Hi,

Just listened to Jeannie's singing of "What a voice." Truly one of the great recordings of this ballad. She and Lizzie as well as Ky Trad are now all singing in the heavenly band.

Someone asked what it means. I'm willing to try to give a narrative. Does anyone know Jeannie's source?

The first stanza has two ballad components. The first is similar to "Who's that Knocking at my window? And in the 3rd line the singer says, "It must be my true lover Willie." In this case Willie is long gone- and he's not coming back. This is an 'I Wish' ballad-- she wishes he was back, he's left her, she's pregnant with his child- still she's hopeful, "What's this voice, what's this voice what's this voice I hear-- must be the voice of Willie my dear.

This is unusual-- and the second half of the is also rare-- the reference to the "swallow" is found only in a few variants. A similar stanza is found in "Come All You Fair and Tender Ladies," another love song popular in the US (See also "She's like the swallow" from Canada).

In the second stanza, "the apron low" stanza, it's clear that she is pregnant and her lover has left her. After she's pregnant he goes by but never peers in. The stigma and sorrow of the unwed mother is followed by the 3 line stanza about the unfaithful father.

O, I wish, I wish, O I wish in vain,
O, I wish I was a maid again.
But a maid again I will never be,
Till an apple grows on an orange tree.

This stanza was edited by Broadwood and Kidson to get the I wish I was a virgin again line out- which they did by putting brackets and changing the text! Here is the Lancashire text:

4. I wish, I wish, but it's all in vain,
I wish I were but [free again,
But free again I'll never be]
Till apples grow on an orange tree.

The "Till apples grow on an orange tree" ending dates back to the mid-1800s and is standard in the "I Wish" variants usually replacing the 'turtle dove/died for love' ending.

O, I wish, I wish that my babe was born,
And smiling on some nurse's knee.
And for myself to be dead and gone,
And the long green grass growing over me.

This stanza was also edited by Broadwood who removed it from Joseph Taylor's version replacing it with two standard stanzas.

In Robertson's ballad it's seems that this stigma is too great to bear. In the ballad there are two ways out- in one, she picks a bed of flowers and lies down and dies of a broken heart-- in the other, she hangs herself with a rope and leave a note. Robertson sang it the way she learned it, without finality. Her last verse comes from the 1686 broadside "Constant Lady" and it's the standard blind bird in the tree: she wishes that she could not have seen her lover then she wouldn't have become involved with him.

All I can say is, "what a voice"

Richie