> Eliza Carthy > Songs > Nelly Was a Lady
Nelly Was a Lady
[
Roud 4273
; Ballad Index Dean122
; Mudcat 152927
; Stephen Collins Foster]
According to Sigmund Spaeth, A History of Popular Music in America, p. 106, this was “Foster's hit in 1849, now chiefly known as a barber-shop favorite.”
Steve Turner sang Nelly Was a Lady in 1987 on his Fellside album Braiding.
Sara Grey sang Pretty Saro in 2005 on her Fellside album A Long Way from Home. She noted:
I learned this Stephen Foster song from the singing of Helen Schneyer and I cry every time I hear her sing it.
Stephen Foster was born in 1826 in Lawrenceville now part of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. In 1846 he moved to Cincinnati, Ohio and became a bookkeeper with his brother's steamship company. In 1849 he published Foster's Ethiopian Melodies, which included the hit song Nelly Was a Lady, made famous by the Christy Minstrels. Many of Foster's songs were in the minstrel show tradition popular at the time. However, rather than simply caricaturing African-Americans, they show an empathy for the sufferings of the slave rare in works for the mainstream white audience of the time. He was the first white composer to portray blacks as loving husbands and wives, as in this song. This song was written in loving memory of an old slave’s dead wife.
Eliza Carthy sang Nelly Was a Lady on her and Norma Waterson's 2018 album Anchor.
Lyrics
Stephen C. Foster's Nelly Was a Lady | Eliza Carthy sings Nelly Was a Lady |
---|---|
Down on de Mississippi floating, |
Down on the Mississippi floating, |
Chorus (after each verse): |
Chorus (after each verse): |
Now I'm unhappy, and I'm weeping, |
Now I am weary and I'm weeping, |
When I saw my Nelly in de morning, |
When I see Nelly in the morning, |
Close by de margin ob de water, |
Close by the margins of the water, |
Down in de meadow, 'mong de clober, |
Down in the meadow, 'mong the clover, |