Except that what Phoebe actually sings on the recording isn't "Scarlet" or "Reading" Town; listening to her words closely is actually quite a confusing experience because they appear to be a bit jumbled. I would think that if I were going to learn from her performance I'd try to capture the intense almost operatic sweep of her style and use whatever words that seem to fit. It seems to me that her version highlights the drama of the story and she conveys this so vividly that you don't need to hear the words to understand her - the emotion and the 'meaning' get through on another level.

Peta Webb at the VWML might be able to help as she knew Phoebe quite well.

For what its worth the first verse sung by Phoebe sounds something like this to me:
In old town I were bred and born,
And Cambridge(?) I when dwellin',
I fell in love with a pretty fair maid,
And her name were Barbara (h)Allen.

Splash out and buy the Veteran CD anyway!