Young Hunting

From r to l: Mother (Sheila Kay Adams), Me and Donna Ray Norton at the Smithsonian Folklife Festival in June, 2018. I got to sing Young Hunting on the Mall! Such an amazing experience. Donna and I got to go into the ‘guts’ of the American History Museum to see a mouth-bow her grandfather had donated to the Smithsonian in the 1970’s.

aka: Earl Richard/Henry Lee/Love Henry/The Proud Girl

“Oh I can't come down and I won't come down
And nor I come into your arms at all
For a finer girl than ten of you
Is a-waiting beneath the town wall.” —Tony Rose

“I shan't come down and I won't come down
And stay all night with thee.
There's a girl by the city wall
I love far better than thee, thee,
I love far better than thee.” —June tabor

It’s always the lyrics that get me. One of my favorite things to do right now is recite aloud a stanza or two in my ‘poetry voice’ and let the power of the WORDS give me that little chill down my spine. As I have said before, I fall in love with a particular song not only for the fabulous story it tells, but also because of that one certain spot where the words fit together just so. In Young Hunting, at least in the one I learned from mother, it was “Lie there, lie there, my own false love/‘till the flesh rots off’n your bones,/ and your little old wife in the old Scotland/ can mourn for your return, yes/ she can mourn for your return.” As I dug around on the Internet for information on Young Hunting, I found the above verses and they spoke to me. Even though, for the course of this year at least, I am sticking to the versions that were collected by my family (what I see as the ‘pure versions’), but I do plan on putting my own personal spin on some of the songs I learn by putting all the verses together that really tug at my heartstrings and have that sense of poetry that enamors me so.

According to Mother, she remembers that Cas’ wife, Vergie, was the one who remembered the words to this song. Although Vergie LOVED the ballads and had a very good memory for lyrics, she actually couldn’t carry a tune in a bucket. Each and every ballad Vergie sang was to the tune of Wayfaring Stranger. Mother decided she wanted to relearn Young Hunting to the CORRECT tune, so Phillip Rhodes’ wife, Jane, played her the melody, recorded in English Folk Songs from the Southern Appalachians, on the piano.

I don’t remember anyone singing this during my childhood and I don’t even remember Mother singing it until the last 15 or 20 years. It was initially the tune that caught my attention because it has all these crazy whirls and twirls that I love in a ballad. Then I heard the lyrics. Once again the woman is the aggressor but this time she does not lament her ruination but instead gets her revenge in the end. I never really understood the lyrics at the end that refer to the talking bird in the willow tree and considered leaving them out. But as I read about the song I saw multiple references about the bird and how old ballads, especially ones that originate in Scotland, often spoke of talking birds as a ‘messenger from the spirit world’ or even the ‘soul of the victim transformed.’ Magic and mystery! Murder and malice! Also, there is our reference to a Willow tree again. This time, the Willow tree not only represents sorrow and the spirit world, it also symbolizes someone bitter, hollow and rotten on the inside. I decided to keep this entire section intact because I’ll not be the one to erase an important verse from a song, leaving it dangling and dead for future generations. Not me…No way.

Young Hunting has become a favorite and I consider it sort of ‘mine’ to sing at swaps. Usually, we ballad singers accept that other singers pretty much ‘own’ certain songs and to sing that song before they get a chance to without expressed permission is, as they say, fightin’ words. I would never sing Single Girl or Young Emily when I am singing with my partner in crime Donna Ray Norton. Anytime she sings Black is the Color or Young Hunting when I’m not even there makes her feel like she has to later confess, as though she cheated on me with my songs LOL. Now if Mother or Bobby M. sing a song that we consider ‘ours,’ we can just get what we get and not pitch a fit. They are the ‘elders,’ tee hee, and can sing WHATEVER they want WHENEVER they want. The culture of ballad singers is a little known but still vital part of the ‘ballad singing scene.’ Petty jealousies, sly slights, competitions, and little spats are not unusual but you let any of us catch someone else talking bad about another of us. There are so few of young(ish) local singers that we need to love and respect each other and be glad we are all out there beating feet to keep this tradition alive! Thank you my sisters and brothers…if not for y’all, not near enough people would get to learn about this important part of our tradition.