Howard Carey [Laws E23]

DESCRIPTION: The singer, Howard Carey, recalls his happy youth. But he left home and parents and, despite his mother's warnings, turns to a dissolute life. Blaming his fate on whiskey and bad women, he kills himself
AUTHOR: probably Joe Scott
EARLIEST DATE: 1948 (Manny/Wilson-SongsOfMiramichi)
KEYWORDS: suicide drink family
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
May 5, 1897 - "Howard Carrick, a woodsman, aged 33, hanged himself in his room at Annie Siddal's boarding house in Rumford, Maine..." (source: Ives-DriveDullCareAway-PrinceEdwardIsland)
FOUND IN: US(NE) Canada(Mar)
REFERENCES (6 citations):
Laws E23, "Howard Carey"
Ives-Joe-Scott-TheWoodsmanSongmaker, pp. 106-139, "Howard Carey" (2 texts, 5 tunes, with mentions of a total of 49 versions)
Dibblee/Dibblee-FolksongsFromPrinceEdwardIsland, pp. 59-60, "Howard Kerry" (1 text, 1 tune)
Ives-DriveDullCareAway-PrinceEdwardIsland, pp. 131-132,247, "Howard Carey" (1 text, 1 tune)
Manny/Wilson-SongsOfMiramichi 22, "Howard Carey" (1 text, 1 tune)
DT 834, HOWCAREY*
Roud #9191
ALTERNATE TITLES:
Howard Carragher
Howard Kerrick
NOTES [96 words]: Ives-DriveDullCareAway-PrinceEdwardIsland is unequivocal about the author being Joe Scott. - BS
So is Ives-Joe-Scott-TheWoodsmanSongmaker. Manny/Wilson-SongsOfMiramichi attributes it without hesitation to Scott as well. They note, however, what appear to be allusions to British material. Their background notes that this is described as "the true story of Howard Carey (variously spelled Kerrick, Currie, Carrick...) who was born in Grand Falls on the Upper St. John River. Howard led a wandering life, went to the bad, and finally hanged himself in Rumford Falls, Maine." - RBW
Last updated in version 3.2
File: LE23

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