letter
OMA WISE The murder of 19-year-old Naomi Wise occurred in Deep River, Randolph County, in what was believed to be 1808. Writings about the event tell us that the alleged perpetrator, Jonathan Lewis, was arrested and escaped jail, and in 1815 was re-captured, tried and acquitted. He was also believed by some to have confessed to the murder a few years later on his deathbed. Details of these incidents appeared in the January and February 1851 issues of Evergreen and later publications as authored by Braxton Craven, then president of Trinity College (the precursor of Duke University). The Frank C. Brown collection quotes extensively from a 1874 version of Craven's account, and it forms the historical background for Richard Williams's "'Omie Wise': A Cultural Perspective," Kentucky Folklore Record, vol. 23, no. 1, Jan.-Mar. 1977. However, Robert Roote refutes many of Craven's facts by quoting extensively from Randolph County records in his article "The Historical Events Behind the Celebrated Ballad 'Naomi Wise'," North Carolina Folklore Journal, vol. 32, no. 2, Fall-Winter 1984, including the fact that the murder and initial court proceedings took place in 1807, not 1808. An 88-page study by Eleanor R. Long- Wilgus, "Naomi Wise: Creation, Re-creation, and Continuity in an American Ballad Tradition", is listed for publication by Chapel Hill Press in 2003. A totally different "Naomi Wise" was penned by Carson J. Robison and recorded six times for ten different labels between 11/24/25 and 2/3/26 by Vernon Dalhart. This new piece became to be regarded as traditional but is not as widespread as the earlier ballad. Peggy learned her version from a recording of the Ashe County master singer/banjoist Clarence "Tom" Ashley (1895-1967). (For information on Ashley, including the various forms of his name, see www.clarenceashley.com.) He recorded "Naomi Wise" in 1929 in Johnson City, Tennessee, with an April 1930 release on Columbia 15522-D. This in turn was recently reissued on County 3520, Greenback Dollar. A 1962 taping by Mike Seeger and Ralph Rinzler appeared as "Poor Omie" on Folkways FA 2359, Old Time Music at Clarence Ashley's Part II (reissued as Smithsonian Folkways SF 40030). Transcriptions appeared as "Omie Wise" in Sing Out!, vol. 14, no. 2, Apr.-May 1964, and in Reprints from Sing Out, vol. 10, 1967. An April 1966 performance is transcribed as "Omy Wise" in Thomas G. Burton's Collection of Folklore: Folksongs (Johnson City: East Tenn. State Univ., 1967) and as "Omie Wise" in Ambrose N. Manning and Minnie M. Miller's essay "Tom Ashley" which appears in Tom Ashley, Sam McGee, Bukka White: Tennessee Traditional Singers (Knoxville: Univ. of Tenn. Press, 1981). 5-string BANJO TUNING: sung in the key of D; tuning: high A, low D, low A, C, D) I'll sing you the story of little Oma Wise He promised to meet her at Adams's Spring He brought her no money but he flattered her case, So hop up behind me and away we will ride, She got up behind him and away they did go John Lewis, John Lewis, tell me your mind, Little Oma, Little Oma, I'll tell you my mind, O pity, pity, spare me my life! No pity, no pity, I won't spare your life, He hugged her, he kissed her and turned her around The people all come from the city and town,
They took him to the jailhouse and locked him inside, From window to window, slowly he go,
JOHN GILBERT IS THE BOAT Peggy learned this song in 1954 from Tony Saletan, the Massachusetts singer. Saletan had worked at the Shaker Village Work Camp in New Lebanon, NY, and Pittsfield, MA. In his search for songs for a mimeographed camp songbook, "Songs of Work", he had previously combed the collections of Harvard's Widener Library, where he discovered such gems as this song and "Michael, Row the Boat Ashore." His source for "John Gilbert" was either of two books by Mary Wheeler: Roustabout Songs: A Collection of Ohio River Valley Songs (NY: Remick Music Corp., 1939) and Steamboatin' Days: Folk Songs of the River Packet Era (Baton