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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)
Artist: Kelly Harrell
Author: traditional
Label: Victor
Year: 1926
With Frank Hutchinson. Appalachian folk. Same tune as in (Poor) Wayfaring Stranger (see there) and Come All Ye Fair And Tender Ladies. Cecil Sharp collected a version as Awake Awake with Mary Sands in North Carolina in 1916. Her family emigrated to the new world coming from the border region between England and Scotland.
Covers:
B.F. Shelton [as Oh Molly Dear]
Oaks Family [as Wake Up You Drowsy Sleepers]
Callahan Brothers [as Katie Dear (Silver Dagger); learned it from their mother]
Carter Family [as Who's That Knocking At My Window]
Blue Sky Boys [as Katie Dear; Hillbilly brothers from East Hickory, North Carolina; role model for the Louvin's and the Everly's]
Louvin Brothers [idem]
Dave Van Ronk [as Silver Dagger (see footnote)]
New Christy Minstrels [as Julianne]
Dillard Chandler [as Awake Awake]
Hedy West [as Drowsy Sleeper]
Mike Seeger [as Oh Molly Dear]
Dave Van Ronk [on Inside Dave Van Ronk]
Tom Paley & Peggy Seeger [als Who's That Knocking At My Window]
Ian & Sylvia [as Awake Ye Drowsy Sleepers]
Eagles [as Silver Dagger in live intro Take It Easy]
Delmore Brothers [as Kentucky Mountain]
Men They Couldn't Hang [as Silver Dagger]
Old Crow Medicine Show [as The Silver Dagger]
Chieftains [as Katie Dear; with Gillian Welch and David Rawlings]
Mary Lomax [as The Drowsy Sleeper]
O Molly Dear (or Katie Dear), Silver Dagger, Awake Awake and other Drowsy Sleepers share the same subject: impossible love turned bad. Joan Baez's Silver Dagger tells a similar story (apart from the suicide), while the melody stands on its own; covered by Bob Dylan ('64), Dolly Parton ('94) and Roger McGuinn ('05).
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)