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Willow Tree

[ Roud 21006 ; VWML TFO/1/21/45/13/3 ; Mudcat 46073 ; trad.]

Willow Tree is printed on Percy Manning’s Folk-Lore 8 )1897), p.321. It was also was collected from Charles Tanner of Bampton, Oxfordshire, by Juliet Williams in 1918 [VWML TFO/1/21/45/13/3] , and by Alfred Williams.

Shirley Collins sang Willow Tree in 1972 on Ashley Hutchings and friends’ first Morris dance album Morris On, followed by the Morris tunes Willow Tree, Bean Setting, and Shooting.

These were also performed in live recordings from the Morris On Show, recorded in concert, club, and festival performances (including Cropredy 2004) and at soundchecks, in 2004 and 2005; which was published in 2005 on their Talking Elephant album Morris On the Road.

Lyrics

Shirley Collins sing Willow Tree

Oh, once they said my cheeks was red,
But now they’re scarlet pale,
When I, like a silly girl,
Believed his flattering tale.
For he vowed he’d never deceive me,
And I like a silly believed he,
For the moon and the stars so brightly shone
Over the willow tree