Trying to remember song-Lonesome Scenes of Winter

Subject: Trying to remember a song
From: Greum
Date: 15 Mar 22 - 04:16 PM

I suddenly have this tune and a few words running through my head. I remember the song being sung by a female singer and so far the only words that come back to me are:


I asked him if he'd marry
but he would not marry me
...
so take a civil answer and for yourself provide
I have another lover and you I've laid aside

I think it may have been something about shades of winter, but a Google search brings up nothing of help.

Can anyone identify the song?

Subject: ADD: Lonesome Scenes of Winter (Cara Dillon)
From: Joe Offer
Date: 15 Mar 22 - 04:30 PM

LONESOME SCENES OF WINTER
(Cara Dillon)

As the lonesome scenes of winter in stormy winds do blow,
Clouds around the center inclined to frost and snow,
You're the boy that I have chosen to be my only dear,
Your scornful heart is frozen and drifted far I fear.

One night I went to see my love, but he proved most scornfully,
I asked him if he'd marry me, but he would not marry me,
The night it is far spent, my love, it's near the break of day,
And I'm waiting for your answer; my dear, what do you say?

I can but plainly tell you, I'll lead a single life,
I never thought it fitting that you should be my wife,
So take a civil answer and for yourself provide,
I have another sweetheart and you I have laid aside.

Now my mind is changing that old love for the new,
This wide and lonesome valley I mean to ramble through,
In search of someone handsome that might my fancy fill,
That world is wide and lonesome; if he don't, another will.


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OVPXzSImyE8

Subject: RE: Trying to remember a song-take a civil answer
From: maeve
Date: 15 Mar 22 - 04:32 PM

Cara Dillon sings The Lonesome Scenes of Winter . I haven't checked the DT for lyrics. If needed to add this song to Mudcat, they are at the above link.

Cara sings it on youtube, here:
Cara Dillon - The Lonesome Scenes of Winter (youtube)

Subject: RE: Trying to remember song-Lonesome Scenes of Winter
From: Reinhard
Date: 15 Mar 22 - 04:56 PM

Lonesome (Stormy) Scenes of Winter, The [Laws H12]

DESCRIPTION: The singer insists that a girl tell him whether she will marry him or not. She will not; she has another lover. He berates her love of wealth and threatens to go away as a soldier/sailor. (In some texts she changes her mind, but the man has a new girl.)
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1904 (Belden-BalladsSongsCollectedByMissourFolkloreSociety)
KEYWORDS: courting rejection separation
FOUND IN: US(Ap,MW,SE,So) Canada(Mar,Newf,Ont)
REFERENCES (17 citations):
Laws H12, "The Lonesome (Stormy) Scenes of Winter"
Belden-BalladsSongsCollectedByMissourFolkloreSociety, pp. 195-196, "The Lonesome Scenes of Winter" (1 text)
Henry-SongsSungInTheSouthernAppalachians, pp. 136-137, "The Lonesome Scenes of Winter (All in the Scenes of Winter" (1 text)
Wyman/Brockway-LonesomeSongs-KentuckyMountains-Vol2, p. 94, "The Gonesome [sic] Scenes of Winter" (1 text, 1 tune)
Bush-FSofCentralWestVirginiaVol4, pp. 58-59, "Cold Scenes of Winter" (1 text, 1 tune)
Browne-AlabamaFolkLyric 3, "Lonesome Seems the Winter" (1 text, 1 tune)
Dean-FlyingCloud, pp. 108-109, "Lonesome Hours of Winter" (1 text)
Fowke/Johnston-FolkSongsOfCanada, pp. 156-157, "The Stormy Scenes of Winter" (1 text, 1 tune)
Fowke/MacMillan-PenguinBookOfCanadianFolkSongs 57, "The Lonesome (Stormy) Scenes of Winter" (1 text, 1 tune)
Vikár/Panagapka-SongsNorthWoodsSungByOJAbbott 41, "The Lonesome Scenes of Winter" (1 text, 1 tune)
McNeil-SouthernFolkBalladsVol1, pp. 127-129, "Lonesome Scenes of Winter" (1 text, 1 tune)
Shellans-FolkSongsOfTheBlueRidgeMountains, pp. 38-39, "The Scornful Lover" (1 text, 1 tune)
Owens-TexasFolkSongs-2ed, pp. 59-60, "All in the Scenes of Winter" (1 text, 1 tune)
Creighton/Senior-TraditionalSongsOfNovaScotia, pp. 209-212,"Stormy Winds of Winter" (4 texts, 1 tune)
Creighton-FolksongsFromSouthernNewBrunswick 50, "The Stormy Winds of Winter" (2 texts, 2 tunes)
Peacock, pp. 445-446, "Flora" (1 text, 1 tune)
DT, 650 CHILSCEN* CHILSCN2*
Roud #443
RECORDINGS:
Charlotte Decker, "Flora" (on PeacockCDROM) [one verse only]
Texas Gladden, "Dark Scenes of Winter" (on USTGladden01)
John Leahy, "The Lonesome Scenes of Winter" (on ONEFowke01)
Lewis McDaniel & Walter Smith: "I Went to See My Sweetheart" (Victor 23505, 1930; on ConstSor1)
Southern Melody Boys, "Lonesome Scenes of Winter" (Montgomery Ward 7227, 1937)
NOTES [67 words]: The editors of Sam Henry's Songs of the People place H637 (p. 385, "Lovely Nancy") here -- but I frankly don't see the kinship. Belden-BalladsSongsCollectedByMissourFolkloreSociety, in discussing the matter, says that a song he knows as "Proud Nancy" (I assume the same piece) has "a like theme but little verbal resemblance." Browne also thinks his "Lonesome Seems the Winter" is a separate song. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.0
File: LH12

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Subject: RE: Trying to remember song-Lonesome Scenes of Winter
From: Lighter
Date: 15 Mar 22 - 05:47 PM

You can hear a fine performance of it by Brian Miller and Randy Gosa here:

https://thelostforty.bandcamp.com/album/the-lonesome-hours-of-winter

The entire album is excellent.

Subject: RE: Trying to remember song-Lonesome Scenes of Winter
From: Steve Gardham
Date: 15 Mar 22 - 06:11 PM

https://archive.org/details/CorporalThomasFanningHisBook

For a 1779 version go to the above url p28

https://archive.org/details/CorporalThomasFanningHisBook

Subject: RE: Trying to remember song-Lonesome Scenes of Winter
From: Steve Gardham
Date: 15 Mar 22 - 06:13 PM

American soldier's manuscript pocket book.

Subject: RE: Trying to remember song-Lonesome Scenes of Winter
From: Greum
Date: 16 Mar 22 - 03:11 PM

Thanks everyone for your replies. Much appreciated. I remembered in bed after I had posted that it was "Lonesome" and that they were probably "scenes" rather than "shades"!

I think it was probably Graham and Sheila Nelmes whom I heard singing it, but I no longer have the vinyl.

Subject: RE: Trying to remember song-Lonesome Scenes of Winter
From: Greum
Date: 17 Mar 22 - 08:41 AM

> The singer insists that a girl tell him whether she will marry him or not. She will not; she has another lover. He berates her love of wealth and threatens to go away as a soldier/sailor. (In some texts she changes her mind, but the man has a new girl.)

I've not come across this version of the song. Has anyone else found it?