Pretty Little Devilish Mary: A Song History

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"Devilish Mary" is a comic American song about a courtship that moves far too fast: the narrator marries a pretty girl named Mary within days, soon finds her wearing his trousers and making his life a misery, and finally walks away, swearing that his next sweetheart will be one whose height keeps her out of his breeches.[1] The Traditional Ballad Index files it as Laws Q4 and Roud 1017, lists no known author, gives 1897 as its earliest date, and places it in the American South and the Appalachians.[1] Among those who printed versions were Cecil Sharp in his Southern Appalachian collection, Vance Randolph in the Ozarks, the Frank C. Brown collection of North Carolina folklore, and John and Alan Lomax.[1] Its origin is disputed: G. Malcolm Laws assigned it a British Isles origin, but the Index reports Cohen's view that the claim is unsupported, and its own editor judges the style thoroughly un-British.[1] It was still being sung decades later: the Max Hunter Collection at Missouri State University preserves a performance by Mrs. Roxie Phillips, recorded at Berryville, Arkansas, on November 4, 1958.[2]

A young man in the rain clutches an overflowing market basket while a friend with an umbrella looks on

Lilly Martin Spencer, Young Husband: First Marketing, oil on canvas, 1854. A young husband's first trip to market, shown for the song's comic marriage; it has no connection to the song.

The song reached records early: in Atlanta in August 1924, Roba Stanley sang it for OKeh with her own guitar and Bill Patterson on harmonica and guitar, and the disc, OKeh 40213, credited Bob Stanley and Roba Stanley as its writers.[3] The Country Music Hall of Fame counts her among the first women in country music to make solo recordings.[4] The Ballad Index lists later versions by Gid Tanner and His Skillet Lickers (recorded 1928), Bill Boyd and his Cowboy Ramblers (1937), Bob Atcher (1948) and Pete Seeger, and it passes on Cohen's remark that, for all its ballad classification, the piece is played on fiddle or banjo with a few sung lines about as often as it is sung in full.[1] The Traditional Tune Archive files it as a Missouri breakdown in standard fiddle tuning, notes that several versions circulate, some drawn from the song's air, and records that it was the first tune Glenn Rickman of Hurley, Missouri, learned to play.[5]

Maureen Sellers, whose two-volume course teaches the Appalachian mountain dulcimer through basics, how-to lessons and songs, prints it as "Pretty Little Devilish Mary" in My Teaching Book For Appalachian Dulcimer, Volume Two, published by Fingers Of Steel.[6]

Our book that contains the song "Pretty Little Devilish Mary"

Sources

  1. The Traditional Ballad Index: "Devilish Mary [Laws Q4]".
  2. Max Hunter Collection, Missouri State University: "Devilish Mary" (Mrs. Roxie Phillips, 1958).
  3. Discography of American Historical Recordings: "OKeh matrix 8698. Devilish Mary / Bill Patterson ; Roba Stanley".
  4. Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum: "Roba Stanley" (oral history).
  5. Traditional Tune Archive: "Devilish Mary".
  6. Fingers Of Steel: "Maureen Sellers, My Teaching Book For Appalachian Dulcimer, Volume Two".
  7. Image: Lilly Martin Spencer, Young Husband: First Marketing, oil on canvas, 1854. The Metropolitan Museum of Art.

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