Hi Joe: Thanks for doing so much research, and in the process helping me correct my memory. I had two couplets mixed up until you printed a whole bunch of versions and I recognized the one that was most like the one I used to sing. I'm still not sure about the name of the town .... As to where I learned the song, we're going back over forty years and my memory has lost some of its sharpness, but I do remember hearing Carolyn Hester and John Jacob Niles sing it (not together). The thing is, in the sixties there was a well-worn path between Toronto and New York, lots of cross-pollination between the two cities, and really, most of us who were singing for our supper at that time shared one huge floating repertoire, so I could have learned it from anyone on the circuit. It's a good thing Len Chandler and Bob Dylan and Phil Ochs and Eric Anderson and Tom Paxton all began writing when they did. We sure needed new material. Balladeer
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If I Had a Ribbon Bow

If I had a ribbon bow to bind my hair,
If I had a fancy sash, my love would think me fair;
Then he would go to Franklin, a-loggin' on the rise,
He'd bring me back with his two hands a very pretty prize.

If I were like city girls, all fair and smart,
Not a lad in all these parts would know my heart.
Then I would go to Franklin where all the logging goes,
I'd hang around the settlements a-wearin' foreign clothes

If I had a ribbon bow to bind my hair,
If I had a fancy sash, my love would think me fair.
My red heels would go flashing where e'er my fancy should,
My love would see and wish that he had taken me when he could.