Locks and Bolts

Locks and Bolts

Folk songs

This is a recording of Mae Phillips (Maw Maw Phillips) singing the song "Locks and Bolts" (Roud 406). Bobby McMillon recorded the tape this is from and introduces the songs there: "[This] was recorded late in 1968 and in the spring of 1969 at Lower Creek, Lenoir, North Carolina, at the home of my uncle Goldman McMillon. Mrs. Walters Phillips, my uncle’s mother-in-law, from Maryville, Tennessee, is singing old songs that she learned as she grew up in the Cosby section of Cocke County, Tennessee. My father’s people were raised there, and that’s where my uncle met Mrs. Phillips’ daughter. Mrs. Phillips is singing love songs and old-timey ballads that she learned when she was a child from different people in the Cosby, Hartford, Tennessee area and the Mount Sterling and Crestmont area of North Carolina."

Bobby McMillon

Bobby McMillon Collection, Southern Appalachian Archives, Mars Hill University

Southern Appalachian Archives, Liston B. Ramsey Center for Appalachian Studies, Mars Hill University

1968-1969

This item may be viewed, downloaded, and printed for personal and educational use, but any commercial use is prohibited without permission from the Southern Appalachian Archives, Mars Hill University. Questions may be directed to the Archivist at (828) 689-1262 or archives@mhu.edu.

mp3

English

Music

Cassette

1 minute, 30 seconds

[Spoken: “I can’t never get the tune”]

I dreamed a dream the other night
All in my arms I had her
But when I woke, it was a joke
I was supposed to lie without her

Her yellow hair like strings of gold
Was lying on the pillow
She’s the prettiest thing, I love her so well
(())

I followed her on to her uncle’s house
Enquiring of such a fair one
He answered, “Sir, there’s no such here…
And why do you enquire about her?”

[Spoken: “I get off the tune”]

When she heard her true love’s voice
She hastened to the window
“Such a pity would come to you my love
But the locks and bolts do hinder”

It’s I stood there all in amaze
All in those pains and humors
My patience flew my sword I drew
And quickly I went to her

I’ve taken her by her lily-white hand
I led her o’er hills and valleys
Saying, “Come all young men who love like me
Take one and fight the other.”