Rouge: La. State Univ. Press, 1944). In the latter, Wheeler states: "The John Gilbert ran from Cincinnati to Florence, Alabama. She was built in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, in 1881, and was named for Captain John Gilbert, of Evansville, Indiana, president of the Ohio and Tennessee River Packet Company. A certain section through which the boat passed was known for its trade in peanuts. The John Gilbert was loaded with this product by the thousand pounds and the vessel was nicknamed by the rousters, 'The Peanut John'." Peggy recalls singing "John Gilbert" as the theme song for a late 1950s English television serial production of Tom Sawyer. It is transcribed in her 1964 Oak Publications songbook (Folksongs of Peggy Seeger, edited by Ethel Raim). From thence it appeared in Sing Out!, vol. 15, no. 2, Sept. 1965. Other recordings based on Wheeler's transcription were made by Conrad Thibault (1946), Robin Christenson (1962), and Bertha Wenzel (1970s). Finally, the vessel itself inspired Claude Marion Almand to compose "John Gilbert: A Steamboat Overture" for the Louisville Philharmonic Society; it was recorded by the Louisville Orchestra in 1960. (Joe Hickerson, August 2003) CHORUS: John Gilbert is the boat You see that boat a -comin' She run peanuts and cotton You see that boat a-comin',
JOHN RILEY There are many such ballads about returned lovers. Usually they involve an object that is shared between them (a "broken token"). Our ballad does not have such an object. For a discussion of this genre, see Robert M. Rennick's "The Disguised Lover Theme and the Ballad," Southern Folklore Quarterly, vol. 23, no. 4, Dec. 1959. Another example of this group is Laws N42, "Pretty Fair Maid." A text of this ballad with a new tune composed in the 1950s by Chicagoan Rick Neff and subsequently sung by Bob Gibson, Myra Ross, Joan Baez and others was erroneously titled "John Riley." It is, of course, not our song. There are two ballads titled "John (George) Riley" in G. Malcolm Laws's American Balladry from British Broadsides (1957). In number N36, the returned man claims that Riley was killed so as to test his lover's steadfastness. In number N37, which is our ballad, there is no such claim. Rather, he suggests they sail away to Pennsylvania; when she refuses, he reveals his identity. In the many versions found, the man's last name is spelled in various ways, and in some cases he is "Young Riley." Several scholars cite a possible origin in "The Constant Damsel," published in a 1791 Dublin songbook. Peggy's learned the song in childhood from a field recording in the Library of Congress Folk Archive: AFS 1504B1 as sung by Mrs. Lucy Garrison and recorded by Alan and Elizabeth Lomax in Providence, Kentucky, in 1937. This was transcribed by Ruth Crawford Seeger and included in John and Alan Lomax's Our Singing Country (1941), p. 168. Previously, the first verse and melody as collected from Mrs. Garrison at Little Goose Creek, Manchester, Clay Co., Kentucky, in 1917 appeared in Cecil Sharp's English Folk Songs from the Southern Appalachians (1932), vol. 2, p. 22. Peggy's singing is listed as the source for the ballad on pp. 161-162 of Alan Lomax's The Folk Songs of North America in the English Language (1960), with "melodies and guitar chords transcribed by Peggy Seeger." In 1964 it appeared on p. 39 of Peggy's Folk Songs of Peggy Seeger (Oak Publications. edited by Ethel Raim). Peggy recorded it on Folk-Lyric FL114, American Folk Songs for Banjo and her brother Pete included this version on his first Folkways LP, FP 3 (FA 2003), Darling Corey (1950). (Joe Hickerson, August 2003) APPALACHIAN DULCIMER TUNING: sung in the key of C; tuning: middle C, middle C, G below middle C, low C As I walked out one morning early I stepped up to her, right boldly asking Tell me, kind miss, and what makes you differ The truth, kind sir, I will plainly tell you Come along with me, don't you think on Riley, I'll not go with you to Pennsylvanie And when he seen she truly loved him If you be he, and your name is Riley,
