Pretty Saro: A Song History

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"Pretty Saro" is the lament of a young man in love with a woman who shows no interest in him; her parents, the song makes clear, want her to marry a man with land of his own. The Traditional Ballad Index files it as Roud 417 and reports it from the American South, the Appalachians and the Midwest. It divides the song into two families: the better-known "Pretty Saro" and "At the Foot of Yonder Mountain," in which the girl is called Mary[1]. Where the song began is less certain than it is often made to sound. The Ballad Index suggests that the word "freeholder" in the text may point to British roots, but outside the United States it knows only one Irish version, possibly a re-import or a text taken from print, and very occasional Canadian ones[1]. Singer Sara Grey goes further in her notes on the song, arguing that it grew out of the Irish song "The Streams of Bunclody"[2]. In the sources consulted here, no British printing or collected text firmly establishes an older English original.

Samuel Worcester Rowse charcoal portrait of a young woman in a soft white cap looking over her shoulder

Samuel Worcester Rowse, Portrait of a Young Woman, charcoal and gouache with white chalk on paper. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. Public domain (CC0). Shown for its subject; it has no connection to the song.

The song entered print through English Folk Songs from the Southern Appalachians (1917), compiled by Olive Dame Campbell and the English collector Cecil Sharp. It gives three versions: one sung by Mrs. Mary Sands at Allanstand, North Carolina, on 5 August 1916; one from Miss Mackinney of Habersham County, Georgia, dated 28 May 1910; and one sung by Mrs. Rosie Hensley at Carmen, North Carolina, on 12 August 1916[3]. Alan Lomax's Kentucky collection for the Library of Congress includes a performance by W. M. Keen, recorded at Hyden, Leslie County, on 4 October 1937[4].

Jean Ritchie and her sisters Pauline and Edna recorded it for Folkways on The Ritchie Family of Kentucky (1958). The record's notes observe that, although collections often credited the song to the Ritchies, the family had known it for only about thirty years; they thought Edna first brought it home after learning it from someone in the Kentucky town where she attended college[5]. Jean Ritchie and Doc Watson sang it in their 1963 live set issued as Jean Ritchie and Doc Watson at Folk City[6], and a May 1965 performance by Gaither Carlton, recorded by Ralph Rinzler and Daniel Seeger, appears on The Watson Family Tradition[7]. Shirley Collins included it on Sweet England (1959), and Hedy West made it the title track of a 1966 album[8]. Bob Dylan recorded it during the Self Portrait sessions, but it stayed unreleased until Another Self Portrait (1969–1971): The Bootleg Series Vol. 10 appeared on 27 August 2013[9].

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Sources

  1. Traditional Ballad Index: "Pretty Saro".
  2. Springthyme Records / Autumn Harvest: "Pretty Saro" (Sara Grey, notes to Old Songs & Bothy Ballads: Grand to Be a Working Man).
  3. Internet Archive: Olive Dame Campbell and Cecil J. Sharp, "English Folk Songs from the Southern Appalachians" (1917).
  4. Alan and Elizabeth Lomax Kentucky Recordings: "Pretty Saro" (W. M. Keen, 1937).
  5. Smithsonian Folkways: "The Ritchie Family of Kentucky" (FA 2316, liner notes).
  6. Smithsonian Folkways: "Jean Ritchie and Doc Watson at Folk City".
  7. Mainly Norfolk: "The Watson Family".
  8. Mainly Norfolk: "Pretty Saro / At the Foot of Yonder Mountain (Roud 417)".
  9. BobDylan.com: "Another Self Portrait (1969-1971): The Bootleg Series Vol. 10 (2 CD)".