This morning I was listening to a CD of Kelly Harrell, an old-timey singer who recorded circa 1926. He was doing a song which had a number of verses normally found in "East Virginia Blues," including "I was born in East Virginia, North Carolina I did roam, there I met a fair pretty maiden, whose name and age I do not know..."

The tune, however, was a minor key. After humming with it for a few moments, I realized it was the tune one usually hears with "Wayfaring Stranger." Now I have just started to sit down and learn "East Virginia Blues" after hearing it for nearly forty years, first from the Joan Baez recording which used some minor chords, and then from a slew of bluegrassers who use all major chords, but keep the modal sounding melody.

After I heard Harrell's totally minor tune, I could not, for at least an hour, remember or sing the more common tune. My brain went into a melt down and I couldn't get the other tune back with any sort of accuracy - the melody kept coming out as strongly minor. I'm wondering; 1) Is "Wayfaring Stranger" a bona fide minor version of the "East Virginia" tune, and 2) Have any of you had this minor/major melt down with other songs? I've sort of experienced it with some instrumentals, but never with a sung tune.