The Mudcat Café TM
Thread #127421   Message #2845975
Posted By: Crow Sister (off with the fairies)
21-Feb-10 - 02:51 PM
Thread Name: 50 Year Rule - traditional rooms at Folk Alliance
Subject: RE: 50 Year Rule - traditional rooms at Folk Alliance
Further to some of the discussion here about songs of the tradition and those in the style of same, it's interesting to see how the old songs get re-interpreted. Arguably, they are not bound to the folk musical genre, and can continue to flourish outside of it very well. This is what Wiki has to say about See Line Woman:

""Sea Lion Woman" (also "Sea-Line Woman", "See [the] Lyin' Woman", "She Lyin' Woman", "See-Line Woman", or "C-Line Woman") is a traditional American folk song originally used as a children's playground song.[1]
The exact origins of the song are unknown but it is believed to have originated in the southern United States. It was first recorded by folklore researcher Herbert Halpert on May 13, 1939.[2] Halpert was compiling a series of field recordings for the Library of Congress in Byhalia, MS, when he ran across Walter Shipp, a minister, and his wife Mary, a choir director of a local church. Halpert recorded Shipp's daughters, Katherine and Christine, singing a sparse version of "Sea Lion Woman" that defined the basic rhymes and rhythm of the song."

When I first heard this traditional American song, it was in the form of a modern remix and at that time I knew nothing at all about traditional songs or folk music of any kind: See Line Woman
I really liked it too, and still do.