A-cappella ballad singing is one of the older forms of Appalachian folk entertainment, where-as the words and story are the focal point unaccompanied by music themes. The lyrics provided here is an arrangement Mary Jane Queen learned as a young girl growing up in in the mountains of North Carolina. This version Mary Jane learned from her father Jim Prince, old-time mountain musician, ballad singer.
Pretty Saro/traditional song lyrics.
When first to this country a stranger I came
I placed my affections on a handsome young dame
I looked all around me and I was alone
Yes me a young stranger and a long ways from home
Pretty Saro Pretty Saro I love you I know
I love you Pretty Saro where ever I go
No toung can express it no poet can tell
How truely I love you yes I love you so well
If I were a poet and could write a fine hand
I'd write my true love a letter that she might understand
I would send it by the waters that dont overflow
And think of Pretty Saro wherever I go
My love she don't love me as I understand
She wants some freeholder and I have no land
But I can maintain her with silver and gold
Or all of the fine things that my loves house could hold
Its not the long journey Im dreading to go
Or leaving this country for the debts that I owe
There is but one thing that troubles my mind
Thats a leaving Pretty Saro my true love behind
Farewell my dear father likewise mother too
Im going to ramble this country all through
When I get tired I'll sit down and weep
And think of Pretty Saro wherever she be
I love you Pretty Saro I love you I know
I love you Pretty Saro wherever I go
On the banks of the ocean or the mountains sad brow
I loved you then dearly and I still love you now
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