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about

Ina Simmons sings a murder ballad: "Pearl Bryan"

lyrics

Anne Grimes: Next recording, made January 15th, 1954, in Columbus, Ohio. Mrs. Ina Simmons, now a resident of Columbus. However, she was a native of Hocking County, as was Mrs. Neva Randolph. Nelsonville, which she mentions as being the place where she spent her young girlhood, is in Athens County. That’s where she learned many of the songs that follow. “Pearl Bryan,” however, seems to have been a Hocking County version of that gory ballad. She thought that this particular version was made up by a local editor there, uh, near Gore. ...Her reminiscences of the Terrill murder, at Gore, which is another murder, of course, earlier, which happened in that section, uh, are interesting.

Anne: Ina Simmons, and where were you born?
Ina: I was born in Carbon Hill, Hocking County.
Anne: Ohio.
Ina: Twenty-second day of March, in eighteen-hundred and eighty-three.
Anne: Okay, well, let’s hear you sing this, Mrs. Simmons. It’ll be fine.

Pearl come to your lover
A villain once cried
Pearl come to your lover
And stroll by his side
Though I have betrayed you
I’ll make it all well
So none will upbraid you
Or know what befell

Sobered and with sorrow
And fear of disgrace
That may on the morrow
Bring shame to her face
Gave heed to his calling
Was touched by his cry
For fear of her falling
Concluded to fly

So off to the city
Of Cincinnati
To one without pity
This lady went she
Yes went from her father
Her mother and home
Her sisters and brothers
To perish alone

Now shrieks from the Highlands
Rose faint on the breeze
And folks from the Highlands
Were robbed of their ease
Her body found gory
And headless and bare
The Pearl of our story
So gentle and fair

credits

from Shawnee, Ohio, released April 26, 2019

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Brian Harnetty Columbus, Ohio

Interdisciplinary artist using sound and listening to foster social change. Recordings on Winesap, Karl, Dust-to-Digital, Atavistic, and Scioto Records.

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