Lyr Req: american version of Two Sisters

Subject: american version of Two Sisters
From: GUEST,Fay
Date: 02 May 02 - 12:22 PM

I am looking for the american version, it kind of goes

There were two sisters lived in a bower Oh the wind and Rain Blah, Blah, Blah., Blah, Blah Blah Blah, Oh the dreadful wind and rain...

Lines 2 + 4 always the same, one sister pushes the other in, then they make a fiddle out of various body parts..

I looked in the lyric thing here, but the american version isn't there, or I'm not clever enough to find it anyway...

Thanks for your help, this is a truly great place!!!

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: american version of Two Sisters
From: Sorcha
Date: 02 May 02 - 12:27 PM

There are several versions here, did you check all of them?

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: american version of Two Sisters
From: Sorcha
Date: 02 May 02 - 12:28 PM

Dammit. BRB...........

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: american version of Two Sisters
From: Sorcha
Date: 02 May 02 - 12:30 PM

Try again? If this one doesn't work, use the white box on the main page and ask it for Two Sisters.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: american version of Two Sisters
From: GUEST,fay
Date: 02 May 02 - 12:33 PM

Thanks, got some, thats great.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: american version of Two Sisters
From: Joe Offer
Date: 02 May 02 - 01:48 PM

This is a song that captures the imagination, so you'll find lots of information here about it. I think I'd suggest searching for wind and rain. You can also search for #10 because it's Child Ballad #10. This thread (click) has a variety of versions, including the version done in the memorable recording by David Grisman and Jerry Garcia.

I'm going to copy-paste the entry from the Traditional Ballad Index. The 25 (!) songbook citations should give you lots of information.
-Joe Offer-

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Twa Sisters, The [Child 10]

DESCRIPTION: A knight woos two (three) sisters, choosing the younger. The older drowns the younger. Her body is recovered and made into an instrument by a passing miller/musician. As the knight prepares to wed the older sister, the instrument sings out the truth.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1656 (broadside)
KEYWORDS: courting murder music minstrel sister drowning
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland,England(South)) US(Ap,MA,MW,NE,SE,So) Canada(Newf)
REFERENCES (25 citations):
Child 10, "The Twa Sisters" (25 texts, 3 tunes)
Bronson 10, "The Twa Sisters" (97 versions)
Randolph 4, "The Miller's Daughters" (8 texts, 5 tunes)
Eddy 4, "The Twa Sisters" (1 text, 1 tune)
Flanders/Olney, pp. 209-210, "The Two Sisters" (1 text, 1 tune)
Leach, pp. 74-78, "The Twa Sisters" (3 texts)
McNeil-SFB2, pp. 150-156, "The Two Sisters"; "The Two Sisters (Wind and Rain) (2 texts, 2 tunes)
OBB 23, "Binnorie" (1 text)
Warner 98, "The Two Sisters That Loved One Man" (1 text, 1 tune)
Niles 7, "The Twa Sisters" (3 texts, 3 tunes)
Gummere, pp. 171-173+343, "The Twa Sisters" (1 text)
Sharp/Karpeles-80E 6, "The Two Sisters" (1 text, 1 tune -- a composite text)
Lomax-FSNA 90, "The Two Sisters" (1 text, 1 tune)
Hodgart, p. 32, "The Twa Sisters" (1 text)
DBuchan 3, "The Twa Sisters" (1 text, 1 tune in appendix)
JHCox 3, "The Twa Sisters" (3 texts, 1 tune)
Ord, pp. 430-432, "The Bonnie Mill-Dams o' Binnorie"; pp. 459-460, "Hey the Rose and the Lindsay, O" (2 texts, 1 tune)
MacSeegTrav 3, "The Twa Sisters" (1 text plus two variant verses, 1 tune)
TBB 9, "The Twa Sisters" (1 text)
HarvClass-EP1, pp. 54-56, "The Twa Sisters" (1 text)
Abrahams/Foss, pp. 20-24, "The Two Sisters"; "The Two Sisters (The Wind and Rain)" (2 texts, 2 tunes)
LPound-ABS, 4, pp. 11-12, "The Two Sisters"; pp. 12-13, "The Old Man in the North Countree" (2 texts)
Darling-NAS, pp. 56-59, "The Two Sisters"; "Rollin' a-Rollin'"; "Wind and Rain" (3 texts)
Silber-FSWB, p. 224, "The Two Sisters" (1 text)
DT 10, BINNORI* TWOSIS* TWOSIS5* WINDRAIN* SWANSWIM* TWOSIS8 TWOSIS9 TWOSI10 TWOSS11
RECORDINGS:
Horton Barker, "The Two Sisters" (AAFS 33)
Loman D. Cansler, "The Two Sisters" (on Cansler1)
Jean Ritchie, "The Two Sisters" (AFS; on LC57)
John Strachan, "The Twa Sisters" (on FSB4)
John Strachan, Dorothy Fourbister, Ethel Findlater [composite] "The Twa Sisters" (on FSBBAL1)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "An Sgeir-Mhara (The Sea-Tangle, The Jealous Woman)" (plot)
ALTERNATE TITLES:
The Bows of London
The Cruel Sister
Rolling a-Rolling
The Wind and Rain
The Swan Swims Bonnie
The Old Lord by the Northern Sea
Bowie, Bowerie
The Little Drownded Girl
Lay the Bent to the Bonny Broom
Notes: The refrains sung with this ballad vary tremendously, but virtually all versions have a refrain of some sort. - PJS
And generally a lyrically attractive one ("the swan swims bonnie," etc.), as has been pointed out by several scholars. - RBW
File: C010

