╠═ Home ═╬═ Original Songs ═╬═ Fiddle Tunes ═╬═ Old Songs ═╬═ Videos ═╬═ Everything Else ═╬═ Contact & Schedule ═╣
This page features ballads from the British Islands and Appalachia. I also include old traditional songs that might not be ballads based on a strict definition but have a similar feel.
Growing up in suburbia, with no roots in traditional culture, I was a fairly typical product of my time and place in terms of musical inputs: Lynard Skynard, the Marshall Tucker Band, the Atlanta Rhythm Section, and the other big southern rock bands of the 1970s plus folks like Bob Dylan, The Band, Roger McGuinn, and various country crossover acts. Many of these musicians were influenced by roots music even if that is not mainly what they did. During my high school years I gradually drifted into mainstream country music, and in college I briefly dabbled in bluegrass. It was through bluegrass that I became aware of old ballads. I found them fascinating, in part because of their strangeness.
Very few old ballads are pleasant in terms of content. Indeed, those without fatalities are rare. In general, these ballads originated in their English-language forms in the British Islands, including Scotland and Ireland. Many versions of British ballads also exist in other European languages, and often the place of ultimate origin is unclear. From the British Islands, many ballads moved into Appalachia along with settlers from overseas. There, the ballads continued to evolve into different versions and styles. During the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, manly old ballads functioned like today's tabloid press. Sensational murders were perhaps the most common topic, along with shipwrecks, (and later) train wrecks, other disasters, false-hearted lovers, and the many possible twists and turns of human affairs. Just as today there is an obsession with the British royal family, so too, it seems, were ordinary people much interested in the various affairs of lords and ladies during centuries past.
Here are a few old ballads sung in a traditional manner with no instrument other than a single human voice:
Pretty Saro (long version)
Pretty Saro (short version)
Here are some old ballads and other songs sung more or less in a traditional manner and with instrumental accompaniment:
Black Jack Davy (link to YouTube video; song slightly re-written by me) & The Gypsy Laddie (realistic) <notes>
The Blackest Crow [My Dearest Dear]
Corpus Christi Carol [Looly, Looly, Looly] <notes>
Cruel Lincoln [Lamkin] <notes>
Down in a Willow Garden [Rose Connelly] <notes>
Fair Margaret and Sweet William <notes>
False William [Lady Isobel and the Elf Knight] <notes>
Lord Thomas and Fair Ellender (Appalachian) & Lord Thomas and Fair Annie (Scottish) <notes> {Here is an interesting American version by Bobby McMillon}
Train on the Island <painting>
Wind and Rain [Two/Twa Sisters] <notes>