Uploaded August 2025 | Updated September 2026, 3 days ago
Fair Flowers of Fadie-O / Fair Flowers of Holly-O / Fine Flowers in the Valley / Doon By the Greenwood Sidie O / Greenwood Side / Down by the Greenwood Sidey-o / All Alone and a-Lonely-O / She's Leaned her Back / The Cruel Mither / The Cruel Mother (Child No. 20) - Sung by Mr. Abner Keesee (1875–1956) of Altavista, Campbell County, Virginia, USA. Recorded by Arthur Kyle Davis Jr. on August 4, 1932. A related version was collected from Mrs. Virgie Mayhew Keesee (born circa 1853) of Pittsylvania County, Virginia on May 26, 1915 by Juliet Fauntleroy. Mrs. Keesee learned it from her uncle, who learned it in Tennessee.
00:00:00 The Cruel Mother - Abner Keesee
00:02:27 The Greenwood Sidey - Addie Graham
An excellent article by Mike Yates on Cecil Sharp's and Maud Karpeles' Appalachia trip in the 1910s can be read here: mustrad.org.uk/articles/sharp.htm
A selection of 1930s phonograph recordings made by folklorist Arthur Kyle Davis Jr. (1897–1972) of Virginia ballad singers has been digitised and made available for listening online: https://avalon.lib.virginia.edu/collections/7m01bk901
We get a chance to listen to some of the very same people Cecil Sharp and Maud Karpeles met and noted songs from in the 1910s.
The audio quality of these recordings is relatively poor, being made with portable equipment at that time, but the songs are interesting and worthy of attention. I had the idea of creating small compilations of related versions of each song for these videos. This is because I noticed that I often had more than one recording of each song available from singers who were related or lived in the same area.
Arthur K. Davis Jr. published the hundreds of Virginia ballads he collected in two books, "Folk-Songs of Virginia" (1949), and "More Traditional Ballads of Virginia" (1960) with the editorial assistance of Paul Clayton Worthington.
Note by Kevin W.:
A traditional Virginia version of The Cruel Mother (Child 20). The ballad is rare in America and texts are often fragmentary. It must've arrived in Virginia with the early settlers in the 1600s-1700s and was kept alive through generations of singers without the aid of printed texts. As far as I can tell the song was never published in songsters or broadsides in America, likely due to the dark subject matter.
An important detail lost in many American texts and likely not understood by the singers is that the mother kills her babies out of fear of being discovered by her family. She had an illegitimate relationship with her father's clerk, a man below her standing.
Song transcription:
One day I was sitting in my father's hall,
All day long and I love thee O,
I saw three babes a-playing this ball,
Down by the greenwood sidie O.
One was dressed in scarlet fine,
All day long and I love thee O,
The other two were just like they was born,
Down by the greenwood sidie O.
"O little babes, if you was mine,
All day long and I love thee O,
I'd dress you up in scarlet fine,
Down by the greenwood sidie O."
One was dressed in scarlet fine,
All day long and I love thee O,
The other two were just like they was born,
Down by the greenwood sidie O.
"O little babes, if you can tell,
All day long and I love thee O,
How long on earth am I to dwell,
Down by the greenwood sidie O ?"
"Seven long years on earth you'll dwell,
All day long and I love thee O,
The balance of your time you will spend it in hell,
Down by the greenwood sidie O."
Mrs. Virgie Mayhew Keesee's version:
One day I was sitting in my father's hall
I saw three babes a-playing ball.
All day long and I love you all,
Down by the greenwood side-y oh!
"Oh little babes if you were mine,
I'd dress you up in scarlet fine."
All day long and I love you all,
Down by the greenwood side-y oh!
"Oh, dear mother, when we were thine,
You neither put on our coarse nor fine."
All day long and I love you all,
Down by the greenwood side-y oh!
"Oh, little babes, if you could tell,
How long on earth have I to dwell?"
All day long and I love you all,
Down by the greenwood side-y oh!
"Seven long years on earth to dwell,
The balance of your time you'll spend in hell."
