Long ago I used to think that our family ballad tunes were the real ones and, as I moved further out of the Kentucky mountains, thought that all those other ballad singers were just not singing them right!
At about fifteen years of age I discovered my Dad's cousin Jason Ritchie who lived in the next county. Jason was a great ballad singer, and wrote out all his best ones for me. When he'd sing them he often varied the tune between one singing and another- I'd ask him about it and he'd say, "Oh, when you want to sing something and can't recollect the tune, wy just get you another one. Makes no difference- the story gets told just the same."

Sometimes in his own tunes I would recognize one of Mom's Old Regular Baptist hymn-tunes. He readily admitted his source, saying that, well,you know the hymnwriters took most all their tunes from the ballads, anyway.

Another illustration of the flexibility of melodies for our songs was regarding the hymns themselves. The songleader (the only one having a songbook, with words only- no music) would look underneath the title of the song to see what metre was used (common, long, short, or combinations like 8s & lls, 6s & 5s,etc., and he would pick a tune to fit that metre. The first line he'd sing alone, and then folks would know what tune he was using- then, "line out" the words for all the subsequent lines as they went along.

I'm sure that church tunes often got changed and/or new tunes made up on the spot by a song leader who couldn't think of a suitable tune for the metre, and didn't want to keep people waiting. About the third verse they'd know the tune.

I love the old ballad melodies, but I have often made a few personal adaptations- because a note was too low or too high, or because I couldn't EXACTLY remember just how a half-line went. Little changes, but after awhile it changes the path of the tune, makes it my own. I have never felt this was wrong, especially if it's a traditional, public-domain song.

That brings another thought. Modern-day singers do the same thing with written, copyrighted pieces. It's a very different tune for my song, "The L&N Don't Stop Here Anymore," when Johnny Cash sings it, or Michelle Schocked- it gets all "ironed out," with most of the high and low notes moved towards the middle; more like a recitation, and Emmy Lou often sings the harmony as the melody, within a verse. Used to bother me, but I realize now that this always happens-a famous singer has to "do it My Way..." and sometimes it's an improvement I guess!

So- I'll agree. Do it your way, and be happy.