This is earliest tune I could find. It dates to 1830's. Below that, I've included some info about Sharp and Mary Sand's version of Drowsy Sleeper "Awake! Awake!" that I posted yesterday. The Appalachians were a remote area and fairly isolated. It can be assumed that since "the Drowsy Sleeper" was widespread in the region (Sharp collected a dozen versions.) that it came over from England with some of the early settlers in the region. It will take a trip to the library for me to find out the early English sources and dates. Anyone have anything from England?

DROWSY SLEEPER - England.
Words: Collated from a large number of sources, dating from the 1830's. Tune: Collected from Dorset, England.

1. Arise, arise, you drowsy sleeper,
Awake, awake, it's almost day.
O come into your bedroom window
And hear what your true love do say.

2. Begone, begone, you'll wake my mother,
My father, too, will quickly hear.
Go tell your tales unto some other,
And whisper softly in her ear.

3. O then, O then, go ask your father
If he'll consent you my bride to be.
If he denies you, come and tell me
For it's the last time I'll visit thee.

4. My father's in his chamber, writing,
And setting down his merchandise,
And in his hand he holds a letter
And it speaks much to your dispraise.

5. To my dispraise, love, to my dispraise,
To my dispraise, love, how could it be?
I never slighted, nor yet denied you.
Until this night you've denied me.

6. It's then, O then, go ask your mother
If she'll consent you my bride to be.
If she denies you, come and tell me
For it's the last time I'll visit thee.

7. My mother's in her chamber, sleeping,
And words of love she will not hear,
So you may go and court another
And whisper softly in her ear.

CECIL SHARP, MARY SANDS- Cecil Sharp first met Mary Sands on Monday, 31 July 1916, when she arrived at their lodgings shortly after breakfast. Mary, then aged 45, was the mother of nine children. A tenth child, John Wesley Sands, was to arrive on 28 August, less than a month after their meeting. Mary gave Sharp six ballads that day - 'six first raters', he called them. These were The Silk Merchant's Daughter, a version of Pretty Nancy of Yarmouth, which Mary called The Perbadus Lady, The Brown Girl, Lord Bateman, Fair Margaret and Sweet William and Come You People Old and Young, a version of The Suffolk Miracle which Sharp described as 'curious'.

Mary Sands again called on Sharp the following morning, singing him a further six songs and ballads. Sharp's diary makes mention of Arise, Arise, You Drowsy Sleepers, The Daemon Lover and Mary's version of Earl Brand, though not of the other three songs collected that day, The Little Soldier Boy, I Am a Man of Honour, and The Broken Token.

Dicho- I am interested in any Drowsy Sleeper versions that have references to Virginia, North Carolina or "the dark valley/dark hollow/deep blue sea" lyrics.

I will check out the English- Dear Companion. I have studied all of the Child ballads but long ago. Written in my notes it says, "this (drowsy sleeper) is related to Child 65" but now I don't see it.

Also does someone have the lyrics to Lomax's 1937 "Greenback Dollar" and is this the earliest Greenback Dollar title?

Richie