Origins: Love Is Like A Trusted Friend Sarah Grey

Subject: Origins: Love Is Like A Trusted Friend Sarah Grey
From: GUEST,Guest Charles Macfarlane Harrison
Date: 26 May 12 - 11:49 AM

I've searched the web a few times for this, but nowt.

At Beverley FF in the late 80s / early 90s I heard Sarah Grey sing, as near as I can transcribe them, the following lyrics. Can anyone tell me anything more about the song, and/or correct the lyrics that are obviously wrong (because they break the rhyming scheme):

Love Is Like A Trusted Friend (putative title)

I'll give to you my heart in hand,
To wish you well in foreign land;
All the secrets of my heart
I want you to know, before we start.
(repeat last line)

My dearest dear, I love you well;
I love you more than tongue can tell;
All my friends, and relations too,
I'd leave them all for to go with you.

Grass is green, the rose is red,
You are my love 'til I am dead;
When I'm gone and laid to rest
Remember the one who loves you best.

Some will have clothes, and some have stones,
some will weep, and some will mourn,
Some will lie, for the lovers cry,
But in our graves, we all must lie.

Some will weep, in sorrow grave,
For the loss of one who cannot stay;
If he's gone, they can but know
Little what makes you love them so.

Just one thing my love has told:
Love is like a ring of gold -
Round and pure and has no end,
My love is like a trusted friend.

Sung by Sarah Grey.

Subject: RE: Origins: Love Is Like A Trusted Friend Sarah Grey
From: GUEST,999
Date: 26 May 12 - 03:10 PM

What may be interfering with your search is the name: it's Sara Grey.

Subject: RE: Origins: Love Is Like A Trusted Friend Sarah Grey
From: GUEST
Date: 26 May 12 - 03:13 PM

> it's Sara Grey

Thanks, but Google is usually pretty good at sorting out such things, and accordingly, unfortunately, it still gives nowt.

Subject: RE: Origins: Love Is Like A Trusted Friend Sarah Grey
From: GUEST,999
Date: 26 May 12 - 03:19 PM

I have found a few sites, but none with a contact address. I'll look further in a bit.

As a btw, many of the stanzas appear in rhymes which will complicate things lots.

Subject: RE: Origins: Love Is Like A Trusted Friend Sarah Grey
From: Jeri
Date: 26 May 12 - 03:34 PM

There's a song called "I Love You Well" on her album "Promises to Keep".

Subject: RE: Origins: Love Is Like A Trusted Friend Sarah Grey
From: maeve
Date: 26 May 12 - 04:12 PM

Ask Sara! Contact info on her website...clickity click

Subject: RE: Origins: Love Is Like A Trusted Friend Sarah Grey
From: GUEST,Guest Charles Macfarlane Harrison
Date: 27 May 12 - 05:31 AM

> From: maeve
> Ask Sara! Contact info on her website...clickity click

Now done. Thanks for the pointer.

PS: Didn't realise that she's a UK resident now.

Subject: RE: Origins: Love Is Like A Trusted Friend Sarah Grey
From: GUEST,Guest Charles Macfarlane Harrison
Date: 27 May 12 - 11:25 AM

Sara responded almost immediately. The song is called "Parting Hand" and the corrected lyrics are as follows.

I'm still uncertain about verse 4, because her email was a bit vague, and I didn't like to push my luck by badgering her again. Note that, at the end of verse 1, although she writes "Before we part", she definitely sings "Before we start" in the recording of her I made in a singaround at, I think, Beverley FF, in the late 80s / early 90s.

Parting Hand (sung by Sara Grey)

1
I'll give to you my parting hand,
To wish you well in a foreign land;
All the secrets of my heart
I want you to know, before we part/start.
(repeat last line)

2
My dearest dear, I love you well;
I love you more than tongue can tell;
All my friends, and relations too,
I'd leave them all for to go with you.

3
Grass is green, and the rose is red,
You are my love 'til I am dead;
When I'm gone and laid to rest
Remember the one who loves you best.

4
Some will have clothes, and some have stones,
some will weep, and some will mourn,
Some will lie, for the lovers cry,
But in our graves we all must lie.

5
Some will weep in a sorrowing way,
For the loss of one who cannot stay,
And if he's gone he can but go,
That's what makes me love him so.

6
Just one thing, that I've been told,
My love is like a ring of gold -
Round and pure and has no end,
My love is like a trusted friend.

Subject: RE: Origins: Love Is Like A Trusted Friend Sarah Grey
From: GUEST,davemc
Date: 27 May 12 - 11:46 AM

Parting Hand is one of the tracks on her CD "Boy, She's a Daisy" on the Tradition Bearers label (UK).

Subject: RE: Origins: Love Is Like A Trusted Friend Sarah Grey
From: Desert Dancer
Date: 27 May 12 - 12:55 PM

The album notes say,

A lovely Ozark song from the singing of Mrs May Kennedy of Springfield, Missouri. In the Cecil Sharp collection it is known as "Sweet Ellen".

I don't find it in the Vance Randolph Ozark collection books, nor the alternate in Sharp's English Folk-Songs from the Southern Appalachians.

There is a May Kennedy McCord of Springfield, Missouri, in the Max Hunter collection, but that song isn't listed there.

The LOC Archive of Folk Culture lists "AFS 5296A2-5303B3: Eight discs containing 35 songs sung by Mrs. May Kennedy McCord of Springfield, Missouri. Recorded October 21, 1941." in the Vance Randolph collection. The individual songs aren't listed, unfortunately. I'll bet that Sara got it there.

This appears to be the singer: May Kennedy McCord, "the Queen of the Hillbillies and the First Lady of the Ozarks." Looks like she was quite active as a folklorist and performer in the '40s into the '60s.

~ Becky in Tucson

Subject: RE: Origins: Love Is Like A Trusted Friend Sarah Grey
From: Desert Dancer
Date: 27 May 12 - 01:08 PM

Additional LOC listings for May Kennedy McCord.

~ Becky in Tucson

Subject: RE: Origins: Love Is Like A Trusted Friend Sarah Grey
From: GUEST,Guest Charles Macfarlane Harrison
Date: 27 May 12 - 01:18 PM

Thanks davemc and Becky, both posts really helpful.

Subject: RE: Origins: Love Is Like A Trusted Friend Sarah Grey
From: Arkie
Date: 27 May 12 - 05:57 PM

Mrs. McCord played a major role in bringing attention to traditional Ozark music through her singing, writing, and radio programs and through helping Vance Randolph and Max Hunter establish the Ozark Folk Festival. They produced the first festival in Springfield, MO and then moved to Eureka Springs, AR where it is now in its 65th year. It remained a "Folk" festival as long as Max Hunter was alive. She is also the source for the song known as "Palace Grand", "Lady Mary", and "The Sad Song". Mrs. McCord also helped bring attention to Jimmy Driftwood before he got published and recorded in Nashville. She is indeed one of the grand ladies of Ozark folk tradition and supposedly had an exceptional memory for songs. I wish I had known her.