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THE CRUEL MOTHER (Roud 9, Child 20)
Also known as Greenwood Sidey or The Lady of York, this ancient tale of infanticide and haunting can be found in various forms in the UK, Ireland, Denmark, Germany and the USA. It’s one of those incredibly popular song stories that filter into children’s games. Interestingly, the ballad references ancient beliefs that the revenant spirits of unbaptised children tended to be quite malicious. The wonderful Birmingham source singer Cecilia Costello recorded a version for the BBC in 1954, complete with a spoken introduction where she describes how her father would sing this to her as a warning. As I was a-walking Mrs Costello’s lovely version, learning it to record here, this melody and all the recorder parts just swooshed into my head.

lyrics

There was a lady that lived in York (all alone and a lonely),
She proved a child by her own father's clerk (down by a Greenwood sidey)

As she was a-walking down her father's lawn,
She thought three times that her back would be broke.

As she was a-walking down her father's lawn,
She cried, 'Honourable Mary, pity me'.

As she was a-walking down her father's lawn,
It's there her three fine sons they were born.

And she's taken out her long penknife,
And there she took away their three lives.

Years went by, and one fine morn,
She saw three boys, they were playing bat and ball.

O my fine boys, if you were mine,
I'd dress you all in the silk so fine.

O cruel mother, when we were thine,
You did not dress us in silk so fine.

But you took out your long penknife,
And there you took away our three lives.

O my fine boys, what will become of me?
You'll be seven long years a bird in a tree.

You'll be seven years more a tonging the bell,
And you'll be seven years more a porter in hell.

credits

from The Brown Girl and Other Folk Songs, released May 1, 2022
Trad. Arr: Angeline Morrison
Vocals & Recorders: Angeline Morrison

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Angeline Morrison and The Ambassadors of Sorrow

"Bewitching and otherworldly... Morrison's voice is eerily confiding, strangely present, insistent even at its quietest" Folk Radio UK.

Believing in the beauty of sad songs, weaving folk, soul and beat sounds of the '60s into a tapestry of the human heart. Homespun sounds that reside in a nostalgic universe.

"Dark, unsettling folk that verges on the hymnal" BBC Introducing. ... more

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