This is an edited DTStudy thread, and all messages posted here are subject to editing and deletion.
This thread is intended to serve as a forum for corrections and annotations for the Digital Tradition song named in the title of this thread.Search for other DTStudy threads
Bob Coltman posted this in another thread, but I thought I'd post it here to make it easier to find. I found the same lyrics in Rambling Blues: The life and songs of Charlie Poole by Kinney Rorrer (1982 - page 79). There are some mistakes in the Rorrer transcription - note "wreathe my face is smiling."
I CANNOT CALL HER MOTHER
[Charlie Poole version]
(Henry Harrison, 1855)
The marriage rite is over
Although I turn aside
To keep the guests from seeing
The tears I could not hide
I wreathe my face is smiling
And I left my little brother
To greet my father's chosen
But he could not call her mother
She is a fair young creature
With meek and gentle airs
With blue eyes soft and loving
And silk and sunny hair
I know my father gives her
A love he had for another
If she were an angel
I could not call her mother
My father's in the sunshine
Of happy days to come
They have forgot the shadows
That darkened our old home
His heart is no more lonely
But me and little brother
Must still be orphan children
God gives us but one mother
Here's the Traditional Ballad Index entry on this song:
I Cannot Call Her Mother (The Marriage Rite is Over; The Stepmother)
DESCRIPTION: "The marriage rite is over," and the children have seen their father take a new wife. Their mother's picture is replaced by the pretty new girl's. The child "could not call her mother." She calls herself an orphan; "God gave us but one mother."
AUTHOR: Henry Harrison
EARLIEST DATE: 1855 (date of composition)
KEYWORDS: family marriage mother father children stepmother orphan
FOUND IN: US(So)
REFERENCES (5 citations):
Randolph 726, "The Stepmother" (3 texts, 1 tune)
Rorrer, p. 79, "I Cannot Call Her Mother" (1 text)
Huntington-Whalemen, pp. 298-299, "I Can Not Call Her Mother" (1 text, 1 tune)
cf. Gardner/Chickering, p. 482, "The Stepmother" (source notes only)
ADDITIONAL: Fred W. Allsopp, Folklore of Romantic Arkansas, Volume II (1931), pp. 201-202, "(The Stepmother)" (1 short text)
ST R726 (Partial)
Roud #2091
RECORDINGS:
Bradley Kincaid, "I Cannot Call Her Mother" (Supertone 9565, 1929; Champion 15968, 1930 [as Dan Hughey])
[Roy Harvey and the] North Carolina Ramblers "I Cannot Call Her Mother" (Silvertone 5181 [as The Three Kentucky Serenaders], 1927; Supertone 9246/Silvertone 8147, 1928)
Charlie Poole and the North Carolina Ramblers, "I Cannot Call Her Mother" (Columbia 15307-D, 1928)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Blind Child" (theme)
File: R726Go to the Ballad Search form
Go to the Ballad Index Instructions
Go to the Bibliography
Go to the DiscographyThe Ballad Index Copyright 2011 by Robert B. Waltz and David G. Engle.