The Mudcat Café TM
Thread #12281   Message #95855
Posted By: Dale Rose
16-Jul-99 - 10:12 AM
Thread Name: Lyr Req: Children in the Wood
Subject: RE: LYR REQ Children in the Wood
You can't get there from here. It says you have to go to Joe's page first, and then click on the song, but the link they give works, so who knows?

The Whitfield Girls (quite young as you can hear) recorded this for Jimmie Driftwood's label in 1972 on the second of two Rackensack samplers of musicians from the Stone County, Arkansas area. Their wording is almost identical to that given in Vance Randolph's book, so I would suspect that his book was their source, at least indirectly. (cited in the DT as From Ozark Folksongs, Randolph Collected from Marie Wilbur, Pineville MO 1929)

In an interesting side trip, you can find a bit more on Vance Randolph at the Library of Congress http://lcweb.loc.gov/spcoll/193.html ~~ it is difficult to beat reading his books for information on the music and folklore of the Ozarks. I would also recommend the works of W. K. (William/Bill) McNeil. You can search at Amazon for available listings for both authors.