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American Stranger

[ Roud 1081 ; Ballad Index SWMS195 ; trad.]

Chris Willett sang The American Stranger on January 28, 1978 at Paddock Wood, Kent. This recording by Mike Yates was issued in 1979 on the Topic LP Travellers: Songs, Stories and Tunes from English Gypsies and in 1998 on the Topic anthology My Father's the King of the Gypsies (The Voice of the People Volume  11).

The Waterdaughters (Lal Waterson and her daughter Maria Gilhooley and Norma Waterson and her daughter Eliza Carthy] sang American Stranger in 1996 on Waterson:Carthy's second album Common Tongue. Martin Carthy commented in the sleeve notes:

Maid Lamenting is a piece of Yorkshire straightforwardness from the Frank Kidson collection, a songs stripped right down and with absolutely no illusions. Similarly with American Stranger, which is from the other end of the country in Devon. Cecil Sharp rarely made recordings of singers, but this is from one which he did make. The singer is a gypsy woman called Priscilla Cooper recorded encamped on Stafford Common in Devon, and although the cylinder is very badly damaged, it was there that Norma first encountered it.

Lyrics

The Waterdaughters sing American Stranger

I have been a-rambling by night and by day
But to prove myself Royals you should go along with me
And I'll take you to America my darling to be

Some says I am ragged some says I am poor
But to prove myself Royals you should go along with me
In the middle of the ocean there will grow a maypole tree
If ever I prove false to the girl that loves me

Kind love to my Polly although she is poor
Give my love to Betsy she's the girl that I adore
And I will roll her in my arms on a cold winter's night

I am a stranger in this country from America I came
Where there's no-one knows me nor as yet can tell my name
I wandered from my darling for many's a long mile
Now our ship she is got ready to sail

Some says I am ragged more says I am wild
Some says I am foolish my mind to beguile
But to prove yourself Royals you should go along with me
And I'll take you to America my darling to be

Acknowledgements

Transcribed by Garry Gillard with help from Steve Willis.