The Mudcat Café TM
Thread #169613   Message #4104683
Posted By: GUEST,henryp
04-May-21 - 09:25 AM
Thread Name: Any May songs?
Subject: RE: Any May songs?
Mainly Norfolk; Sarah McQuaid sang The Wagoner's Lad in 2008 on her CD I Won't Go Home 'Til Morning. She noted:

There's another version of The Wagoner's Lad in my well-thumbed copy of Alan Lomax's Folk Songs of North America, credited "As sung by Buell Kazee, Eastern Ky., Folkways 7, 251" and Cecil Sharp gives four different versions in English Folk Songs from the Southern Appalachians. The closest one to mine, melodically and lyrically, is that collected from Mrs. Jane Gentry at Hot Springs, North Carolina, on 14 September 1916 [VWML CJS2/9/242 ].

Mrs. Jane Gentry sings Wagoner's Lad;
In old North Carolina I was bred and was born, And in my own county I was a great scorn.
As I was a-riding one morning in May, I met as fair damsel as you ever might see.

I viewed her features and she pleased me well; I forced all on her my mind for to tell.
She quickly consented my bride for to be, But her parents wasn't willing for she to have me.