The first time that I ever heard "Pretty Saro" was back in 1961, at the Highlander Folk School in Knoxville, Tennessee. Guy Carawan was the musician in residence at Highlander then. His singing each weekend there was what really introduced me to folk music. I loved it. And I especially loved his "Pretty Saro". He went on to record it on his Folkways Alblum GUY CARAWAN SINGS SOMETHING OLD, NEW, BORROWED AND BLUE (FG 3548 - still available), his GREEN ROCKY ROAD album (June Appal 021), and reissued on his wonderful CD, SPARKLES AND SHINES (Ponder Productions).

    Later, I found a shorter version of "Pretty Saro" in the REPRINTS FROM SING OUT!, Vol. 5, p.25, where the headnote says:

    "Here is Pretty Saro, pretty much in the version popularized by Jean Ritchie. Jean says that her sister Edna brought it home to Viper Kentucky, some 30 years ago, after having learned it from someone in Berea Kentucky."

    I don't know when "Pretty Saro" was orginally published in SING OUT! The Reprints was published in 1963, so Jean's reference had to go back thirty years prior to that and would be somewhere back before 1933. This version of "Pretty Saro" is what is printed in Jean's Dulcimer book and in her FOLK SONGS OF THE SOUTHERN APPALACHIANS (2nd ed.) It is also the version printed in Pete Seeger's THE BELLS OF RHYMNEY song book (1964).

    Alan Lomax, in his headnote to Guy Carawan's version on his Folkways album says, "This version from Sharp's ENGLISH FOLK SONGS OF THE SOUTHERN APPALACHIANS, VOL. II, page 12, was popularized among city singers frist by Elizabeth Harold and Hally Wood." The version printed by Sharp on page 12 of EFS is the one by Lizzie Gibson of Crozet, Virginia, April 26, 1918. The Gibson version is also the version that Lomax publishes, with some additional verses from somewhere, in his PENGUIN BOOK OF AMERICAN FOLK SONGS. However, I can't see that the Lizzie Gibson/Sharp version has much to do with either Guy's version or Jean's version in terms of the tune or the text.

    What intrigues me is the tune of the "Ritchie version". I didn't hear the Madison County, NC, version from Mary Sands (by way of Cas & Doug Wallin, Sheila Adams, Iris Dement, Jim Taylor, et. al.)until just a few years ago. It may be older. I don't know. It is longer and the tune is significantly different from what I'm calling the "Ritchie version". But I've always thought that the Ritchie version tune is unique. It has its own integrity as a tune. I can't talk about it in technical musical terms, but it sounds old. I've never heard anything else like it. Where did it come from?

    That's my question: Where did the tune of the Ritchie version of "Pretty Saro" come from? Jean, I hope you can help us with this. Also, is Lomax right about it being introduced to the folk revival by Elizbeth Harold and Hally Wood? Who is Elizbeth Harold? And do we know any more about Hally Wood's involvement in this? Tannywheeler, do you know about this?   Also, where did Guy Carawan learn his version? Perhaps Frank Hamilton can help us with this question.

    Thanks for whatever help we can get on this. T.O.M.