Charlie / Weevily Wheat

[ Roud 729 ; G/D 1:135 ; Ballad Index R520 ; Bodleian Roud 729 ; Folkinfo 486 ; DT WEEVWHT ; Mudcat 152118 ; trad.]

Norman Buchan and Peter Hall: The Scottish Folksinger Edith Fowke: The Penguin Book of Canadian Folk Songs Emily B. Lyle: Andrew Crawfurd’s Collection of Ballads and Songs Jean Ritchie: Folk Songs of the Southern Appalachians

Jean Ritchie sang Charlie’s Neat and Charlie’s Sweet in 1953 on her 10" 78rpm His Master’s Voice record Appalachian Mountain Songs (B.10545). She also sang Charlie in 1956 on her Riverside album Saturday Night and Sunday Too. A 1963 performance from Gerde’s Folk City was included on the 1990 reissue of the Folkways album Jean Ritchie and Doc Watson at Folk City. She sang Over the River to Feed My Sheep on her 1971 album Clear Waters Remembered. She also sang Charlie’s Neat and Charlie’s Sweet in 1974 at the Fox Hollow Festival, which was included a year later on the festival’s 10^th anniversary album, You Got Magic.

Chris, Karen, Mary Evelyn, Jonnie and Kathy Kermiet, children of Paul and Pauline Ritchie Kermiet, played Charlie on the 1958 Folkways album The Ritchie Family of Kentucky on which Jean Ritchie interviews her family, with documentary recordings.

Guy Carawan sang Charlie (Weevily Wheat) in 1958 on his Topic album Mountain Songs and Banjo Tunes. The sleeve noted commented:

Most of the songs on this record can be found in the great collections of American songs and ballads by John and Alan Lomax, such as Folksong U.S.A., American Ballads and Folksongs. Others can be found in Sandberg’s American Songbag or in Seigmeister’s Treasury of American Songs. The songs, of course, have become changed during the course of being sung around, but this should be the way with a folksong. Many of the songs have their roots in Britain. The Bonny Prince must surely have been the original hero of Charlie.

Shirley Collins sang Charlie in 1959 on her first LP, the Argo album Sweet England, on wich she was accompanied by John Hasted, Ralph Rinzler and Guy Carawan. The album’s notes commented:

A fresh setting on the British-American jingle about Prince Charlie with verses from Seventeen Come Sunday. The tune is from Jean Ritchie’s Singing Family of the Cumberlands and the extra words are traditional.

Ian Campbell sang O’er the Water to Charlie in 1968 on his Transatlantic album of poems and songs from Robert Burns, Tam o’ Shanter and in 1974 on The Ian Campbell Folk Group’s Sonet album “Live”. He noted on his solo album:

O’er the Water to Charlie is credited in some collections to Burns, and in others is given as traditional. If it is by Burns it must be a reworking of a previously established Jacobite song. It was known in very similar form in 1746, and was then thought to be a new version of an older song with similar tune and chorus. Perhaps it was just one of Burns’ favourites.

Barbara Dickson sang O’er the Water to Charlie in 1969 on her Trailer album with Archie Fisher and John MacKinnon, The Fate o’ Charlie. She also sang it in a live folk club recording made in 1969-73 on her 2013 “folk club tapes” anthology B4 Seventy-Four.

Andy Roberts sang Charlie on his 1973 Elektra album Urban Cowboy.

Eunice Yeatts MacAlexander sang Over the River to Charlie to Mike Yates at her home in Meadows of Dan, Patrick County, Virginia on 16 August 1979. This recording was included in 2002 on the Musical Traditions anthology of songs, tunes and stories from Yates’ Appalachian collections, Far in the Mountains Volume 1. Mike Yates noted:

Usually known as a ‘play-party’ piece, it is thought by some that the song refers to the Jacobite ‘Bonnie’ Prince Charlie, whose troops were defeated by the English at the Battle of Culloden, near Inverness, in 1746. Jean Ritchie, the well-known Kentucky singer used to sing it, and a recording by Granville Bowlin, also from from Kentucky, can be heard on Smithsonian Folkways SF CD 40077 [Mountain Music of Kentucky]. The Ozark fiddle-player Art Galbraith played a fiddle version in 6/8 time (Rounder 0157 [Simple Pleasures]).

