Rain and Snow
"Rain and Snow", also known as "Cold Rain and Snow" (Roud 3634), is an American folk song and, in some variants, a murder ballad. It was collected in 1916 by Olive Dame Campbell and Cecil Sharp from Mrs. Tom Rice in Big Laurel, North Carolina, and first published in 1917 in English Folk Songs from the Southern Appalachians. The song centers on a single verse depicting a man driven out into harsh weather by his troublesome wife, with later variants expanding into narratives of conflict or murder.[1] It has been recorded by artists such as Obray Ramsey (1961) and the Grateful Dead (1967), contributing to its prominence in folk and bluegrass traditions.Origins and History
Traditional Roots
"Rain and Snow," classified under Roud Folk Song Index number 3634, is recognized as a traditional American folksong originating from the Appalachian region, with certain variants incorporating elements of a murder ballad where the narrative escalates to violence against an unfaithful spouse.[2][3] The song's structure typically revolves around themes of marital discord, but its classification highlights its place within broader Anglo-American ballad traditions.[4] Its possible roots trace to 19th-century British broadside ballads, as evidenced by a Bodleian Library broadside from the mid-19th century that shares similar phrasing and themes of spousal mistreatment, suggesting transatlantic transmission to Appalachian oral traditions.[5] The earliest known printed version appeared in 1917, collected by folklorists Olive Dame Campbell and Cecil Sharp from singer Minnie Rice in Big Laurel, Madison County, North Carolina, on August 18, 1916, where only a single verse was documented: "Lord, I married me a wife, / She gave me trouble all my life, / Made me work in the cold rain and snow."[2][3] This collection, English Folk Songs from the Southern Appalachians, underscores the song's emergence among rural Southern communities in the early 20th century, potentially evolving from older ballads such as "The Daemon Lover" through shared motifs of betrayal and supernatural retribution. The song evolved through anonymous folk transmission, with regional variations prominent in the American South, particularly in North Carolina and Virginia, where singers adapted lyrics to reflect local dialects and personal experiences of hardship.[2] These oral adaptations, undocumented until Sharp's fieldwork, illustrate the ballad's fluidity in Appalachian culture, maintaining core refrains like "rain and snow" while varying narrative details across generations.[3] Such evolution highlights its status as a communal artifact, passed down in isolated rural settings before broader documentation.[4]Early Recordings
The earliest commercial recording of a related traditional song, "The Sporting Bachelors," which shares themes of marital discord, was Buell Kazee's version, captured on April 21, 1927, in New York City for Brunswick Records (catalog 157). Kazee, a Kentucky native known for his five-string banjo expertise, delivered a solo vocal and banjo performance that emphasized the ballad's lonesome quality, with the flip side "The Old Maid" featuring whistling by Carson Robison. This acoustic recording, produced using a mechanical horn to amplify sound onto wax discs, highlighted the fiddle-less, banjo-driven style common in early Appalachian commercial releases, helping to preserve the song's traditional roots in print form from Cecil Sharp's 1917 collection. In the 1930s, the song's preservation advanced with the industry's transition from acoustic to electric recording methods, which used microphones and electrical amplification for clearer capture of vocals and instruments, as introduced by Western Electric in 1925 and widely adopted by labels like Victor and Decca. Although direct commercial versions of "Rain and Snow" remained rare, artists like the Carter Family, through their extensive sessions for Victor Records (beginning in 1927 in Bristol, Tennessee), standardized folk ballad arrangements with autoharp, guitar, and harmonious vocals, influencing the dissemination of similar Appalachian narratives via 78 RPM records and national radio networks such as the Grand Ole Opry. These technological and broadcast developments, including the popularity of 78 RPM discs played on home phonographs and live radio shows, brought traditional tunes to broader audiences, bridging oral traditions with mass media. The first commercial recording of "Rain and Snow" itself was by Obray Ramsey in 1961 on the album Obray Ramsey Sings Folk Songs from the Three Laurels.[6] Fiddlin' John Carson's 1924 Atlanta session for Okeh Records, while focused on other fiddle-accompanied old-time tunes like "The Little Old Log Cabin in the Lane" (Okeh 40032), exemplified the era's pioneering efforts in capturing southern stringband music acoustically, setting the stage for later folk ballad recordings. The session, held on June 14, 1924, at Okeh's temporary studio in Atlanta, Georgia, relied on horn-based recording to document raw, unpolished performances that resonated with rural listeners, contributing to the song's eventual audio legacy through stylistic parallels in fiddle and vocal delivery.Lyrics and Themes
Core Narrative
The core narrative of the traditional folk song "Rain and Snow," also known as "Cold Rain and Snow" (Roud 3634), centers on a man's increasingly desperate marriage to an unfaithful and abusive wife, culminating in her murder. This storyline appears in Appalachian variants collected in the early 20th century, reflecting themes of domestic strife and retribution common in British and American ballads.[7] A representative version, as sung by Appalachian singer Dillard Chandler and recorded in 1963 for Smithsonian Folkways, provides a baseline lyrical structure with five stanzas framing the arc from marital dissatisfaction to violent resolution:I had me a wifeThe narrative arc unfolds across these stanzas: the first introduces the marriage and the wife's mistreatment, forcing the husband into laborious toil amid harsh weather; the second highlights her hypocrisy and social betrayal through her fine attire while degrading him; the third builds tension with her appearance, evoking a moment of confrontation; and the final two depict the murder and the husband's fearful aftermath. This progression from betrayal to homicide aligns with ballad conventions where personal grievance leads to fatal action.[7] The refrain "rain and snow" recurs at the end of each stanza, reinforcing the husband's exposure to elemental hardship as a leitmotif of his suffering. Variants, such as the single-stanza fragment collected by folklorist Cecil Sharp in 1916 from Mrs. Tom Rice in western North Carolina, exist alongside fuller versions that typically feature 4 to 6 stanzas with an ABCB rhyme scheme, though some extend the resolution to include the husband's flight by train.[7]
She gave me trouble all my life
She made me work in the cold rain and snow
Rain and snow, rain and snow
Made me work in the cold rain and snow And she dressed me in old rags
And the worst of old rags
And went dressed like a lady in some town
In some town, in some town
And went dressed like a lady in some town She come down the stairs
Combing back her long wavy hair
And her cheeks was as red as a rose
As a rose, as a rose
And her cheeks was as red as a rose And I took her to her room
Where she met her fatal doom
And I trembled to my knees with cold
With cold fear, with cold fear
And I trembled to my knees with cold I shot her through the head
And I laid her on the bed
And I trembled to my knees with cold
With cold fear, with cold fear
And I trembled to my knees with cold fear fear fear fear[7]