When record sales collapsed during the 1930s Great Depression, a number of country musicians found an outlet for their talents on radio stations. Only those acts that first established a loyal radio audience could convince a record company to sell their product. You all know about WSM and Grand Ole Opry in Nashville, but WWNC in Asheville NC was also active. This station attracted "brother" acts, featuring old ballads and 19th century sentimental parlor songs with simple tunes sung in close harmony. The Bolick, Callahan, Mainer, Monroe, and Morris Brothers all performed there at one time or other.
Today's song involves the Blue Sky Boys (Bill and Earl Bolick) and the Callahan Brothers (Homer and Walter). I learned Katie Dear from a Blue Sky Boys record. They said they learned their old ballads from their maternal grandmother. Their version of this song, though, is almost identical to an earlier recording by the Callahan Brothers. Undoubtedly, one learned it from the other, but I don't know the original source. It sounds like an old British ballad, but only vague relations have been collected there. In the other American versions I looked at, usually titled Silver Dagger, the story is told in third person rather than with quotes, and the girl stabs herself first and is found by the boyfriend who then kills himself. It's possible Katie Dear was recomposed by someone based on the older traditional song. If so, it was done by an exceptionally skilled person, since there's no hint of the sentimentality typical of 19th century compositions.
When I first heard this song, I thought, "Oh, just another Romeo and Juliet story." But it's not. The plot is much simpler. Also, R&J itself was just another Romeo and Juliet story. Shakespeare stole the plot from a long boring English poem based on an Italian poem, and someone has traced the story to 5th century (CE) Greece. The story probably originated with some proto-humans in the Olduvai Gorge trying to control their children.
It makes a good back porch song, easy to remember. I hadn't listened
to the original in about 40 years, but when I played it to check my
words, I only had to change a couple of them. The tune is more
problematic. The "brothers" harmony is so close that I can't always
distinguish between melody and harmony. With a simple tune like this
one, it might not even matter.
Complete Lyrics:
"O, Katie dear, go ask your mama
If you can be a bride of mine.
If she says 'yes,' come back and tell me,
If she says 'no,' we'll run away."
"O, Willie dear, there's no use in asking.
She's in her room, taking a rest,
And by her side is a silver dagger
To slay the one that I love best."
"O, Katie dear, go ask your papa
If you can be a bride of mine.
If he says 'yes,' come back and tell me,
If he says 'no,' we'll run away."
"O, Willie dear, there's no use in asking.
He's in his room, taking a rest,
And by his side is a silver dagger
To slay the one that I love best."
So he picked up that silver dagger,
And plunged it through his troubled heart,
Saying, "Goodbye Katie, goodbye darling,
It's now forever we must part."
So she picked up that bloody dagger,
And plunged it through her lily-white breast,
Saying "Goodbye papa, goodbye mama,
I'll die for the one that I love best."