Silly Wizard sang Wha’ll Be King But Cherlie?, “a grand old Jacobite rallying song”, in 1986 on their Green Linnet album A Glint of Silver.

Mick West sang Come Boat Me O’er in 1997 on the Linn anthology The Complete Songs of Robert Burns Volume 3.

Elisabeth LaPrelle sang Over the River Charlie on her 2004 CD Rain and Snow. She noted:

This song is based on the version by Jean Ritchie on the Folkways recording Jean Ritchie and Doc Watson at Folk City. We put in the string band setting and added some other verses we like.

Colin Meloy sang Charlie on his 2006 EP Colin Meloy Sings Trad. Arr. Shirley Collins.

Sophie Williams sang Charlie in 2015 on Earth Records’ anthology of songs from the reportoire of Shirley Collins, Shirley Inspired….

Lyrics

Chris, Karen, Mary Evelyn, Jonnie and Kathy Kermiet played Charlie

Charlie’s neat and Charlie’s sweet
And Charlie he’s a dandy;
Charlie he’s the very lad
That stole my strip-eel candy.

Chorus (after each verse):
Over the river to feed my sheep,
Over the river to Charlie;
Over the river to feed my sheep
And measure up my barley.

My pretty little pink, I once did think
I never could do without you;
Since I’ve lost all hopes of you
I care very little about you.

Don’t want your wheat, don’t want your cheat,
Neither do I want your barley;
I’ll take a little of the best you got
To bake a cake for Charlie.

Shirley Collins sings Charlie

O Charlie’s neat and Charlie’s sweet and Charlie he’s a dandy
And ev’ry time he goes to town he brings me sugar candy.
And I don’t want none o’ your weevily wheat and I don’t want none o’ your barley
Just take some flour in half an hour and bake a cake for Charlie.

It’s Charlie here and it’s Charlie there, Charlie over the ocean,
O Charlie he’ll be back again if he don’t change his notion.
My pretty little pink, I once did think I’d never do without you
But since I lost all hopes of you I care very little about you.

How old are you, my pretty little miss? How old are you, my honey?
If I don’t die of a broken heart I’ll be sixteen on Sunday.
O rink toomah dink toomah diddle eye dum, rink toomah dink toomah doodle,
Rink toomah dink toomah diddle eye dum, and a rink toomah dink toomah doodle.

Now can you court, my pretty little miss? And can you court, my flower?
I’ll court more in a minute and a half than you can in an hour.
O rink toomah dink toomah diddle eye dum, rink toomah dink toomah doodle,
Rink toomah dink toomah diddle eye dum, and a rink toomah dink toomah doodle.

Will you marry me, my pretty little miss? Will you marry me, good lookin’?
I’ll marry you but I won’t do your washin’ or your cookin’.
O rink toomah dink toomah diddle eye dum, rink toomah dink toomah doodle,
O rink toomah dink toomah diddle eye dum, and a rink toomah dink toomah doodle.

O Charlie he’s a nice young man, Charlie he’s a dandy
And every time he goes to town he brings me sugar candy.
And I don’t want none o’ your weevily wheat, I don’t want none o’ your barley
Just take some flour in half an hour and bake a cake for Charlie.

It’s Charlie here and it’s Charlie there, Charlie over the ocean,
O Charlie he’ll be back again if he don’t change his notion.

Eunice Yeatts MacAlexander sings Over the River to Charlie

Your weevly wheat’s not fit to eat,
Neither is your barley.
All I want is the best of rye,
To bake a cake for Charlie.

Chorus:
Rise you up in the morning,
All together early.
You need not be at all afraid,
Indeed I love you dearly.

Over the river to feed my sheep,
Over the river to Charlie.
Over the river to feed my sheep,
And measure up my barley.

Mick West sings Come Boat Me O’er

Chorus:
We’ll o’er the water, we’ll o’er the sea,
We’ll o’er the water to Charlie;
Come weal, come woe, we’ll gather and go
And live or die wi’ Charlie!

Come boat me o’er, come row me o’er,
Come boat me o’er to Charlie;
I’ll gie John Ross another bawbee
To boat me o’er to Charlie.

I lo’e weel my Charlie’s name,
Tho’ some there be abhor him:
But O, to see auld Nick gaun hame,
And Charlie’s faes before him!

I swear and vow by moon and stars,
And sun that shines so early!
If I had twenty thousand lives,
I’d die as aft for Charlie.