Back in 2005 I was fortunate to work with Jean Ritchie and her sons, Peter and Jonathan Pickow, on the development and production of our two-act theatre with music piece “Singin’ the Moon Up: The Voice of Jean Ritchie.”

The research and development on this piece was a joy from beginning to end, as we were supremely lucky to have Jean consult on the adaptation which sprang from her book “Singing Family of the Cumberlands.”  In the process we worked with historians, musicologists and theatre producers, and eventually landed a production at the Centre Theatre at Penn State University.

I was also fortunate to have the herculean but completely thrilling task of committing to memory many of the longer ballads from Jean’s Appalachian tradition, and I can tell you, there is no deeper dive that a performing singer can take than handling a tune of 17 verses in the case of this tune, or more for others, completely by memory.  It was a gift and high water mark for my career and my life.

One of the joys of the production was working with Jon and Peter, and Kenny Kosek to round out our performing quartet.  Kenny is a masterful fiddler and was always brilliant at stepping up to the plate to create something completely new.  Jon and Peter were multi-instrumentalists and wonderful singers who knew their mother’s ballads and original songs from their early childhood.  We had traditional instruments of all kinds available to us and used them to create our arrangements, and fit them into the story of Jean’s early life and then her career in New York’s Folk Revival Movement of the 1960s.

The hammered dulcimer was on stage with us, and Peter was brilliant in providing accompaniment (along with Jon on Appalachian dulcimer) for the trad ballad “Lord Thomas and Fair Ellender.”  This tune was noted as James Francis Child No. 73, dating to the 17th century.  The title he notes is “Lord Thomas and Fair Annet” or “Fair Eleanor” but the story remained the same as it was passed through the generations to arrive in Jean’s hearing via her Uncle Jason, the keeper of the historical songs in the Ritchie family.

Read History of Lord Thomas and Fair Ellender on Wikipedia

Here is our performance, with the sound of Peter Pickow’s gorgeous hammered dulcimer beginning the song, recorded on the stage of Centre Theatre, Penn State University, in September of 2005.  Susie Glaze lead vocals, Peter Pickow hammered dulcimer, Jon Pickow, Appalachian dulcimer and Kenny Kosek fiddle.  This exact recording was included ten years later on the album “White Swan” in 2015 to round out the songs from the Hilonesome Band.

Lord Thomas and Fair Ellender

O mother, oh mother come riddle it down,
Come riddle two hearts as one
O must I marry fair Ellender,
Or bring the brown girl home?

The brown girl she has houses and lands,
Fair Ellender she’s got none,
So the best advice I can give you my son
Is to go bring me the brown girl home.

He rode ’til he come to fair Ellender’s gate,
He tingled the bell with his cane,
No one so ready as fair Ellender herself
To arise and bid him come in.

O what’s the news Lord Thomas, she cried,
What’s the news that you brung to me?
I’ve come to ask you to my wedding,
Now what do you think of me?

O mother, oh mother come riddle it down
Come riddle two hearts as one
O must I go to Lord Thomas’s wedding
Or stay at home and mourn?

The brown girl she’s got business there
Fair Ellender you’ve got none
So the best advice I can give you my daughter
Is to stay at home and mourn.

She dressed herself in a snow white dress,
Her maids they dressed in green,
And every town that they rode through
They took her to be some queen.

She rode ’til she came to Lord Thomas’s gate,
She pulled all in her reins,
No one so ready as Lord Thomas himself
To arise and bid her come in.

He took her by her lily white hand
He led her through the hall,
He seated her in a rocking chair
Amongst those ladies all.

Is this your bride, Lord Thomas? She cried,
She looks so wonderful brown!
You could have married a maiden as fair
As ever the sun shown on.

Dispraise her not, fair Ellender, he cried,
Dispraise her not to me,
For I think more of your little finger
Than of her whole body.

The brown girl had a little pen knife,
It being both keen and sharp,
Betwixt the long ribs and the short
Pierced fair Ellender to the heart.

O what’s the matter, fair Ellender, he cried?
You look so pale and wan,
You used to have as rosy a color
As ever the sun shone on.

O are you blind, Lord Thomas? she cried,
Or is it you cannot see?
And can’t you see my own heart’s blood
Come a trickling down to my knee?

Lord Thomas he drew his sword from his side,
He ran all through the hall,
He cut off the head of his bonny brown bride
And kicked it against the wall.

Then placing the handle against the wall,
And the blade a-towards his heart,
Saying did you ever see three true lovers meet
Who had so soon to part?

O mother, o mother go dig my grave
Go dig it both wide and deep,
And bury fair Ellender in my arms
And the brown girl at my feet.

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As always, thanks for reading! 
Love and Blessings,

Susie

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Award-winning recording artist, Broadway singer, journalist, educator and critically-acclaimed powerhouse vocalist, Susie Glaze has been called “one of the most beautiful voices in bluegrass and folk music today” by Roz Larman of KPFK’s Folk Scene.  LA Weekly voted her ensemble Best New Folk in their Best of LA Weekly for 2019, calling Susie “an incomparable vocalist.”  “A flat out superb vocalist… Glaze delivers warm, amber-toned vocals that explore the psychic depth of a lyric with deft acuity and technical perfection.”  As an educator, Susie has lectured at USC Thornton School of Music and Cal State Northridge on “Balladry to Bluegrass,” illuminating the historical path of ancient folk forms in the United Kingdom to the United States via immigration into the mountains of Appalachia.  Susie has taught workshops since 2018 at California music camps RiverTunes and Vocáli Voice Camp.  She is a current specialist in performance and historian on the work of American folk music icon, Jean Ritchie.  Susie now offers private voice coaching online via the Zoom platform.   www.susieglaze.com