All day long and I love you all,
Down by the greenwood side-y oh!
Fair Flowers of Fadie-O / Fair Flowers of Holly-O / Fine Flowers in the Valley / Doon By the Greenwood Sidie O / Greenwood Side / Down by the Greenwood Sidey-o / All Alone and a-Lonely-O / She's Leaned her Back / The Cruel Mither / The Cruel Mother (Child No. 20) - Sung by Mr. Abner Keesee (1875–1956) of Altavista, Campbell County, Virginia, USA. Recorded by Arthur Kyle Davis Jr. on August 4, 1932. A related version was collected from Mrs. Virgie Mayhew Keesee (born circa 1853) of Pittsylvania County, Virginia on May 26, 1915 by Juliet Fauntleroy. Mrs. Keesee learned it from her uncle, who learned it in Tennessee.
00:00:00 The Cruel Mother - Abner Keesee
00:02:27 The Greenwood Sidey - Addie Graham
An excellent article by Mike Yates on Cecil Sharp's and Maud Karpeles' Appalachia trip in the 1910s can be read here: mustrad.org.uk/articles/sharp.htm
A selection of 1930s phonograph recordings made by folklorist Arthur Kyle Davis Jr. (1897–1972) of Virginia ballad singers has been digitised and made available for listening online: https://avalon.lib.virginia.edu/collections/7m01bk901
We get a chance to listen to some of the very same people Cecil Sharp and Maud Karpeles met and noted songs from in the 1910s.
The audio quality of these recordings is relatively poor, being made with portable equipment at that time, but the songs are interesting and worthy of attention. I had the idea of creating small compilations of related versions of each song for these videos. This is because I noticed that I often had more than one recording of each song available from singers who were related or lived in the same area.
Arthur K. Davis Jr. published the hundreds of Virginia ballads he collected in two books, "Folk-Songs of Virginia" (1949), and "More Traditional Ballads of Virginia" (1960) with the editorial assistance of Paul Clayton Worthington.
Note by Kevin W.:
A traditional Virginia version of The Cruel Mother (Child 20). The ballad is rare in America and texts are often fragmentary. It must've arrived in Virginia with the early settlers in the 1600s-1700s and was kept alive through generations of singers without the aid of printed texts. As far as I can tell the song was never published in songsters or broadsides in America, likely due to the dark subject matter.
An important detail lost in many American texts and likely not understood by the singers is that the mother kills her babies out of fear of being discovered by her family. She had an illegitimate relationship with her father's clerk, a man below her standing.
Song transcription:
One day I was sitting in my father's hall,
All day long and I love thee O,
I saw three babes a-playing this ball,
Down by the greenwood sidie O.
One was dressed in scarlet fine,
All day long and I love thee O,
The other two were just like they was born,
Down by the greenwood sidie O.
"O little babes, if you was mine,
All day long and I love thee O,
I'd dress you up in scarlet fine,
Down by the greenwood sidie O."
One was dressed in scarlet fine,
All day long and I love thee O,
The other two were just like they was born,
Down by the greenwood sidie O.
"O little babes, if you can tell,
All day long and I love thee O,
How long on earth am I to dwell,
Down by the greenwood sidie O ?"
"Seven long years on earth you'll dwell,
All day long and I love thee O,
The balance of your time you will spend it in hell,
Down by the greenwood sidie O."
Mrs. Virgie Mayhew Keesee's version:
One day I was sitting in my father's hall
I saw three babes a-playing ball.
All day long and I love you all,
Down by the greenwood side-y oh!
"Oh little babes if you were mine,
I'd dress you up in scarlet fine."
All day long and I love you all,
Down by the greenwood side-y oh!
"Oh, dear mother, when we were thine,
You neither put on our coarse nor fine."
All day long and I love you all,
Down by the greenwood side-y oh!
"Oh, little babes, if you could tell,
How long on earth have I to dwell?"
All day long and I love you all,
Down by the greenwood side-y oh!
"Seven long years on earth to dwell,
The balance of your time you'll spend in hell."
All day long and I love you all,
Down by the greenwood side-y oh!
