Bonnie Blue Eyes: A Song History
The Carter Family recorded "Bonnie Blue Eyes" for Decca in New York in June 1936, and it was issued on Decca 5304 and on Montgomery Ward 8005.[1] Session details drawn from Michel Ruppli's Decca discography put Sara Carter on lead vocal and autoharp, with A. P. and Maybelle Carter singing behind her and Maybelle playing lead guitar.[1]
Frank Duveneck, The Venetian Girl, oil on canvas, c. 1880. Her eyes are dark rather than blue; shown for its subject, with no connection to the song.
The Traditional Ballad Index places the song, Carter recording included, in the family it catalogs as "More Pretty Girls Than One," a loose group of farewell and rambling songs that share many floating verses, and gives the family an earliest date of 1909, from the Journal of American Folklore.[2] The Index also lists texts and tunes titled "Bonnie Blue Eyes" in the Frank C. Brown Collection of North Carolina folklore, and earlier records in the same family such as the Carolina Tar Heels' "Goodbye My Bonnie, Goodbye," made in 1927.[2] Its editors admit they grouped these variants against their usual practice, noting that "almost anything can be grafted onto this stalk."[2] The Index catalogs "The Bonny Blue-Eyed Lassie," a love song found in Scotland and Ireland, as a separate song.[3]
Jim Miller includes it in 15 Tunes In The Public Domain Recorded By The Carter Family, Volume 2, a book of fifteen songs performed by the Carter Family, with mountain dulcimer tablature, lyrics and chord symbols, published by Fingers Of Steel.[4]
Sources
- Discography of American Historical Recordings: "Decca matrix 61141. Bonnie blue eyes / Carter Family".
- The Traditional Ballad Index: "More Pretty Girls Than One".
- The Traditional Ballad Index: "The Bonny Blue-Eyed Lassie".
- Fingers Of Steel: "Jim Miller, 15 Tunes In The Public Domain Recorded By The Carter Family, Volume 2".
- Image: Frank Duveneck, The Venetian Girl, oil on canvas, c. 1880. The Cleveland Museum of Art.