SOLDIER'S FAREWELL 5-string BANJO TUNING: sung in the key of F; tuning: high A, low F, low A, C, F) I'm going to join the army I'm going to Pensacola O hear the cannon roaring, O stay at home, dear Johnny, They'll put you in the center, Let me go with you, Johnny No stay at home, dear Nancy They marched him through the country I'm weary of the fighting
JENNY'S GONE AWAY I learned the song from Phil Kennedy in 1960. I soon added three verses and have performed it many times since, occasionally as "Jenny's Gone To Ohio." My melody with Kennedy's words and notes appeared in Sing Out!, vol. 17, no. 2, April-May 1967, pp. 16-17. In 1977 Rich Kirby and Michael Kline recorded a version titled "Jenny's Gone Away" on their LP, June Appal JA 0012, They Can't Take It Back. This version is printed on p. 146 of Rise Up Singing: The Group-Singing Song Book (1988), with credit for new words by Rich and Michael. Their verses, based on experiences while working in Appalachia, include: ".... worked until her hair turned gray," "Jenny's man died in the Farmington mine ... company insurance didn't treat her so kind," and "Jenny didn't want to go away ... the company took her place to stay." (The local reference is to the Farmington mine in Marion County, West Virginia, where seventy-eight miners were killed in an explosion on November 20, 1968.) Peggy recalls learning the song in England from an American singer. So, from wherever Ginnie or Ginny or Jenny started her journey to Ohio, her peregrinations (with added details from myself and others) eventually took her from the USA to England and back to the USA and, of course, to all those places good songs go. (Joe Hickerson, August 2003) Jenny's wearing strings and rags. CHORUS: Jenny's gone away, Jenny left her baby when she went away, Jenny was young when her hair turned gray, Jenny didn't want to go away, Jenny's man died in the Farmington mine,
GENEROUS LOVER O, the first time I saw my love, happy was I My friends and relations, they angry are all He said, Now my darling, it's I must away, This poor pretty creature she turned herself round O, happy's the girl that ne'er loved a man
HENRY LEE 5-string BANJO TUNING sung in the key of F#; tuning: high F#,
low C#, F#, C#, C# I won't light down, I can't light down He's leaned him o'er her soft pillow I will light down, I must light down All them cards about your waist She took him by his long yellow hair, Lie there, lie there, you Henry Lee Light down, light down, you pretty little bird I wish I had my bending bow I wish you had your bending bow
FATAL FLOWER GARDEN Here is the tale of the unfortunate little "Sir Hugh," murdered by "The Jew's Daughter" in her garden - at least that's how early versions would have it. Child (#155) and others cite an incident in Lincoln, England, which was reported from ca. 1255 involving the ritualistic crucifixion of a boy named Hugh and the subsequent supernaturally perpetrated retribution of the guilty parties, who were a group of Jews. Although more than half of American versions attribute the murder to a Jewish woman, the anti-Semitic sentiments and supernatural elements of Old World examples of the story have all but vanished. In other American versions the villain is a king or duke's daughter, estranged mother, aunt, unspecified person, "they," etc. An excellent summary with sources can be found in Tristram Potter Coffin and Roger deV. Renwick's The British Traditional Ballad in North America (1977), pp. 107-109. In addition, there have been at least a dozen articles written on aspects of this ballad and its antecedents. Peggy's version is from Nelstone's Hawaiians (southern Alabama musicians Hubert Nelson and James D. Touchstone), who recorded it 1929 in Atlanta for Victor Records (issued as V40193 in 1930). This was in turn reissued 22 years later on Harry Smith's influential Anthology of American Folk Music (Folkways FP 251 and FA 2951 which was in