Songs of the Carolina Charter Colonists, 1663-1763

[71] CHAPTER VII

Recordings Of North Carolina Songs And Other Aids To Enjoyment

Readers of this book who may wish to hear in their homes and in clubs, schools, and colleges some of the songs of the Carolina Charter Colonists as they have been sung during the last thirty years may, without much trouble or expense, depending on their location, find access to them. The following information and suggestions are not meant to be exhaustive; they are meant to be practicable. Detailed questions may, for a while, it is to be hoped, be addressed to the author. They will be ordinarily attended to by the Folklore Curriculum and the Department of Music of the University of North Carolina, in particular by the Institute of Folk Music, Chapel Hill, and by the Bureau of Audio-Visual Education, Extension of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, which has prepared a list of available records offered at a small rental fee (catalogue upon request).

The greatest repository of folklore material in general available to citizens of the United States is the Folksong Archive, Music Division, of the Library of Congress, Washington, D. C. The Folksong Archive had, at last account, more than 50,000 recordings of American folksongs. Those songs which have not been put in album form are accessible to all properly qualified scholars and students, but they must be played in the Folksong Archive. There is A Check-List of Recorded Songs by title, singer, first line, and geographical provenance. This will enable anyone interested to know what North Carolina songs have been recorded. The Check-List may be purchased for a small sum, less than that of a cheap [72] book. In addition to offering this material under the restrictions indicated, the Folksong Archive has prepared a large number of albums of special types of folksongs. These are described in a pamphlet Folk Music, A Selection of Folk Songs, Ballads, Dances, Instrumental Pieces, and Folk Tales of the United States and Latin America: Catalog of Phonograph Records (Washington, D. C.: Music Division—Recording Laboratory, Reference Department, Library of Congress, 1959). The most significant ones for North Carolina are as follows, with prices as last quoted:

Botkin, B. A., ed. PLAY AND DANCE SONGS AND TUNES (N.C.). AAFS L9 LP $4.50.

Botkin, B. A., ed. ANGLO-AMERICAN BALLADS (N.C.). AAFS 17 LP $4.50. (Notable for N.C. texts of “Lamkin—Bolakins,” “The Wife of Usher’s Well—The Lady Gay, The Three Babes.”)

Emrich, B. M., ed. ANGLO-AMERICAN SONGS AND BALLADS (N.C.). AAFS L12 LP $4.50. (“Young Beichan-Lord Bateman” and “Sourwood Mountain.”)

Emrich, Duncan, B. M., ed. ANGLO-AMERICAN SONGS AND BALLADS (N.C.). AAFS L14 LP $4.50. (“The Cherry Tree Carol” by Artus M. Moser and other songs by I. G. Greer.)

Emrich, Duncan, B. M., ed. ANGLO-AMERICAN SONGS AND BALLADS (N.C.). AAFS L20 LP $4.50. (“Baa Baa Black Sheep” by Bascom Lamar Lunsford.)

Emrich, Duncan, B. M., ed. ANGLO-AMERICAN SONGS AND BALLADS. AAFS L21 LP $4.50. (“The Death of Queen Jane” by B. L. Lunsford, “Sweet William” by Mrs. Maud Long.)

[73] Jackson, George Pullen, ed. SACRED HARP SINGING. AAFS L11 LP $4.50.

Lomax, Alan, ed. AFRO-AMERICAN BLUES AND GAME SONGS (N.C.). AAFS LA LP $4.50.

Lomax, Alan, ed. ANGLO-AMERICAN BALLADS. AAFS L1 LP $4.50.

Lomax, Alan, ed. ANGLO-AMERICAN CHANTIES, LYRIC SONGS, DANCE TUNES, AND SPIRITUALS (N.C.) AAFS L2 LP $4.50.

Many, perhaps most, of the albums contain songs from North Carolina, which has been reasonably well covered by hunters of the Archive. Among the fine North Carolina singers represented are Mrs. Maud Long, Dr. I. G. Greer, Mr. Frank Proffitt, Mr. Bascom Lamar Lunsford, Mr. Artus M. Moser, Mr. Frank Warner, Mrs. Elizabeth Cotton, Dr. Amos Abrams, Professor Cratis D. Williams, Mr. Richard Chase, Mr. Sanford Terry, Mr. Marcus Marcum (fiddler), Mrs. Samantha Bumgarner.

The Arthur Palmer Hudson Folklore Collection, containing the gatherings of forty-odd years by Professor Hudson, from North Carolina chiefly, but also from singers in or from Mississippi, Louisiana, Indiana, Virginia, Maryland, and scatterings from other states, sections, and many foreign countries, is now being processed, filed, indexed, and catalogued for presentation to the University of North Carolina Library upon the collector’s complete retirement or at his prior death. The University of North Carolina has indicated its willingness to accept the Collection, endeavoring to keep [74] all manuscript, phonograph, and artifact materials as nearly intact as may be practicable, but distributing books, pamphlets, and other separately published material in the library according to normal classification. Some of the contents of this Collection have been indicated by the reference “HFC (tape)” in the preceding listing of individual songs. But not all by any means; there is much else on tape and in manuscript and typescript form relevant to North Carolina folklore in general, to North Carolina folksong in particular, and even in a few cases, not noted, to the songs which are the subject of this book. During the lifetime and actual control of the donor, the Collection will be accessible to qualified scholars by permission. Afterward it will be accessible under appropriate University of North Carolina Library regulations to qualified scholars and others. Use of material in the Collection may, in a few instances, be governed by restrictions imposed by the informants when they gave material to Professor Hudson. Much of the Collection has been published from time to time in the journal North Carolina Folklore, which Professor Hudson has edited since 1954 (ten volumes, nineteen semiannual issues to date, with “An Analytical Index to Volumes I-VIII”).

