“Hush-oh-bye Baby”
Description
The singer meets a woman with her three children on a sleeting night. She say her husband, a farmer, was killed in town by a gang. She spent all she had to bury him and was put on the road when she could not pay rent. She and the babies die of the cold.
Notes
In the song the couple are said to live "in a place they called Newton Perry." Newton Perry is a sector of Limerick City, County Limerick, Ireland (source: inforing Ireland Gateway site). Lehr/Best (viz., Anita Best): "This is no doubt a song which originated in Ireland where, in the nineteenth century, evictions of poor tenant farmers unable to pay rent was extremely common." - BS
Cross references
- cf. "Three Perished in the Snow" [Laws G32] (plot)
Recordings
- Anita Best, "Hush-o-bye Baby" (on NFABest01)
References
- Lehr/Best 54, "Hush-oh-bye Baby" (1 text, 1 tune)
- BI, LeBe054