I just heard a version of this song sung by Flynn Cohen, on FolkAlley.com, an edition of (their afternoon program) dedicated to Bill Monroe and other great bluegrass artists. But what intrigued me was that though the lyrics were just about the same as the ones I know -- with a repetition chorus* -- the tune was entirely different.

* As in "Richie's" post of 16 Dec 02 - 10:16 PM, way way backthread, e.g.,

Ten-Brooks said to Molly, what makes your head so red
Running in the hot sun with a fever in my head
Fever in my head oh Lord
Fever in my head

-- and then, iirc, it would repeat "Running in the hot sun with a fever in my head"

In the version I learned, each verse has content corresponding to two verses of Richie's version:

Piper, oh Piper, you're not riding right.
Molly's a-beating Tenbrooks from sight.
Run, Tenbrooks, run, if you don't run,
Molly's gonna beat you in the bright shining sun,
The bright shining sun.

I'm pretty sure I learned it off an LP, but I don't know where, and I didn't see any discussion in this thread of alternate tunes. Any ideas?

---

The song's been coming back to me, and with some help from Google I've located it: sung by Ian and Sylvia in a minor key, recorded on their LP Play One More, under the title Molly and Tenbrooks.

Still: anyone know about the difference between this tune and Bill Monroe's?