Old Grey Mare (II), The

DESCRIPTION: "Once I had an old grey mare (x3), Saddled her and rode her there." "When I got there she got tired, She laid down in an old courtyard." The singers in the yard scare her, and she flees; she singer finds her "in a mud hole flat on her back."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1916 (Cecil Sharp collection); +1913 (JAFL26)
LONG DESCRIPTION: "Once I had an old grey mare (x3), Saddled her and rode her there." "When I got there she got tired, She laid down in an old courtyard." The singers in the yard scare her, and she flees; she singer finds her "in a mud hole flat on her back." In other versions, the singer tells that the gray mare was blind and deaf; he takes her out to plow, but she doesn't know how; she runs away, he follows her and finds her on her back in a mudhole. She may get that good old-time religion. In some versions the mare becomes a Christian and "willmake some old horse a good old wife."
KEYWORDS: horse travel disability escape farming humorous animal
FOUND IN: US(Ap,SE)
REFERENCES (7 citations):
Brown/Belden/Hudson-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore3 175, "The Old Grey Mare" (1 text)
Brown/Schinhan-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore5 175, "The Old Grey Mare" (1 tune plus a text excerpt)
Sharp-EnglishFolkSongsFromSouthernAppalachians 223, "The Old Grey Mare" (3 texts, 3 tunes)
Roberts-SangBranchSettlers, #94, "The Old Grey Mare" (1 text, 1 tune)
Rosenbaum-FolkVisionsAndVoices, p. 71, "Once I Had an Old Grey Mare" (1 text, 1 tune)
Lunsford/Stringfield-30And1FolkSongsFromSouthernMountains, pp. 36-37, "Old Gray Mare" (1 text, 1 tune)
Lomax/Lomax-OurSingingCountry, pp. 113-114, "Wunst I Had an Old Gray Mare" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #3442
RECORDINGS:
Buell Kazee, "Old Grey Mare" (on Kazee01)
Maude Thacker, "Once I Had an Old Grey Mare" (on FolkVisions1)
NOTES [26 words]: This should not be confused with "The Old Gray Mare (I) (The Old Gray Horse; The Little Black Bull)"; in that song the horse comes out of the wilderness.. - PJS
Last updated in version 4.4
File: Br3175

Go to the Ballad Search form
Go to the Ballad Index Song List

Go to the Ballad Index Instructions
Go to the Ballad Index Bibliography or Discography