Looking for specific recording-Love Has Brought...

Subject: Looking for specific recording of song
From: GUEST,Chel
Date: 18 Apr 18 - 10:00 AM

Hi, this is a pretty long shot but I thought I should ask. I used to have on my phone an MP3 of a specific recording of "Love Has Brought Me To Despair" that was sung by a professor for a music course, and I liked it much better than any commercial recordings I've been able to find, but then I lost the phone, and when I searched to try to get the MP3 back, the site I got it from seems to have been taken down. I'm recalling the name of the singer as Gregory Smits but that can't be right because when I looked for that name he's a professor of Japanese history; the Smits part is pretty clear in my memory, though. Does anyone know who I might be talking about?

Subject: RE: Looking for specific recording of song
From: Helen
Date: 18 Apr 18 - 03:48 PM

Hi Chel,

I've never heard of the song, but someone here will probably know something about it.

There was a Mudcat thread about the song back in 2004 but there were only three posts to the thread:
Lyr Add: LOVE HAS BROUGHT ME TO DESPAIR (Wallin)

A Google search turns up this document, which mentions a recording fragment of the song, but not the name of the singer:
Samuel Bayard Recordings See first paragraph of page 2 of the document.

Helen

Subject: RE: Looking for specific recording of song
From: Joe Offer
Date: 19 Apr 18 - 02:33 PM

YouTube has a couple of recordings, but not the one you seek. These may not play outside the U.S. Here they are:

Berzilla Wallin
Wallin alternate (may play outside US)

Dry Branch Fire Squad

Here's the Traditional Ballad Index entry for this song:

Love Has Brought Me to Despair [Laws P25]

DESCRIPTION: The singer hears a girl telling of the grief her false love has left her. She seeks a flower in the meadow to ease her mind; none meet her needs. She makes a bed of flowers, asks for a marble stone on her grave and a turtle dove at her breast, and dies
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1827 (Lyle-Crawfurd1)
KEYWORDS: death separation flowers grief
FOUND IN: US(Ap,MW,Ro) Britain(England(Lond,North,South),(Scotland(Aber,Bord)))
REFERENCES (12 citations):
Laws P25, "Love Has Brought Me to Despair"
GreigDuncan6 1170, "In Halifax Town" (1 text, 1 tune)
Lyle-Crawfurd1 43, "Slighted Love" (1 text)
Reeves-Circle 34, "Died of Love" (2 texts)
BroadwoodCarols, pp. 92-95, "Died of Love or A brisk young lad he courted me" (1 short text, 1 tune)
OShaughnessy-Yellowbelly2 52, "There Is an Alehouse" (1 text, 1 tune)
RoudBishop #42, "A Brisk Young Sailor" (1 text, 1 tune)
Brewster 58, "Love Has Brought Me to Despair" (2 texts, 1 tune)
Combs/Wilgus 116, p. 176, "The Auxville Love" (1 text)
JHCox 144, "Love Has Brought Me To Despair" (1 text)
Hubbard, #28, "Love Has Brought Me To Despair" (1 text, 1 tune)
DT 824, LOVDISPR*
Roud #60
RECORDINGS:
Dillard Chandler, "I Wish My Baby Was Born" (on Chandler01, DarkHoll)
Geoff Ling, "Died for Love" (on Voice10)
Dellie Norton, "When I Wore My Apron Low" (on DarkHoll)
Berzilla Wallin, "Love Has Brought Me To Despair" (on OldLove, DarkHoll)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Butcher Boy" [Laws P24]
cf. "Tavern in the Town"
NOTES: This song has close ties with "Tavern in the Town," often sharing stanzas and, of course, a similarity of plot. Roud, in fact, lumps them (which seems a bit excessive to me). This may help explain why Laws failed to note either the Combs or the Cox version. - RBW
Last updated in version 4.1
File: LP25

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Chel, I retitled the thread to make it more specific. Hope you can find it.