The Wife Of Usher's Well

4.The Wife of Usher’s Well 2:45
Traditional, arr. Wendy Grossman
Publishing administration by Riverlark Publishing (BMI)

For more information, contact:
Andy Cohen, Riverlark Music
Email: twangoleum@outlook.com

I learned this song in the mid-1970s from Bill Destler, and pretty much copied his arrangement note for note. Bill gives its origin as Virginia singer Texas Gladden (1895-1966), who sings it unaccompanied under the title "The Three Babies" on her CD Texas Gladden: Ballad Legacy, which was recorded in 1941 by Alan Lomax and reissued by Rounder Records in 2001, The ballad has many versions in both the US and Britain; the story of the woman whose children have died away at (magic!) school and needs to make peace with their deaths is timeless. Like many ballads about grieving, the spirit of the dead can't rest until the living mourner lets go. Banjo in mountain modal.