Louis Collins

DESCRIPTION: Ms. Collins weeps to see son Louis leave home; he is shot to death in a gunfight. All the young women put on red clothing in mourning; he is buried in the new graveyard. Chorus: "Angels laid him away/Laid him six feet under the clay/Angels laid him away"
AUTHOR: probably Mississippi John Hurt
EARLIEST DATE: 1928 (recorded, Mississippi John Hurt)
KEYWORDS: grief fight violence parting crime homicide clothes burial death mourning mother
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
ADDITIONAL: Harold Courlander, _A Treasury of Afro-American Folklore_, Crown Publishers, 1976, pp. 393-394, "The Ballad of Louis Collins" (1 text)
Roud #21815
RECORDINGS:
Mississippi John Hurt, "Louis Collins" (OKeh 8724, 1929; rec. 1928; on MJHurt01, MJHurt02) (on MJHurt03) (on MJHurt04)
John Jackson, "Louis Collins" (on ClassAfrAm)
File: RcLouCol

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