IF I HAD A RIBBON BOW

Creative Spirit Singers

This traditional folksong from Kentucky first appeared in print in 1919 in John Jacob Niles’s Seven Kentucky Mountain Ballads—nobody knows how long it’s actually been around. This arrangement, with a steadily flowing piano accompaniment, moves along quickly and captures  both the poignancy and frustration of a lonely mountain girl:

If I had a ribbon bow to bind my hair;

If I had a fancy sash, my love would think me fair.

DURATION: 2:30