T.O.M., in our family (ten girls and three boys grew up, out of 14), we never sang "Saro" without harmony- just made-up, natural harmonies. It's gorgeous, to use a modern adjective! It's one of those tunes calls for harmony, and almost everything one sings sounds great. I used to sing what we called a "low tenor,"...made a lovely bottom for the song.

To answer some other questions: Elizabeth Harold was Alan Lomax's wife, mother of their daughter Anne Charitakis, now Anne Wood (this 2nd husband no relation to Hally). Alan and Elizabeth were divorced in the early 1940s, I'd guess.The version which Elizabeth and Hally sang was not the Ritchie version.

Our tune seems very simple, but has a quality that captures and holds the heart (sounds silly but I can't express it any other way). At a Kodaly music-teachers' convention where I recently sang, one of the leaders called it, "the perfect melody." what he meant I do not know, but he wept when it was sung.

My older sisters who went to Berea College in Kentucky, Edna, Patty, Kitty, Mallie, were all in the Glee Club for years, led by Gladys Jamison. She collected traditional songs of the region, in a personal way- did not publish nor do scholarly studies. I think she was the one who brought "our" version of, "Pretty Saro" to the Glee Club, and from there the girls began singing it at home. This would be about 1925-26, with Kitty and Patty who were older and were at Berea first. And I was born at the end of 1922, so you see have known this song ALL my singing life. I guess that's why people think of it as a Ritchie song. I wish Miss Jamison had shared more on her song sources, but she never did, as I know.