That tune is unusually built -- it sounds like it was written in Chaucerian England or Medieval times -- almost like a Gregorian chant. It sounds as old as Greensleeves to me, and closely related, as such things go. No later than early Renaissance, is my guess. Jean, it is a beautiful performance.

That doesn't mean the song itself is that old, unless you take the "thousand years" literally, which I wouldn't. But it is indicative that if the song was composed in America it was by someone exposed to pretty pure legacy material from, oh, 1200-1600, say. Which could be many branches of Appalachian song, for example. I wonder if it could have been a Cornish tune?

A