Uploaded September 2025 | Updated September 2026, 18 hours ago
The Dreadful Wind and Rain / The Cruel Sister / The Two Sisters / Bow Down / There Lived an Old Lord / Binnorie / Swan Swims so Bonnie / Twa Sisters (Child No. 10) - Performed by John Kilby Snow (1905–1980) with autoharp accompaniment at the University of Washington Music Building, Seattle, Washington, USA. He was originally from Grayson County, Virginia. Filmed by Mike Seeger (of the New Lost City Ramblers) and The University of Washington Ethnomusicology Archives on February 21, 1970. My thanks go to Perkdawg for sharing the digitised Betacam SP video reel which had not been available to the public previously.
Notes by Kevin W.:
Kilby Snow was a virtuoso autoharpist with a fine repertoire of tunes and songs. He was left-handed which contributed to his unique "drag note" playing style. He only recorded a single album but frequently performed at festivals and on radio and his style is revered by autoharp fans to this day. He told Mike Seeger that he learned Wind and Rain from his great-grandfather Thomas Snow (1812-1916), or Tom Big Bear, who was Cherokee and lived to a 104 years. Kilby learned it around 1913 when Tom was 95 and he was about 8, and then remembered it many years later. He decided to start singing it, because "you just got to sing it or it keeps haunting you."
The first half of Kilby's version comes from a different song, "The Bloody Miller / Knoxville Girl" (Roud 263). Kilby Snow and Daniel "Dan" Wyatt Tate (1895–1990) of Fancy Gap, Carroll County, Va., who also sang Wind and Rain, were near neighbours and their versions might go back to a common earlier source.
Wind and Rain is a rare version of an old British traditional ballad known to scholars as The Twa Sisters (Child 10). In the present form it has only been heard from singers in Virginia and W. Virginia.
The refrain actually reminds me of "with hey, ho, the wind and the rain" (Twelfth Night, Epilogue, sung by the Clown; King Lear, The Fool's Song, III, 21 74, ff.), one of Shakespeare's songs that may have been based on a traditional song.
This version of Child 10 may have been brought over from Ireland, although it has never been reported from there. Given how fragmented the texts are while still preserving the supernatural instrument made from the drowned sister's hair and bones they must've circulated in oral tradition for a long time.
Bob Dylan's Percy's Song from 1963 takes its melody from Wind and Rain. Dylan heard it sung by Paul Clayton Worthington who went on field recording trips with George Foss who recorded the song from Dan Tate in 1962.
Song transcription:
It was early one morning in the month of May
Oh the wind and rain
Two lovers went a-fishing on a hot summer day
A-crying the dreadful wind and rain
He said to the maiden "Won't you marry me?"
Oh the wind and rain
"Then my little wife you'll always be,"
A-crying the dreadful wind and rain.
She said, "Oh no, that'll never do,"
Oh the wind and rain
I love you but I can't marry you,"
A-crying the dreadful wind and rain
Then he knocked her down and he kicked her around
Oh the wind and rain
Hit her in the head with a battering ram
A-crying the dreadful wind and rain
Then he threw her in the river to drown
Oh the wind and rain
Watched her as she floated down
A-crying the dreadful wind and rain
She floated on down to the miller's mill pond
Oh the wind and rain
Floated on down to the miller's mill pond
A-crying the dreadful wind and rain
The miller fished her out with a long fishing line
Oh the wind and rain
Miller fished her out with a long fishing line
A-crying the dreadful wind and rain
And he made fiddle pegs of her little finger bones
Oh the wind and rain
Made fiddle pegs of her little finger bones
A-crying the dreadful wind and rain
Then he made a fiddle bow of her long curly hair
Oh the wind and rain
Made a fiddle bow of her long curly hair
A-crying the dreadful wind and rain
Now the only tune that fiddle would play,
Was oh the wind and rain
Only tune that fiddle would play,
Was crying the dreadful wind and rain
The Dreadful Wind and Rain / The Cruel Sister / The Two Sisters / Bow Down / There Lived an Old Lord / Binnorie / Swan Swims so Bonnie / Twa Sisters (Child No. 10) - Performed by John Kilby Snow (1905–1980) with autoharp accompaniment at the University of Washington Music Building, Seattle, Washington, USA. He was originally from Grayson County, Virginia. Filmed by Mike Seeger (of the New Lost City Ramblers) and The University of Washington Ethnomusicology Archives on February 21, 1970. My thanks go to Perkdawg for sharing the digitised Betacam SP video reel which had not been available to the public previously.
Notes by Kevin W.:
Kilby Snow was a virtuoso autoharpist with a fine repertoire of tunes and songs. He was left-handed which contributed to his unique "drag note" playing style. He only recorded a single album but frequently performed at festivals and on radio and his style is revered by autoharp fans to this day. He told Mike Seeger that he learned Wind and Rain from his great-grandfather Thomas Snow (1812-1916), or Tom Big Bear, who was Cherokee and lived to a 104 years. Kilby learned it around 1913 when Tom was 95 and he was about 8, and then remembered it many years later. He decided to start singing it, because "you just got to sing it or it keeps haunting you."
The first half of Kilby's version comes from a different song, "The Bloody Miller / Knoxville Girl" (Roud 263). Kilby Snow and Daniel "Dan" Wyatt Tate (1895–1990) of Fancy Gap, Carroll County, Va., who also sang Wind and Rain, were near neighbours and their versions might go back to a common earlier source.
Wind and Rain is a rare version of an old British traditional ballad known to scholars as The Twa Sisters (Child 10). In the present form it has only been heard from singers in Virginia and W. Virginia.
The refrain actually reminds me of "with hey, ho, the wind and the rain" (Twelfth Night, Epilogue, sung by the Clown; King Lear, The Fool's Song, III, 21 74, ff.), one of Shakespeare's songs that may have been based on a traditional song.
This version of Child 10 may have been brought over from Ireland, although it has never been reported from there. Given how fragmented the texts are while still preserving the supernatural instrument made from the drowned sister's hair and bones they must've circulated in oral tradition for a long time.
Bob Dylan's Percy's Song from 1963 takes its melody from Wind and Rain. Dylan heard it sung by Paul Clayton Worthington who went on field recording trips with George Foss who recorded the song from Dan Tate in 1962.
Song transcription:
It was early one morning in the month of May
Oh the wind and rain
Two lovers went a-fishing on a hot summer day
A-crying the dreadful wind and rain
He said to the maiden "Won't you marry me?"
Oh the wind and rain
"Then my little wife you'll always be,"
A-crying the dreadful wind and rain.
She said, "Oh no, that'll never do,"
Oh the wind and rain
I love you but I can't marry you,"
A-crying the dreadful wind and rain
Then he knocked her down and he kicked her around
Oh the wind and rain
Hit her in the head with a battering ram
A-crying the dreadful wind and rain
Then he threw her in the river to drown
Oh the wind and rain
Watched her as she floated down
A-crying the dreadful wind and rain
She floated on down to the miller's mill pond
Oh the wind and rain
Floated on down to the miller's mill pond
A-crying the dreadful wind and rain
The miller fished her out with a long fishing line
Oh the wind and rain
Miller fished her out with a long fishing line
A-crying the dreadful wind and rain
And he made fiddle pegs of her little finger bones
Oh the wind and rain
Made fiddle pegs of her little finger bones
A-crying the dreadful wind and rain
Then he made a fiddle bow of her long curly hair
Oh the wind and rain
Made a fiddle bow of her long curly hair
A-crying the dreadful wind and rain
Now the only tune that fiddle would play,
Was oh the wind and rain
Only tune that fiddle would play,
Was crying the dreadful wind and rain
