Hi. Thought this might be of some interest.

Eileen McGann brought out Bonnie Susie Cleland for her English ballad class at Celtic College in Goderich (Ontario) a few years ago, with the burned-at-the-stake ending, and taught it to us that way. It wasn't part of her repertoire then. I still sing it that way, and it's an amazingly powerful song, that some people have requested not to hear a second time (could be my singing of course!).

As I understand it....a year or so later she was playing it, but had switched to the tune that she recorded on Beyond The Storm. The tune didn't suit the ending, and Eileen didn't like Bonnie's helpless- seeming fate, so she evolved her ending.

She told me on the day that Beyond the Storm came out, that she expected traditional singers to be mad at her for doing it, and she was sorry about that, but it just happened. I think it works, and I love her version - but I'll keep singing it the way she taught us.

Jack
(and we're hosting Eileen in Kitchener, Ontario on October 18!!)