Appalachia II "Down By the Sally Gardens"

In “Down By the Sally Gardens” I focused on the line “take love easy as the leaves grow on the trees.” This is what the female character tells the singer. Since he then says he was young and foolish, which is why he did not agree, does that imply that women are more mature than men? I am assuming the two characters are the same age… This song seems to give much more respect to women regarding love than compared with “Black Jack David” and “Ommie Wise.” In my project the woman is facing away towards the mountains and valley below. Maybe there is a garden down there, maybe not. The leaves are blowing easy in the breeze. Is she letting go of them or are they coming up from the valley? It is showing her ability and maturity with love. She is a reflection of the leaves and their nature, which allows the wind to take them where they should go, which is the advice she gave the man in love with her. When I hear folk songs being sung, the people have voices that sound so free - free through their spirits and let the music pour and shake from them. 

Cecil Sharp, a song collector of the 20th century.

As the reading on Sharp puts it, “folk music is the product of an unselfconscious peasantry,” which may be a response to their livelihoods. He also noted that the people of Appalachia seem freer than the English. In the excepts from Cecil Sharp’s notebooks, he gives descriptions of the setting, his interactions with people, and his overall impressions. From this I have learned that Appalachia is a place full of with beautiful scenery and views of rural mountainous country, with stochastic events that give it adventure, especially in the way Sharp enthusiastically writes about it: "The country is, I think, the most magnificent I have ever seen. The mountains are everywhere, and we live in the valleys and walk through the passes.” The adventurous part are those that he includes in writing about his daily journeys, such as the Great Flood of 1916 near where he had been at Hot Springs and Madison County. Especially important and valuable like his noting of PLACE, are his notes on the PEOPLE of Appalachia.

Sharp describes his surprise at the ages of some of the singers he collected songs from because he was used to elderly people, but some people were only 15 years old! This told me that the cultural lineage of the songs must go back far and have a big importance in families’ lives if the younger generation knows the songs well enough to sing for Sharp. Just like the songs were preserved in these isolated mountains, so were the people. Sharp describes this as being They have been "so isolated and protected from outside influence that their own music and song have not only been uncorrupted, but also uninfluenced by art music in any way," which is very important because it gives pure view of the culture of these people. This is even more rare to be the case of a place in America since it is usually known as the melting pot with a mixing of cultures. 

“Comin’ Thro the Rye” really puzzles me. it is a poem written by a Scottish man Robert Burns, and more presently also used in the book “Catcher in the Rye.” I found that the book interprets the song to shed light on the importance of childhood. But I disagree and I think it is related to human connections. I think of the rye as a maze where other people cannot be seen and are discovered by meeting. I thought of this from the line, “If a body meet a body neither body frown” and “every lassie need a laddie” because they all address people running into people, and then the need for relationships.

“Barbara Allen” is the indirect cause of death, of sins for William wishing to have her… why couldn’t Barbry Allen be attained? It must be because she was “slighted” and her revenge was for him not to have her. In my research I found that the song is a tragic ballad (and Child Ballad) from the 17th century. “Young William died for me today and I’ll die for him tomorrow” I thought she was cold and wanted only revenge for her being slighted by him until I heard this line that shows she felt remorse for being the cause of his death by broken heart. “Out of her heart grew a greenbrier” which has heart shaped leaves and has prickly stems, much like a red rose, which grew out of William’s grave. The phenotypes of the plants are similar… I could not find symbolism on the greenbrier but I know the red rose is a meaning for love. Both have prickly qualities and some symbol of love, the rose and the heart shape of the greenbrier leaf. Both characters in the ballad also reflected these qualities of hurting and loving the other.

Greenbrier

The other Child ballads also tells stories where women fall victim of love. A woman she fell for “Black Jack David” and instead of sleeping comfortably with her family, she lies on the “cold ground” beside Black Jack David.” For Barbara Allen, it was death that resulted from her brief love encounter… yet she the poem did not include much of how SHE felt. “Pretty Polly” is afraid to be led “astray” by Will… and ended up in the grave because of him. Then again, the woman is the victim of love in “The House Carpenter” by choosing to leave her babe and go to sea and eventually drowning although she wished to return to her babe… but then it is still her fault for getting on the boat. I am wondering what caused these songs to take the turns they do. They reach a climax and then shift the story to tell of what is not expected, giving them much excitement and wonder. Why are the women dying because of men and love?

I found that Barbra Allen was a popular ballad in Scotland, which makes sense because James Child recorded alot of lyrics of ballads from that place and era. These songs probably reflect what 17th and 18th century folk though could happen to women if they fell in love too quickly or did not pay attention to take care of themselves, but it was still a time when women were more reliant on men and did not have total independence (see photo below).

19th Century Scottish engraving of women doing chores. This applies well to the songs when taking into account the man sitting on the left, and the poses of the women.

The American origin songs are similar to the Child ballads since they also tell stories. “Ommie Wise” gives another song of romance, and (attempted) murder, but the difference appears where there is some justice where John Lewis goes to jail and the woman did not actually drown but turned up at a “neighbor’s house.” Then there is “Shady Grove...” which at first I thought had nothing to do with romance until I began to wonder if Shady Grove is a lover or place? Jean Richie’s version makes me hear Shady Grove as a person compared to Ashley and Waston. “Sugar Baby” has a very strong American tradition in it by bringing in the question and need of money. Even “Ommie Wise” used money as another temptation by John Lewi to lure the woman to go with him. These songs are what give an insight into the American struggle for money by showing that it is always needed and can be used to attract people, and to threaten. The “Wagoner’s Lad” shows how being poor also impacts people’s lives, in this case the singers’ ability to court a woman.

The similarities of the Child ballads and the American origin songs is that both discuss romance but the woman usually has to pay the highest price. They differ in that the Child ballads have a different style in reaching a peak in the story and then shifting it to a shocking event. American origin songs are trickled with American traditions like the importance of money to people’s lives, especially their personal lives.