BALLAD INDEX

 Down in the Willow Garden

 Matty Groves

 Wind and Rain


 Bloody Gardener

 Clyde Waters

 The Broomfield Hill

 The Butcher Boy / Go Dig My Grave

 The Sea Captain

Clyde Waters

Child 216

This old Scottish ballad, sometimes called “Mothers Malison” or “The Drowned Lovers” is about Willie, who tries to visit his love Margaret during a storm. His creepy mother begs him not to go and tells him she’ll curse him to drown in the water if he leaves. He doesn’t listen and says that is fancy expensive horse will surely get him there safely. He goes to visit his love Margaret, but when he gets there the door is locked. He calls up to her and Margarets mother (or in some versions her mother pretending to be her) won’t let him in and says they have no room in the house or the stables to protect him from the storm and the rising waters. 

Because he can’t get in, by accident, curse, or dispair, he drowns in the Clyde River. His lover Margaret wakes up and says that she dreamed her lover was at the door and turned away. She goes to look for him and finds him in the water and ends up dying in the river as well. 

She ends the song saying, “You have had a cruel mother Willie // I have had another// And now we'll sleep in Clyde Water // Like sister and like brother”

About the ballad: 
Martin Carthy says about this song, “Clyde’s Water is an astonishing song of iron parental control. There is no question of the iron fist being encased in a velvet glove—the glove too is made of iron. I don’t think I have ever heard a song so relentless or so pared down.“ 



Listen to:
Clyde Waters Anaïs Mitchell & Jefferson Hamer