Sam Holt

DESCRIPTION: The singer reminds Sam Holt of the various events of his life: "Oh, don't you remember Black Alice, Sam Holt... [with] teeth like a Moreton Bay shark...." Stories about Sam's courtship amid ants, his cheating and cards, his mining fortune, and his travels
AUTHOR: see notes
EARLIEST DATE: 1857 (Melbourne Vocalist, fifth edition, according to AndersonStory)
KEYWORDS: rambling cards courting Australia
FOUND IN: Australia
REFERENCES (4 citations):
Anderson-StoryOfAustralianFolksong, pp. 46-47, "Sam Holt" (1 text, 1 tune)
Fahey-Eureka-SongsThatMadeAustralia, pp. 98-99, "Sam Holt" (1 text, 1 tune)
Paterson/Fahey/Seal-OldBushSongs-CentenaryEdition, pp. 138-141, "Sam Holt" (1 text)
Stewart/Keesing-FavoriteAustralianBallads, pp. 120-121, "A Ballad of Queensland" (1 text)
Roud #9097
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Ben Bolt" (tune & meter)
NOTES [111 words]: Anderson-StoryOfAustralianFolksong credits this to one T. D. English, and says it was rewritten by Charles Thatcher.
Patterson/Fahey/Seal credits this to "Ironbar" Gibson, but does not document the source of this claim. Manifold, p. 110, also attributes it to "G. H. Gibson, who wrote as 'Ironbark,"" and says it wwas originally called "A Ballad of Queensland, the title used in Stewart/Keesing-FavoriteAustralianBallads. Davey/Seal, p. 38, says it was "Composed by G. H. Gibson and published in 1881" -- which, however, is a generation after Anderson-StoryOfAustralianFolksong's date. Perhaps Gibson recast it? Whoever wrote it clearly based it on "Ben Bolt." - RBW
Bibliography

Davey/Seal: Gwenda Beed Davey and Graham Seal, A Guide to Australian Folklore, Kangaroo Press, 2003
Manifold: John S. Manifold, Who Wrote the Ballads? Notes on Australian Folksong, Australasian Book Society, 1964

Last updated in version 5.2
File: FaE098

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