The very first album that I heard that I would call "folk" was featured songs sung by Odetta. I've referred to one of the songs on that album as either "Hangman" or "Gallows Pole", though that might not be its real name. Here are some words to that song:

"Hangman, hangman slack your rope/ slack it for awhile/ think I see my mother, {father, sister, brother} comin/comin a-many a mile.

I remember that the only one who brought silver and gold so that the person wouldn't hang was the person's sweetheart.

I've looked but I can't find those lyrics in the DigiTrad. I'm sure that song is included in the DigiTrad but I'm not looking under the right title. Would someone please post the name for that song?

Thanks.

Btw, I found several online pages for Led Zeppelin's version of the song, but it's not the same as I remember.