The Mudcat Café TM
Thread #550 Message #3164099
Posted By: GUEST
02-Jun-11 - 06:12 AM
Thread Name: Origins: background info for Two Sisters songs?
Subject: RE: bkground req. for Two Sisters songs?
"there is a version taken down from 'an Irishman in Liverpool' in 1906 and included in The Journal of the Folk Song Society by Frank Kidson."
That one also appeared in The Penguin book of English Folk Songs.
"the Clannad version is basically "version E in Cecil Sharp and Maud Karpeles, English Folk Songs from the Southern Appalachians"
There are 14 versions in that book and all but one follow the English pattern with the 'Bow Down' refrain, lacking the supernatural harp or fiddle. Only version A ,from Jane Gentry of Hot Springs, NC, has a (incomplete) reference to a magical harp. This version, with a refrain of 'Jury flower gent the roseberry', resembles that recorded later by the Warners from Lee Monroe Presnell (who was from the same area; Mrs. Gentry came originally from Watauga County and her maiden name was Hicks).
'The Wind and Rain', which many people seem to think is the definitive American version, owes its hegemony mainly to the folk revival, and is rare in the traditional collections.