From the notes to Waterson Carthy's Broken Ground,"Bald Headed End Of The Broom is more widespread than I ever imagined. I had thought of it as a piece of 1920's (ish) vaudeville, and remember Mike Seeger singing it with or without the New Lost City Ramblers, but lo and behold it turns up in Northern Ireland in the repertoire of a woman called Martha Gillen and recorded by Seamus Ennis and Sean O'Boyle with a totally different tune."