There is already a large, and there is an ever-increasing, number of commercial recordings, many of them excellent, which contain songs by North Carolinians or North Carolina songs by singers, professional and amateur, from other states (the State being a happy hunting ground for professional singers and record-makers). The following list is an arbitrary one, containing the names of singers (with their albums and publishers which the author of this book owns or has heard or heard of).

[75] Brand, Oscar, Tom Paley, and Jean Ritchie. COURTING AND OTHER FOLK SONGS OF THE SOUTHERN APPALACHIANS (N.C.). Elektra 122. Elektra-Stratford Corp., 189 W. 10th St., N.Y. 14, N.Y. (“Hog Drovers,” “The Miller’s Song,” “Jackaroo.”)

Editors of Life. AMERICAN FOLK MUSIC, supplement to the “Life” Treasury of American Folklore. Time, Inc., N.Y., 1961.

Ferrier, Kathleen. ENGLISH SONGS AND FOLK SONGS. LS 538 London ffrr Co.

Ginandes, Shep. BRITISH TRADITIONAL BALLADS SUNG IN AMERICA BY SHEP GINANDES (N.C.). Elektra-Stratford Corp., 189 W. 10th St., N.Y. 14, N.Y. (Five Child ballads known in N.C.)

Ginandes, Shep. SHEP GINANDES SINGS FOLK SONGS (N.C.). Elektra 133, Elektra-Stratford Corp., 189 W. 10th St., N.Y. 14, N.Y. (“Bolakins-Lamkin,” “The Two Brothers,” “The Wife of Usher’s Well,” “Mattie Groves.”)

Goldstein, Kenneth S., ed. THE ENGLISH AND SCOTTISH POPULAR BALLADS (The Child Ballads) sung by Ewan MacCall and A. L. Lloyd. Five albums containing most of the Child ballads of which the music is known as sung by a Scottish and an English singer. RLP 12-625/626 ff. Bill Grauer Productions, 418 W. 49th St., N.Y. 19, N.Y.

Goldstein, Kenneth S., ed. THERE WAS A LITTLE TREE, AMERICAN FOLK SONGS FOR CHILDREN SUNG BY SHEP GINANDES (N.C.). EK1-7. Elektra-Stratford Record Corp., 189 W. [76] 10th St., N.Y. 14, N.Y. (“Billie Boy,” “Froggie Went a-Courting,” and “Who Will Shoe My Little Foot?”).

Goldstein, Kenneth S. SOUTHERN MOUNTAIN FOLK SONGS AND BALLADS. RLP 12-617. Bill Grauer Productions.

Greer, I. G. LC Records AAFS 68A, AAFS 60B, AAFS 69A containing N. C. old ballads by I. G. Greer. Folk Song Archive, Library of Congress, Washington, D. C.

Greer, I. G. BLACK JACK DAVY. Paramount 3195-A. New York Recording Laboratories, Port Washington, Wisconsin.

MacColl, Ewan and Peggy Seeger. MATCHING SONGS OF THE BRITISH ISLES AND AMERICA. RLP 12-637. Bill Grauer Prod., Inc., 235 W. 46th St., N.Y. 36, N.Y. (In this album the singers match American and British versions of five of the old ballads.)

McCurdy, ed. THE BALLAD RECORD (N.C.). Riverside RLP 12-601. Bill Grauer Prod., 418 W. 49th St., N.Y. 19, N.Y.

Moser, Artus M. NORTH CAROLINA BALLADS, ed. Kenneth Goldstein, Folkways.

Okun. MERRY DITTIES (N.C.). RLP 12-603. Bill Grauer Productions, 418 W. 49th St., N.Y. 19, N.Y.

Paley, Tom. FOLK SONGS FROM THE SOUTHERN APPALACHIAN MOUNTAINS (N.C.). EKL-12. Elektra-Stratford Record Corp., 189 W. 10th St., N.Y. 14, N.Y. (“The Miller’s Song” and “Omie Wise.”)

[77] Proffitt, Frank. FRANK PROFFITT SINGS FOLK SONGS, edited by Frank Warner. FA 2360. Folkways Records and Service Corp., 121 W. 47th St., N.Y.

Ritchie, Jean. FIELD TRIP (N.C.). Collector Limited Edition 1201. Collector Limited Editions, 43 W. 46th St., N.Y. 19, N.Y. (Though most of the songs are from Kentucky, all of them are known in North Carolina. Notable are “The Hangman’s Song — Maid Freed from the Gallows,” “A Maid in Her Father’s Garden,” and “Barbara Allan.”)

