Little Sadie from Paley & Son by Tom & Ben Paley

From the playing and singing of Clarence Ashley. This is one of a multitude of American songs in which a man kills his girlfriend with no explanation of why! In similar British songs, there is usually some hint of a motive.

Tom Paley is one of the legendary survivors of the American folk scene. He played and sang with America’s greatest folk hero Woody Guthrie and he made regular visits to Lead Belly's NY apartment. Later, he became a founding member of the massively influential New Lost City Ramblers in which he worked alongside Mike Seeger and John Cohen to revive old-time styles from before the Second World War.