Here's the entry from the Traditional Ballad Index. I don't have Randolph or Laws, but maybe somebody does and can post the lyrics.
-Joe Offer-

---

Bad Lee Brown (Little Sadie) [Laws I8]

DESCRIPTION: The singer goes out one night to "make his rounds." He meets his (girlfriend/wife), Little Sadie, and shoots her. He flees, but is overtaken and sentenced to (a long prison term/life)
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1922 (Randolph)
KEYWORDS: murder prison
FOUND IN: US(Ap,So,SE)
REFERENCES (9 citations):
Laws I8, "Bad Lee Brown"
Randolph 155, "Bad Lee Brown" (2 fragments, 1 tune)
Cambiaire, p. 22, "Little Sadie" (1 text)
MWheeler, pp. 109-111, "Late One Night" (1 text, 1 tune)
BrownII 252, "Sadie" (1 text)
MHenry-Appalachians, pp. 39-40, "Little Sadie" (1 text)
Scarborough-NegroFS, p. 243, (no title) (1 fragment)
Lomax-ABFS, pp. 89-91, "Bad Man Ballad" (1 text, 1 tune)
DT 659, LILSADIE*
Roud #780
RECORDINGS:
Clarence Ashley, "Little Sadie" (Columbia 15522-D, 1930; rec. 1929; on RoughWays1)
Blue Heaven, "Bad Man Ballad" (AAFS 384 B)
Mrs. Lloyd Bare Eagle, "Little Sadie" (AAFS 2851 B1)
Louise Foreacre, "Little Sadie" (on Stonemans01)
Wendell Hart & group of convicts, "Bad Man Ballad" (AAFS 2591 B2)
Willie Rayford, "Bad Man Ballad" (AAFS 2591 B2)
Wade Ward, "Little Sadie" [instrumental] (on Holcomb-Ward1)
Clarence Ashley & Doc Watson, "Little Sadie" (on Ashley03, WatsonAshley01)
Unidentified Negro convict, "Bad Man Ballad" (AAFS 1859 A1-10)
ALTERNATE TITLES:
Bad Man's Blunder
File: LI08

---

Go to the Ballad Search form
Go to the Ballad Index Instructions
Go to the Bibiography
Go to the Discography

The Ballad Index Copyright 2007 by Robert B. Waltz and David G. Engle.