POOR ELLEN SMITH

Created on 24/06/2007
Latest update on 15/03/2024

Artist: Henry Whitter
Author: traditional
Label: Okeh
Year: 1925

Murder ballad based on true facts: there was a Peter de Graff convicted for murdering an Ellen Smith in 1893. Melody set to the tune of Protestant hymn How Firm A Foundation. As the story is told in the first person, rumours circulated De Graff wrote his own song, smuggling the lyrics through the bars of his prison cell.

Covers:

1927:

Dykes Magic City Trio [Magic City stands for Kingsport, TN.]

1946:

Texas Gladden [Lomax recording]

1949:

Molly O'Day

1950s:

Peggy Seeger

1956:

Paul Clayton

1956:

Stanley Brothers

1956:

Kossoy Sisters

1959:

Estil C. Ball [Lomax recording; they first spotted him in the thirties]

1960:

Hobart Smith [Lomax recording, first appeared on Atlantic lp Blue Ridge Mountain Music, reissued on box set Sounds Of The South; Hobart was Texas Gladden's brother]

1961:

Vester Jones [lived near the murder site]

1963:

Country Gentlemen

1963:

Kingston Trio

1964:

New Lost City Ramblers

1965:

Jimmy Martin

1978:

Norman Blake

1998:

Kristin Hersh

2001:

Neko Case

2005:

Laura Cantrell

2021:

Gillian Welch & David Rawlings

Contact


If you noticed blunt omissions, mis-interpretations or even out-and-out errors,
please let me know:

Arnold Rypens
Rozenlaan 65
B-2840 Reet (Rumst)

info@originals.be

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