Unless I'm mistaken, the ballad supplied by Suzanne is known in tradition only in Canada. If it was sung elsewhere, I would love to hear. The great Ontario singer, O.J. Abbott, is the one who really "gave" us the ballad via folklorist Edith Fowke who collected and published his songs. There is every indication that it comes from an Irish or British broadside however, to the best of my knowledge, no one has ever come up with an original (broadside) sheet. Again, I would be delighted to learn otherwise.

As I wrote in another Mudcat thread, in the 1970's, every unaccompanied singer who wanted to be taken seriously sang this song. Frank Harte and Royston Wood sang it at our folk club in NYC and there were more. Amazingly, hardly anyone sings it today and when I came out with it at a festival in Ireland a couple of years ago I could hear people whispering, "Oh, THAT one!" in happy and nostalgia-touched voices.

In short, it could have been any good singer of the '70s, Suzanne. Was it Peter Bellamy?

All the best,
Dan Milner