Uploaded July 2025 | Updated September 2026, 3 days ago
The Scotland Man / The Poor Scotchee / Come In My Own True Love / Love Henry / Loving Henry Lee / Lady Margaret / Young Hunting (Child No. 68) - Sung by George Landers of Marshall, Madison County, North Carolina. From the documentary "The End of an Old Song" (1969) about the ballad singer Dillard Chandler and the mountain people in North Carolina. Filmed and recorded by John Cohen in 1967.
The complete movie can be watched here:
folkstreams.net/films/end-of-an-old-song
I extracted the songs and used my knowledge on video editing to share them on Youtube in the highest possible quality, I used manual video upscaling (no AI was used!) for this, to further document variants of traditional ballads and songs which has been my hobby for many years. I claim no ownership of the video, all the rights belong with John Cohen.
Quotes about George Landers from John Cohen:
“George Landers lived in a small wood house by the road that leads to Peter Gott’s place. Peter encouraged the elderly Landers to pick up his banjo again, and then Landers remembered a wealth of songs and distinctive banjo picking. He had a sharp understated sense of humor and could always be heard from the road, playing and singing”
"George Lander's sense of time and phrasing can't be imitated, it can only be wondered at and admired."
"George Landers employs a two finger style of picking, quite common in the mountains around North Carolina, where the melody is plucked by the index finger, and the thumb drones on the fifth string, or moves to secondary notes of the melody. Landers brushes them them up and down [!] with his index finger to achieve his sound."
"In 1963, when Peter Gott first met him, Landers wasn't playing music. Peter encouraged him to play and from then on, every time Peter passed George's cabin, he was sitting and playing his banjo. When he was finally sent away to the old folks home, he took his banjo with him, playing it from his wheel chair up until the day he died."
Note by Kevin W.:
This is an old Scottish ballad, but performed in the style of the mountain people of North Carolina. Such songs were brought over from England, Scotland and Ireland with the early settlers and lived on in the memory of the mountain singers.
The same family version of "The Scotland Man" was first collected by Cecil Sharp from a Miss Linnie Landers in Carmen, Madison County, North Carolina in 1916 and sound recorded by Maud Karpeles in 1950: youtube.com/watch?v=2ca9KByxB2M
John Cohen also recorded the complete ballad from George Landers in 1965: youtube.com/watch?v=pCaT_xPoGNM
Song transcription:
Come in, come in, my own true love
And stay all the night with me
For I have a bed and a very fine bed
I'll give it up to thee, thee
I'll give it up to you.
I can't come down, no I ain't a-coming there
To perch – said - all on your thumb
For [I'm] 'fraid you'd rob me of my tender little heart
Just like the Scotland man, man
Just like the Scotland man
If I had my bow and arrow
My arrow and my string
I'd shoot you right to your tender little heart
Just like the Scotland man, man
Just like the Scotland man.
If you had your bow and arrow
Your arrow and your string
I'd fly away to the heaven so high
I'd never be seen any more, more
I'd never be seen any more
The Scotland Man / The Poor Scotchee / Come In My Own True Love / Love Henry / Loving Henry Lee / Lady Margaret / Young Hunting (Child No. 68) - Sung by George Landers of Marshall, Madison County, North Carolina. From the documentary "The End of an Old Song" (1969) about the ballad singer Dillard Chandler and the mountain people in North Carolina. Filmed and recorded by John Cohen in 1967.
The complete movie can be watched here:
folkstreams.net/films/end-of-an-old-song
I extracted the songs and used my knowledge on video editing to share them on Youtube in the highest possible quality, I used manual video upscaling (no AI was used!) for this, to further document variants of traditional ballads and songs which has been my hobby for many years. I claim no ownership of the video, all the rights belong with John Cohen.
Quotes about George Landers from John Cohen:
“George Landers lived in a small wood house by the road that leads to Peter Gott’s place. Peter encouraged the elderly Landers to pick up his banjo again, and then Landers remembered a wealth of songs and distinctive banjo picking. He had a sharp understated sense of humor and could always be heard from the road, playing and singing”
"George Lander's sense of time and phrasing can't be imitated, it can only be wondered at and admired."
"George Landers employs a two finger style of picking, quite common in the mountains around North Carolina, where the melody is plucked by the index finger, and the thumb drones on the fifth string, or moves to secondary notes of the melody. Landers brushes them them up and down [!] with his index finger to achieve his sound."
"In 1963, when Peter Gott first met him, Landers wasn't playing music. Peter encouraged him to play and from then on, every time Peter passed George's cabin, he was sitting and playing his banjo. When he was finally sent away to the old folks home, he took his banjo with him, playing it from his wheel chair up until the day he died."
Note by Kevin W.:
This is an old Scottish ballad, but performed in the style of the mountain people of North Carolina. Such songs were brought over from England, Scotland and Ireland with the early settlers and lived on in the memory of the mountain singers.
The same family version of "The Scotland Man" was first collected by Cecil Sharp from a Miss Linnie Landers in Carmen, Madison County, North Carolina in 1916 and sound recorded by Maud Karpeles in 1950: youtube.com/watch?v=2ca9KByxB2M
John Cohen also recorded the complete ballad from George Landers in 1965: youtube.com/watch?v=pCaT_xPoGNM
Song transcription:
Come in, come in, my own true love
And stay all the night with me
For I have a bed and a very fine bed
I'll give it up to thee, thee
I'll give it up to you.
I can't come down, no I ain't a-coming there
To perch – said - all on your thumb
For [I'm] 'fraid you'd rob me of my tender little heart
Just like the Scotland man, man
Just like the Scotland man
If I had my bow and arrow
My arrow and my string
I'd shoot you right to your tender little heart
Just like the Scotland man, man
Just like the Scotland man.
If you had your bow and arrow
Your arrow and your string
I'd fly away to the heaven so high
I'd never be seen any more, more
I'd never be seen any more