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Subject: RE: Lyr Req: american version of Two Sisters
From: Malcolm Douglas
Date: 02 May 02 - 04:49 PM

I put a reasonably comprehensive list of links to relevant material here and elsewhere on the web (including the Ballad Index entry)in this previous discussion: 'twasisters'...

Several American variants are included.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: american version of Two Sisters
From: Dicho (Frank Staplin)
Date: 02 May 02 - 05:12 PM

American version? There are gradations in the degree of Americanization, but this one seems to be pretty far on the road: Two Sisters
Ollie Gilbert, Arkansas, Max Hunter Collection.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: american version of Two Sisters
From: Dicho (Frank Staplin)
Date: 02 May 02 - 05:22 PM

Also see "The Miller's Daughter": Miller's Daughter
Malcolm Douglas really covered a lot of ground in the post he refers to above. If you can't find one to your liking in his post, you had better select another song.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: american version of Two Sisters
From: Malcolm Douglas
Date: 02 May 02 - 09:58 PM

Thanks, Dicho. The Max Hunter site has added Ollie Gilbert's set since I made that list. I'm especially proud of finding the 103 Norwegian versions, though I'd be prouder if I'd been able to do that second year of Old Norse and could understand the blasted things.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: american version of Two Sisters
From: GUEST,Frogmore
Date: 02 May 02 - 10:55 PM

I've been bemused by this song since I heard the Red Clay Ramblers do it in the seventies. I occasionally do it still, usually after 2 AM around a campfire with the attendant firewater. Sometimes I even recall some of the naughty verses Filthy Fred and I made up long ago. Use your imagination, and substitute "brothers" if you're offended by possibly sexist attitudes. It IS just an old folk song.....The scholarly references provided above in this thread are appreciated.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: american version of Two Sisters
From: Stewie
Date: 03 May 02 - 10:12 PM

Jody Stecher's version, which was the source of the Grisman/Garcia recording mentioned above by Joe, is now available on CD on Grisman's label: Jody Stecher 'Going Up on the Mountain: The Classic Recordings' Acoustic Disc ACD-39. The version features lovely fiddle backing by Hank Bradley. An extended version, with oud and mandolin, is the title track of Stecher's 'Oh the Wind and Rain: Eleven Ballads' Appleseed APR CD 1030.

--Stewie.