The wandering ballad singer; Odds and ends

And I will walk the road again my boy is all along the road again. If the weather be fair I'll call my hair and I'll walk again. Washington State University presents they wandering ballad singer Barry tooken with songs that vividly describe the history and folklore of a pioneering country. And I long. Road. Says this is the last program in the series I'd like to sing a few songs that I've collected here and there during the past year or so. There won't be any attempt to tie them in with the context except maybe that context into which all poetry fits the artistic expression of man's life problems. The first one is a song I learned from Sandy league a little girl down in Memphis. It's called the Knoxville gal. I met a little girl.

Common the urge to carry around about a mile from the ground and that girl she found down on her bed for mercy. Here. First both are words I hit her all them or me with her blood did flow.

I took her by the girls. I drug her around throw and her that flows through Knoxville girl and live girl. You never mind. I started to just air my mother and her darling Bloody you up so. I told my mother I was bleeding.

My BIL Sherif me he put me in my friend but could I lie down in dirty. The murdered girl. Here's one I picked up from my old friend Cliff Bushnell of Wayne County Ohio ballad singer. He made it up from bits and pieces of old Amish tales and songs old cording songs and a good measure of his own sensitivity to folk poetry. He calls it what shall I do today. Oh what shall I do today my love what shall I do today.

Bake me a PIO with a morning that you showed today. Oh and shell at it today my what shall I do. The cow with the big brown here that you shelled today. Oh what shall I do today my man to spin a yarn about my new show. Oh what shall I read it to day. Good for the candle and. The egg in the straw stack near that. Oh and today my

blood to warm my bones. Oh my what the slop to the pigs in the bar. Oh what shall you do today my man. What shall you do. I'll smoke my pipe and sing and sing. Here's a Washington state version of an old favorite the Boston burglar a couple of variants have been blended here to give a more complete story but the main part of the song comes from Eleanor Ambrose a graduate student here at Washington State University who learned it from her father. There is some confusion as to whether the culprit went to the Concord jail or to the Charles Town jail. But there is no

doubt in the ballot that he was caught and that he paid for the crime. I was born in Boston city up play. You know I was a real honest parent and so the truth I was raised by honest parents and raised most tenderly while young at the age of twenty three. And then I stole some money and my friend found out it was all in vain to get me out on bail. The judge the clerk erode it down. The judge then set my

eyes and I am conquered jailhouse. As I stepped on board the train one cold cold winter station along the line I could hear the people. There goes a burglar in iron chains bound for the ride of the National Bank. It was Charles. There stands my father up at the bar and there's my gray haired mother. Ah tear her in those locks and the tears come true Glenn.

My Son What Have You Done to be Charles Tom. Now you have your liberty. You don't run the streets at night. Or you'll find yourself like me time in the Bennett. Several students have brought the next song to me and asked if it was a folk song that has a flavor of sophistication about its wording that most folk songs do not have and so I'm not sure but if it is the product of a literary person it's been taken over by the public domain anyway because so far at least I've collected some 10 versions of it all from people here in Washington state.

It's called two babes in the wood. As I remember a long time ago too there were snow. And left or so. And when it was night so sad was their plight and the stars side by side. And when they were dead the birds from tree

cover over with strawberry and signing them us saw the whole oh. This last song was collected by Marian Cupp and Cliff Michael from an old man in northern Idaho. What the news is that referred to in the song is anybody's guess but it may be a reference to the ending of slavery. Anyway it indicates that Negroes were used in mines in northern Idaho at a very early date. Miners gather around me. I got some fun 4.00 make you bust your eyelid and cause your bosom so white folks must be crazy.

Oh the nose it just came out. Oh the news from Boise City and it's common from the sound hole hit to. Have a wooden shovel and another made of tin and the way I scoop the gravel up it sure does and when them city white folks ask us who beat me we tell em it's the California Gold Mining Company and it is heading. Well go and grab and see if they and some and do agree though. When I get down to the band I'll take a cargo train and then on over to center and I'll

telegraph again. Oh then Doctor needn't want for his supper. I'm gonna take him down to the old Virginia shore well and good by. I was off the boys but I come back to get her. Oh the elephant ate his pot pie I danced with the crowd good where I was bound to go who was off to Boise with a shovel and a whole pack up all

your shiny clothes. Go ahead. And. That's about all for this year hope we can get together for some more singing in the future. In the meantime be kind Hitchhiker's and I'll walk the road again my boys and I'll walk the road again if the weather be fair I'll call my hair and I'll go off the road and the preceding was transcribed and was produced by the Radio TV services of Washington State University. This is the ne E.B. Radio Network and.