turn reissued on Smithsonian Folkways 40090). Peggy also recorded it on Argo (Z)DA 70, vol. 5 of the Long Harvest ballad series (1966-68 with Ewan McCall). She and her brother Mike sing a fragment of a different version titled "It Rained a Mist" on Rounder CD 11543, vol. 1 of American Folk Songs for Children. (Joe Hickerson, August 2003) Peggy comments: With Ewan Ewan MacColl, I recorded several versions of this song in England, notably from the Dorset Gypsy, Queen Caroline Hughes and the English Traveller Nelson Ridley. Queen Caroline, when asked about the song, told its story in prose, recited its text as poetry and then lilted the tune but refused to sing the song as a whole. She professed to disliking the song even though she kept it in her memory. Ridley also gave us the text and also refused to sing it. I sing it because I placed it in my memory banks in my teens and because I love the harmonies but I too dislike the story. But if one were to avoid singing violent songs, one would probably removed the majority of the Anglo-American tradition. In Lincoln (England) there is old cobbled hil about a mile long that leads up to the cathedral. On this narrow street, now closed to automobile traffic, is a very old building called 'The Jew's House' where the little Sir Hugh was supposedly murdered. In the cathedral there is also a plaque to the effect that rumours and folklore such as that contained in the legend of the boy's murder are dangerous and deadly and, in the end, partly responsible for the horrendous mass massacres of Jewish people that have taken place in the past few centuries. When I next visit Lincoln I will get the exact wording, for it was excellently written. It rained, it poured, it rained so hard, They tossed their ball again so high, Up stepped a beautiful lady I won't come in, I shan't come in She first showed him an apple seed, She took him by his lily white hand O, take these finger-rings off my fingers, Tether the Bible at my head, Tether the Bible at my feet,
GIRL OF CONSTANT SORROW Composed by Sarah Ogan Gunning (1910-1983) this song was based on an earlier piece, "I Am a Man of Constant Sorrow," recently made popular by its appearance in the film O Brother Where Art Thou? Gunning first recorded her song in 1937 for Alan Lomax (Library of Congress Archive of American Folk-Song (# AFS 1945A). It was printed in People's Songs Bulletin, vol. 1, no. 3, April 1946 (and thence in Reprints from People's Songs Bulletin, 1961). Gunning later sang it at the Newport Folk Festival (Vanguard 9182, Traditional Music at Newport 1964 - Part I) and on Folk-Legacy FSA 26, Girl of Constant Sorrow (1965). Archie Green's notes to the latter LP date Gunning's recomposition to "about 1936 in New York, where her first husband, Andrew Ogan, was fatally ill." She had learned the tune from one of Emry Arthur's recordings of "I Am a Man of Constant Sorrow," which were issued in 1928 and 1931. The original "I Am a Man of Constant Sorrow" first appeared in the 2nd decade of the 20th century, once in a 1913 pocket songbook distributed by the blind Kentucky singer, Dick Burnett, and then as part of a variant of "In Old Virginny" sung to Cecil Sharp by Mrs. Frances Richard at St. Peter's School, Callaway, VA, 1918 (English Folk Songs from the Southern Appalachians [1932], pp. 233-234). Burnett's version, which was his reworking of an earlier hymn, was Emry Arthur's source. Peggy's version is from John Greenway's American Folksongs of Protest (1953). She included it in her own songbook, Folk Songs of Peggy Seeger (1964). She also recorded it on Female Frolic (Argo ZDA 82), and on A Song For You and Me (Prestige 23058). (Joe Hickerson, August 2003) I am a girl of constant sorrow My mother how I hated to leave her Perhaps, dear friends, you're a-wondering For breakfast we have bulldog gravy For our clothes be always ragged |
||
|
|
|||
|
| Home | Songwriter
| Singer | Activist
| Family & Friends | Itinerary
| This page updated August 8, 2007
|
|||
