Barbara Allen

Texas Gladden, at the time a mother of eight near Roanoke County who later became an influential folk singer, recorded this version of the ballad Barbara Allen in 1932, with Virginia Folklore Society archivist Arthur Kyle Davis Jr.

Here is a transcript of the recording:

"This is the old English Ballad of "Barbara Allen" sung by Miss Texas Gladden near Roanoke, Roanoke County, Virginia"

1. In way down yonder London Town
That’s where I got my learning,
I fell in love with a nice young girl,
Her name was Barbara Allen.

2. "I courted her for seven long years,
She said she would not marry.”
Sweet Willie went home and taken down sick,
And sent for Barbara Allen.

3. She dressed so slow for she hated to go,
“Go tell him I am coming.”
As she went walking through the room,
She heard some bells a-ringing.

4. She walked up to Sweet Willie’s bedside:
“Young man, I think you’re dying.”
He turned his face to the cold, cold wall
And bursted out to crying.

5. “Do you remember the other day,
down at the tavern a-drinking,
You drank your health to the ladies all around,
And slighted Barbara Allen?”

6. “Oh no, oh no, oh no,” said he,
“I think you are mistaken;
I drank my health to the ladies all around,
My love to Barbara Allen.”

7. She went walking up the road,
She heard some birds a-singing,
And every one it seemed to say,
“Hard-hearted Barbara Allen.”

8. She looked to the East she looked to the West,
And spied a corpse a-coming.
“Oh bring him on and let him down,
That I might look upon him.”

9. The more she looked the more she wept,
She bursted out to crying.
“I might have saved this young man’s life
And kept him from hard dying.

10. “Oh mother, mother, go make my bed
Go make it long and narrow;
Poor Willie died for the love of me,
And I shall die for sorrow.”

11. “They buried Sweet Willie in the new church yard
And Barbara in attire;
On Willie’s grave sprang a bright red rose
On Barbara Allen’s a green brier.

12. They grew as tall as the new church top,
They could not grow any higher;
They wrapped and tied to the true bow-knot,
And the rose ran down the brier.

Citation: Virginia Folklore Society Records, MSS 9936. Special Collections, University of Virginia, Charlottesville, VA