Waterbound: A Song History
"Waterbound," also known as "Stay All Night" and "Way Down in North Carolina," is an old-time song from Virginia.[1] According to the Traditional Tune Archive, it was first recorded in March 1929 by Fields Ward's Buck Mountain Band of Grayson and Carroll counties in southwestern Virginia, with Fields Ward on guitar and vocals, Ernest V. Stoneman on harmonica and vocals, Eck Dunford on fiddle and Samson Ward on banjo.[1] In 1937 the Ballard Branch Bogtrotters, a group that included Wade and Crockett Ward, Fields Ward, autoharp player Doc Davis and Eck Dunford, was recorded playing it for the Library of Congress by folklorist John A. Lomax.[1] The words describe a singer cut off by high water and a suitor who means to win a girl despite her angry father, even if it takes running off to North Carolina.[1] The song is sometimes credited to Kentucky banjo player Roscoe Holcomb, but the Traditional Tune Archive explains this as a mix-up stemming from a 1962 Folkways album he shared with Wade Ward.[1]
Arthur Rothstein, photograph probably related to Flood stage on West Fork River near West Union, West Virginia, January 1939. Farm Security Administration–Office of War Information collection, Library of Congress. No known restrictions on publication. High water in the hills; the photograph is not connected to the song.
Later revival recordings include Mike Seeger and Paul Brown's Rounder album Down in North Carolina and Art Rosenbaum's The Art of the Mountain Banjo.[1] Mountain dulcimer players can find it in Stephen Seifert's Join the Jam collection in DAD tuning.[2]
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