This tune (Child ballad 95) has appeared in many different guises around different countries, 50 different versions alone being found in Finland! The plot is based around someone (originally a maid) awaiting execution at the gallows pole and trying to buy herself time and release through her family. There is a basic pattern to each verse:
Hangman stay your hand
stay it for a while
I think I see my mother come
over yonder stile
Mother have you brought me gold
silver to set me free?
For to save my body from the cold, cold ground
and my neck from the gallows tree
No I have not brought you gold
nor silver to set you free
for to save your body from the cold, cold ground
or your neck from the gallows tree.
The verses repeat for sister, brother, father (extended as desired) before the true love comes and provides the fee for releasing the accused.
As I wrote, the original narrator was a maid though the change in gender could well have happened when the song was in America, the execution of women being less common there.
The version that I first heard was Spiers and Boden's on their album 'Bellow' and subsequently (as is the way when you actually start looking for something) I found Nic Jones singing it on 'Unearthed'. My version was created one afternoon when I realised I needed something more upbeat in my set and so worked out the basic melody and noodled around until the arrangement fell into place... I now want to work it into a nice set of tunes (possibly Playford) as the song's pretty quickly over but I don't want to extend the family who wander past!
Well, that's the e.p! A massive thank you to Doug for recording it, Captain Wizard for mixing and taking the photos and anon, may we meet soon...
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