Georgie from Mentor by William Ritter
This old ballad (Child 209), might just be my favorite. It's a "collated text" Bobby put together from more than one source--though I lyrically it's mostly from Doc Watson's father-in-law Gaither Carlton. The tune, as I remember, was from a Virginia ballad singer. Bobby was an expert at ballad reconstruction. Like a genius antique restorer, he could build back to something whole and beautiful from fragments. That's *not* something to be done without careful consideration, and considerable skill and knowledge, and Bobby had dedicated his life to these songs. I love the way Bobby hang on some of the words and then dropped down like on the word "I" in the first verse in the line "I thought that I heard some pretty fair maid." It's actually a bit of a tricky thing to do. In some versions Georgie is actually freed by the king--but this is not one of those versions....
William Ritter is a native of Bakersville, NC William plays banjo, fiddle, guitar, and other "string-ed things." He is particularly interested in old apple trees, family heirloom seeds, and mountain humor. In 2019, he received the *In These Mountains* Folklife Apprenticeship Grant from the NC Arts Council to study with ballad singer extraordinaire, Bobby McMillon.