YOUNG FREDA BOLT
(D. M. Shanks, 1930, arr. A. P. Carter)

Amid the Blue Ridge Mountains there lived a maiden fair,
Whose life was pure as heaven, whose heart was free from care.
She dreamed of love and romance, with heart so glad and free.
No gloom within the future young Freda Bolt could see.

Nearby lived Buren Harmon, a boy she loved so well,
And of these two young lovers a story I will tell.
'Twas late one Thursday evening, the stars were shining dim,
That Buren called his sweetheart to come and go with him.

He told her on tomorrow that they would surely wed,
But little was she thinking he'd take her life instead.
They motored to Bent Mountain, a place so dark and lone,
And there her form so helpless he placed beneath a stone,

Away from home and mother that Freda loved so well.
The bitter pain and anguish no mortal tongue can tell.
Through tears she pled for mercy, but heeding of her cry,
Young Harmon left his sweetheart in agony to die.

We think that God in heaven must surely heard her cry,
And sent a band of angels to linger very nigh,
And bear her spirit over to yonder's happy shore,
Where dying comes no never, and parting is no more.
---
As recorded by the Carter Family, Decca 5612, 1938.
Previously recorded by the Floyd County Ramblers, 1930.
Describes an actual murder that occurred in Floyd County, Virginia, in December 1929.
@ballad @murder @country @historical JTD ^^