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Another of the LPs that I used to listen to on that aforementioned Mickey Mouse record player was the eponymous 1960 debut album by Joan Baez, on the Vanguard label. In his liner notes to that recording, Maynard Solomon writes that “Joan’s melody [for ‘East Virginia’] is new to these ears, and sounds like a cross between the traditional “Greenback Dollar” tune usually used and that powerful melody which Pete Seeger sings.”

Jean Ritchie in Folk Songs of the Southern Appalachians has a song called ‘Old Virginny’ that’s virtually identical, in both melody and lyrics, to the Baez version. In a contribution to the Mudcat site, Jean wrote:

“Old Virginny,” I learned from my father, Balis W. Ritchie, around 1930, and he had known it from when he was young, in the 1870s. My first recording of it was in 1949 for the NY Historical Association, on a 78 rpm, with “Swing and Turn, Jubillee,” on the other side. In 1952 it was included on my first (and Elektra’s first) lp, a 10", for Elektra Records, with 13 other songs. In 1955 it became part of my story in SINGING FAMILY OF THE CUMBERLANDS, (Oxford U. Press – now it’s with U. KY Press). My dad’s melody I haven’t heard anywhere else as a source. Joan Baez recorded the Ritchie version, although she did not know that when she recorded it for Vanguard. She told me she’d learned it from a friend who learned it from his mother!

I’ve made a few changes to the words and changed the order of the verses, but other than that I guess I’m pretty much doing the Ritchie version of this song as well.

Cecil Sharp collected several versions of ‘Old Virginny’. One was sung by Judy Baker of Harlan County, Kentucky, in 1917, another by Jake Sowder of Franklin County, Virginia, in 1918. Both of these have lyrics that more or less resemble Ritchie’s, but I haven’t been able to access the melodies. Then there’s a third version, collected at St. Peter’s School, Callaway, Virginia, in 1918, which combines elements of ‘Old Virginny’ with ‘Man of Constant Sorrow’, and a fourth, sung by Mrs. Effie Mitchell at Burnsville, North Carolina, in 1918.

lyrics

I was born in east Virginia
North Carolina I did roam
There I met a fair pretty maiden
Her name and age I do not know

Her hair it was of a brightsome color
And her lips were a ruby red
On her breast she wore white lilies
There I long to lay my head

I’d rather be in some dark holler
Where the sun refused to shine
Than to see you another man’s darling
And to know you’d never be mine

For in the night I’m dreaming ’bout you
And in the day I can take no rest
Just the thought of you my darling
Sends aching pains right through my breast

And when I’m dead and in my coffin
With my feet turned to the sun
Come and sit beside me darling
Come and think on the way you done

For in my heart you are my darling
And at my gate you’re welcome in
At my door I’ll meet you my darling
If your love I could only win

credits

from I Won​’​t Go Home ’Til Morning, released October 28, 2008
Trad arr. S. McQuaid/G. O’Beirne
Sarah – vocals, guitar
Máire Breatnach – fiddle
Trevor Hutchinson – double bass

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Sarah McQuaid Penzance, UK

“One of the most instantly recognisable voices in current music … Shades of Joni Mitchell in a jam with Karen Carpenter and Lana Del Rey.” —Neil March, Trust The Doc

“Captivating, unorthodox songwriting … layered satin vocals ... enthralling, harrowing arrangements … a gateway into a true innovator’s soul.” —PopMatters

See sarahmcquaid.com/about for more info.
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