(Max Hunter is good for this sort of thing, being an 'unedited' collection)

Max Hunter is good for everything! Of especial interest in this respect are Mrs Pearl Brewer's two distinct versions of Child #20 The Cruel Mother (All Down By The Greenwood Side) both of which I find utterly compelling as analogues of the same thing which might be ghosted between them. Is this imperfect memory at work? Or something more improvisatory in Mrs Brewers style? Could either of these variations go off to a second generation and become different songs? What was the prototype? How do they compare to that? In such situations such things are like a perfect sauce - a consummate reduction to its very essence but a means to an end or an end in itself? Who can say. Fact is Mrs Brewer is one of many Source Singers I do listen to for the pure beauty of her singing...

For those who don't know:

Child #20 - As sung by Mrs. Pearl Brewer, Pochahantas, Arkansas on November 12, 1958

Child #20 - As sung by Mrs. Pearl Brewer, Pocahontas, Arkansas on May 27, 1959