BLACK IS THE COLOR

Created on 03/01/2006
Latest update on 28/06/2023

Artist: Mrs. Lizzie Roberts
Author: traditional
Label: Folkways
Year: 1916

From Hot Springs, NC; collected by Cecil Sharp & Maud Karpeles and published in Sharp's English Folksongs From The Southern Appalachians (1932). Same Mrs. Roberts was revisited in '51 by Karpeles and on that occasion a recording was made (with harmonium) for Folkways.

Covers:

1936:

John Jacob Niles [arranged as Black Is The Color Of My True Love's Hair in his songbook Songs Of The Hill Folk, the main source for most covers; audio recording in '41 (RCA)]

1944:

Burl Ives [idem in Ballad Opera The Martins And The Coys - released in the Alan Lomax Collection]

1947:

Jo Stafford [for Capitol]

1952:

Jean Ritchie

1954:

Nina Simone [bootlegged in Philadelphia; her best known official version was on 1966 lp Wild Is The Wind; she's also from North Carolina]

1956:

Ed McCurdy

1957:

Guy Carawan

1958:

Carolyn Hester

1959:

Pete Seeger

1959:

Joan Baez [her best known version In Concert in '63]

1959:

Corry Brokken

1960s:

Hamish Imlach

1963:

Shelby Flint

1964:

Cisco Houston

1964:

Davy Graham

1964:

Cathy Berberian [arranged by her husband Luciano Berio]

1965:

Donovan [similar lyrics in Colours]

1967:

Human Beinz

1972:

Mike Seeger

1973:

Linda Lowe [alias Linda Thompson]

1978:

Christie Moore [knew it through Hamish Imlach]

1978:

Barry Moore [Luka Bloom on his debut album]

2000:

Niamh Parsons

2001:

Blue Mountain

2002:

Cara Dillon

2004:

Paul Weller

2004:

Twilight Singers [on cd She Loves You]

2005:

Corrs

2005:

Espers

2008:

Natacha Atlas

2009:

Sara Grey

2011:

Celtic Thunder

2015:

Rhiannon Giddens

Alan Lomax (in Sing Out) compares it with Fair And Tender Ladies (old English), Poor Wayfaring Stranger and Greenback Dollar. Cecil Sharp also suspected an English origin, showed by the spelling of the word Color (as Colour).

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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