And now...a fox in the henhouse.

A Country Girl Like I Am
Danna Marti Waldman: rewrite from Country Boy Like I Am.
APB Elsie’s Band, Michael Cooney, et al.


John be a fair born country lad his mother came from Fareham.
‘er had another six just like him. By Christ ‘ow she could rare ’m.
And did she cook her dumplings nice, I bet you’d like to try ‘em
I’ve yet to make me better ones, a country girl like I am.

CHORUS:
For he can drive a plow and milk a cow.
He can reap and mow.
He’s as fresh as a daisy that grows in the field,
And I calls him Buttercup Joe.

Now there be a pretty girl that he loves, they calls me our Mary.
And I works busy as a bumblebee down in Old Giles’s dairy.
And I can cook, and I can sew and use the smoothing iron.
And I’m gonna take him for my man, a country girl like I am.

We’re gonna buy old Giles’s farm when we’ve put by some money.
We’ll stuff the bees in sacks of corn, they can make us bread and honey.
And we’ll `ave `ops in every field and a big oast ‘ouse to dry ‘em
And I’ll brew the best ale all around, a country girl like I am.

Now Johnny he wants family and I will not oppose it.
Cos I’ve got one of `em on the way and I don’t think that he knows it.
So we’ll get married in yonder church before it’s lambing time
And settle down to raising country boys and country girls like I am.


Notes: Our Mary brews ale in the tradition of British ale wives who brewed ale for centuries before the introduction of hops made the preservation and transport of ale possible. This as a major factor in the commercialisation of ale/beer as a profitable venture, and put it under the control of men.
In addition, the male takeover of brewing was a factor in the socio-cultural normalising of male dominance in targeting alewives and female brewers as sinful (in the usual misogynist ways), and redefinition of brewing as an all-male venture.
I gave her both an empowered and rebellious character in the song that, while maybe not historically accurate, makes her a domestic force and an equal partner, in the labour and the rewards, to be reckoned with.
Here’s one overview; https://museumofoxford.org/alewives-in-oxford-a-history-of-female-brewing.