My first exposure to Barbra Allen was a written version during my callow childhood in the 1950s. It was sung by a frontiersman accompanying a youth from one town to another via the wilderness. The youth is the narrator of the book. Among his comments was that he was surprised at the amount of noise the frontiersman made while walking through the forest, constantly singing the song except when hunting. [Various verses appear here and there though the text.] I don't recall the name of the book.