*In Folklorist Harry Smith’s House-"John Hardy Was A Desperate Little Man" — The Carter Family (1930)

Click on the title to link to a presentation of the song listed in the headline.

The year 2009 has turned into something a year of review of the folk revival of the 1960s. In November I featured a posting of many of the episodes (via “YouTube”) of Pete Seeger’s classic folk television show from the 1960s, “Rainbow Quest”. I propose to do the same here to end out the year with as many of the selections from Harry Smith’s seminal “Anthology Of American Folk Music,” in one place, as I was able to find material for, either lyrics or "YouTube" performances (not necessarily by the original performer). This is down at the roots, for sure.


LYRICS AS RECORDED BY THE ORIGINAL CARTER FAMILY (Sara Carter, vocals/autoharp; Maybelle Carter, guitar), CAMDEN, NJ, May 10, 1928,

transcribed by Manfred Helfert.

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*** From: skulick@linc.cis.upenn.edu (Seth Kulick)***
Date: Apr 4, 1997 01:42:53 GMT
The liner notes to the Carter Family CD "Anchored in Love", from the Complete Victor Recordings series, this one being for the years 1927-8, has the following comments on the song, with a very curious reference to Dylan:

A genuine folk ballad which Maybelle had known all of her life was "John Hardy was a Desperate Little Man." Though early folk collectors sometimes confused John Hardy with John Henry, they were in fact two different men, with two different legends. John Hardy was a West Virginia outlaw who was hanged in 1894; the Carters' reference to the "Keystone Bridge" refers to the town in McDowell County, West Virginia, not far from where Hardy worked and, supposedly, killed a man over a 25-cent gambling debt. During the early days of the centry, dozens of versions of the Hardy ballad circulated, but after the Carter recording, everyone from Johnny Cash to Bob Dylan used this version...
(notes by Charles Wolfe, 1993)
Huh? What Dylan version? Could this guy be referring to the Dylan/Dead version? Weird...

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John Hardy, he was a desp'rate little man,
He carried two guns ev'ry day.
He shot a man on the West Virginia line,
An' you ought seen John Hardy getting away.
John Hardy, he got to the Keystone Bridge,
He thought that he would be free.
And up stepped a man and took him by his arm,
Says, "Johnny, walk along with me."

He sent for his poppy and his mommy, too,
To come and go his bail.
But money won't go a murdering case;
They locked John Hardy back in jail.

John Hardy, he had a pretty little girl,
That dress that she wore was blue
As she came skipping through the old jail hall,
Saying, "Poppy, I've been true to you."

John Hardy, he had another little girl,
That dress that she wore was red.
She followed John Hardy to his hanging ground,
Saying, "Poppy, I would rather be dead."

I been to the East and I been to the West,
I been this wide world around.
I been to the river and I been baptized,
And now I'm on my hanging ground.

John Hardy walked out on his scaffold high,
With his loving little wife by his side.
And the last words she heard poor John-O say,
"I'll meet you in that sweet bye-and-bye."