appalachian music Archives - Page 7 of 8

Old time musician Jean Ritchie recently suffered a stroke, and is in the hospital

Not all of us CAN live to be old, or WANT to, and so arrive earlier at that entrance into the next world. Lord, I’ll stay long as you need me.

‘Willie’ invites his lover for a walk, during which she rejects his marriage proposal. Once they are alone on the river bank, he murders her.

The poor younger sister in this song was done in by her own kin so she could take her lover. Granny recorded this song for Folkways Records.

The song’s odyssey began September 15, 1937 when folklorist Alan Lomax recorded a version by 16-year-old Georgia Turner in Middlesboro, Ky.

The term for bluegrass music derives from Bill Monroe’s band, assembled during the 1940’s, “Bill Monroe and the Blue Grass Boys.”