Okay, I've got one for the folk detectives...I haven't seen Barry Finn around lately, but this is one he might know.

At least ten years ago I transcribed a recording my father made at one of the Sea Music Fests at Mystic Seaport (I'd say 1984-7). The song stuck in my head so that I learned the tune and words forever; but I have never been able to figure out who the performer was. I know nothing about the song except that the performer introduced it by saying it was from the Mohawk River area. Normally, I would put my money on Dick Swain, even it's obviously a new construct and not a traditional bit, but I'd know his voice anywhere and this recording is NOT him. I'd be willing to bet that this mystery performer wrote the piece, but who the heck was he?

Here's how it goes; anyone got a background/history/author/performer?????

Molly, Come Back

CH: Oh, Molly, come back, have you no shame at all?
The women are different out on the canals;
They talk like the men and they think like the mules
And they don't give a damn for decorum and rules.

Oh, the day that flash captain came sauntering by,
With rum on his breath and a twinkling eye,
A-singing the glories of summers afloat,
You ripped open the mattress and you bought his damned boat.

Now the cows miss the lilt of your voice in their ears,
Our garden is a picnic for woodchucks and deer(s)
Our children run ragged through school, house and church
And my bed is as cold as the eyes on a perch.

Your letter says soon you'll be needing a man
I pleased you before and you know I still can.
I could give up this farm, hell, I'd give it away
But I won't drive your team for no dollar a day.