Nearly five years ago, I had my first in depth experience diving into music history with my late mentor Joan Crane. This new record "Folk Songs For Old Time's Sake" is a culmination of what she taught me, and harbors mostly traditional material revisited and rearranged that Joan inspired in me. Some of the songs are by pioneers such as Elizabeth Cotten, The Carter Family, Mississippi John Hurt and Jimmie Rodgers, with the mindset of preserving their legacy and exposing their history to my generation and its successors. After starting the music history podcast "American Songcatcher", my desire for preservation has become a mission, and inside the liner notes of the limited edition vinyl gatefold resides a summary of the song or artists history behind the 14 tracks. This installment is the first of many to come honoring the legacy of American roots music.
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As early as 1717, waves of Scottish and Irish immigrants, mainly lowland farmers, were pouring into North America after centuries of conflict, war and rising land prices. A majority of them worked around the port in Philadelphia, but were eventually pushed out and they settled throughout the Appalachian Mountain range. By 1790, 3 million of them would call America home, and a fusion of their shared musical traditions was already forming. Some of those songs they brought have lasted hundreds of years, and live here in America today, such as “Peggy O”. Traced back to Aberdeenshire, Scotland and originally titled “Bonnie Lass o Fyvie”, the song is about a romance between a young girl and an enemy captain. When her mother forbids them to marry, he threatens to burn the town down upon his return from war, though he dies in battle. Through many lyrical changes and titles, journeying to England, then Ireland before arriving in The Promised Land, the song was first documented in America by the famous English song catcher Cecil Sharp, who found hundreds of songs throughout Appalachia that had ties to England. The song went mainstream in America during the folk revival of the 1960s, and Bob Dylan had it on his first album in 1962, under the title "Pretty Peggy-O", and has since been recorded by Joan Baez, Simon and Garfunkel, The Grateful Dead and many more.
lyrics
As we rode out to Fennario
As we rode out to Fennario
Our captain fell in love with a lady like a dove
And he called her by name pretty Peggy-O
Will you marry me, pretty Peggy-O
Will you marry me, pretty Peggy-O
Will you marry me, I’ll set your cities free
Free all the ladies in the area-O
I would marry you, sweet William-O
I would marry you, sweet William-O
I would marry you, but your guineas are too few
And I fear my mama would be angry-O
What would your mama think, pretty Peggy-O
What would your mama think, pretty Peggy-O
What would your mama think if she heard my guineas clink
And saw me marching at the head of my soldiers-O
If ever I return, pretty Peggy-O
If ever I return, pretty Peggy-O
If ever I return, your city I will burn
Destroy all the ladies in the are-O
Come steppin down those stairs pretty Peggy-O
Come steppin down those stairs pretty Peggy-O
Come steppin down those stairs combin’ back your yellow hair
Bid a last farewell to your William-O
Sweet William he is dead pretty Peggy-O
Sweet William he is dead pretty Peggy-O
Sweet William he is dead and he died for a maid
Now he’s buried in that old country-O
As we rode out to Fennario
As we rode out to Fennario
Our captain fell in love with a lady like a dove
And he called her by her name pretty Peggy-O
credits
from Folk Songs For Old Times' Sake,
released November 2, 2021
Nicholas Williams - Guitar, Vocals
Jade Watts - Upright Bass, Harmony
Emma Dubose - Fiddle, Harmony
Host of the music history podcast
"American Songcatcher", Nicholas is a 37 year-old multi-instrumentalist and
storyteller who is dedicated to playing it forward by preserving the songs and styles that have shaped America: ragtime, Piedmont blues, traditional folk, old time and early country. He's opened for Taj Mahal and The Wood Brothers.
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