Gentle Fair Jenny
(Edna Ritchie Version)

I married me a wife and took her home,
Gentle fair Jennie, fair Rosie Marie.
I ofttimes wisht I had let her alone,
As the dew flies over the green vallee.

All in the kitchen she would not use...
For fear of spoiling her new cloth shoes,...

First day at noon I came in from the plow,
"My dearest wife is my dinner ready now?"

"There's a little piece of cornbread layin' on the shelf,
If you want any more you can cook it yourself."

Second day at noon I came in from the plow,
"My dearest wife is my dinner ready now?"

"Get out of here you dirty thef,
It you want any dinner go cook it yourself."

I took my knife and went out to the barn-,
I cut me a hickory as long as my arm.

I took my limb and I went back
All around her back I made it crack,

'I'll tell my father and all my kin
That you whipped me with a hickory limb"

"You can tell your father and all your kin
I whupped you once and I'll whup you again"


from the CD booklet for Edna Ritchie of Viper, Kentucky,
Folk-Legacy CD-3.
Recorded by Sandy Paton at Viper, Kentucky
Notes by D.K. Wilgus (and they're really good!)
LP issued in 1962

Since this is CD-3, it's one of Sandy Paton's first field recordings for his Folk-Legacy label. The sound quality is terrific.
-Joe-