Roger Wagner Chorale. SEA CHANTIES (N.C.). Made by Capitol Records, Scranton, Pa., and Los Angeles, Calif. (“The Golden Vanity.”)

Sandburg, Carl. FLAT ROCK BALLADS (N.C.). Columbia LP ML 5339. (All recorded in N.C.)

Smith, Carlton Sprague. ed., MUSIC IN AMERICA — BALLADS IN COLONIAL AMERICA SUNG BY TON KRAVER (N.C.). AAO NRLP 2005. AAO New Records, Inc., 141 E. 44th St., N.Y. 17, N.Y. (“King Henry V’s Conquest of France.”)

Summers, Andrew Rowan. THE UNQUIET GRAVE: AMERICAN TRAGIC BALLADS. FP64. Folkways Records and Service Corp., N.Y. (Though most of these ballads are from Virginia, all of them are known in North Carolina. Especially notable is “The Unquiet Grave.”)

[78] Warner, Frank. SONGS AND BALLADS OF AMERICA’S WARS (N.C.). EKL-13. Elektra-Stratford Record Corp., 189 W. 10th St., N.Y. 14, N.Y. (Several war songs originating in the 18th c. from North Carolina singers.)

Warner, Frank. FRANK WARNER SINGS AMERICAN FOLK SONGS AND BALLADS (N.C.). EKLP-3. Elektra-Stratford Corp., 189 W. 10th St., N.Y. 14, N.Y. (A notable song is “Lord Lovel.”)

Warner, Frank. OUR SINGING HERITAGE, VOL. IIB, FOLK SONGS COLLECTED AND SUNG BY FRANK WARNER.... (N.C.). Elektra 153, Elektra Corp., 189 W. 10th St., N.Y. 14, N.Y. (Notable songs are “Dan Doo — The Wife Wrapt in Wether’s Skin,” “Black Jack Davy — The Gypsy Laddie,” and “Bold Dickie and Bold Archie — Archie o Cawfield.”)

Williams, Betty Vaiden. BETTY VAIDEN WILLIAMS SINGS BALLADS FOR YOU (N.C.). EXP 666. Colonial Records Co., Chapel Hill, N. C. (“Black Is the Color,” “Who’s Gonna Shoe My Pretty Little Foot?” and “The Lass from the Low Countree.”)

Wood, Hally. O LOVELY APPEARANCE OF DEATH (N.C.). EKL-10. Elektra-Stratford Record Corp., 189 W. 10th St., N.Y. 14, N.Y. (“Lady Isabel and the Elf Knight — Pretty Polly.”)

The most delightful and informative way to hear folksongs is to join a folklore society and attend its meetings, which always have the best folksingers available, and to attend a folk festival organized by people who know what folklore and folksong are. North Carolina has folklore scholars and a society, and offers several festivals of good quality.

The North Carolina Folklore Society was founded in 1913 and has been continuously active, offering a program every [79] year. With Duke University it sponsored The Frank C. Brown Collection of North Carolina Folklore, seven large volumes with beautiful woodcut illustrations by Clare Leighton, completed this year and published by Duke University Press, Durham, North Carolina. With the University of North Carolina Folklore Council the North Carolina Folklore Society publishes the journal North Carolina, 10 vols., nineteen issues, to date [1948 (1 issue), 1954 (1 issue), 1955-1962 (2 issues each year), “Analytical Index to North Carolina Folklore, I-VIII” (December, 1961)]. North Carolina Folklore, sent to members of the Society paying a membership fee of $1 for students, $2 for others, and to other subscribers for $2 per year, goes outside the State to most of the great libraries of the United States and to many foreign countries. It is used as library material in some North Carolina schools. In 1963 the Folklore Society and the journal, while celebrating the Golden Jubilee, will participate appropriately in the celebration of the Tercentenary of the Charter of 1663 to the Lords Proprietors.

There are several good folk festivals in the State. The oldest is the Mountain Dance and Song Festival, held in Asheville for many years by its founder and director, Bascom Lamar Lunsford, of Leicester, North Carolina. Mr. Lunsford has also directed a number of annual State Fair Folk Festivals at Raleigh in October. The Carolina Folk Festival has been held at the University of North Carolina since 1948, succeeding an annual Dogwood Festival there. Every year, usually early in May, it brings to Chapel Hill not only many of the best folksingers and other folk performers from North Carolina but many first-rate and a few “free” professional performers. (See North Carolina Folklore, the July issue every year since 1954, for details.) There are two notable annual festivals at Grandfather Mountain, near Linville. The Grandfather Mountain Old-Time Singers Convention specializes in hymns and spirituals. The Grand [80] father Mountain Highland Scottish Games Festival, usually held in August, is famous for the gathering of the clans, in kilts and with bagpipes, for feats of athletic prowess and music, song, and dance. There is also an annual Old Fiddlers’ Convention at Union Grove in Union County. Several other more or less civic or municipal festivals, like the Azalea Festival at Wilmington in the spring, have folk features.