Old Folk Music - Tumblr Posts
the various notebooks of Woody Guthrie
"Cathy says" is referring to his daughter, where he'd document many of her earliest words
Hi! Can I ask you about the history of the Wagoner's Lad? I'm a fan of Peter & Gordon their song Pretty Mary, but only today, while listening to some Peggy Seeger, I realised that it's a different pov adaptation of that ballad!
Suggested Songs
"Pretty Mary" Peter & Gordon, 1964
Like you said, "Pretty Mary" is a gender-bent version of the Traditional song "The Wagoner's Lad", which was first documented in 1907 by Cecil Sharp. Here's the fun part- if you are familiar with folk song collector Cecil Sharp and American folk songs, you might expect that it was first collected somewhere in the UK or perhaps Ireland if it was spicy. However, the song was first collected in Appalachia! Despite focusing on English folk songs, Cecil Sharp also collected and recorded folk songs in the Appalachia.
It was first published in "English Folk Songs from the Southern Appalachians" in 1917. and was first recorded in 1926 by Kelly Harrell as "My horses ain't Hungry".
Another Interesting part of this song is that many of its verses have ended up in the song "On Top of Old Smokey", another song collected by Cecil Sharp in Appalachia in 1916.
This makes it hard to tell the two songs apart, as they've become tangled up with each other. Both songs even contain the same Roud folk song number: 414. "On Top of Old Smokey" was first recorded in 1925 by George Reneau. Old Smokey probably refers to the Great Smoky Mountain range that exists between Tenessee and North Carolina.
This Song, throughout its history, has been adapted and recorded over and over again, here's just a few examples.
Pretty Nancy by Jean Ritchie 1970s (?) The Wagoner's Lad by the Kossoy Sisters 1956 My Horses Ain't Hungry by Mike Seeger 1977 On Top of Old Smokey by Gene Autry 1952 Fare You Well Polly by Pete Seeger, 1954 Rye Whiskey by Woody Guthrie 1940 Goodbye Old Paint by Colter Wall 2021
and there are many many many more.
Thanks for the recommendation! I hope this was helpful