Young Hunting - Variants and Origins

Variants and Origins

American variants of the song are more widely known as the song has been physically released. One of the earliest recorded variants was performed by blues singer Dick Justice in 1929 under the title "Henry Lee." The recording was anthologised in the first of Harry Smith's Anthology of American Folk Music, released in 1952. Judy Henske included a version of the song titled "Love Henry" — a title collected by Cecil Sharp in September 1916 from Orilla Keeton in Mountfair, Virginia — on her eponymous debut album in 1963. Australian post-punk band Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds covered the song under the title "Henry Lee", which was based lyrically on Dick Justice's version, with English alternative rock musician PJ Harvey in 1995. This version was included as a track on the band's 1996 album Murder Ballads.

English variants of the song, which are closely structed on the original Scottish versions, are also known under the titles "Earl Richard" and "The Proud Girl." A version of the song, credited as "Earl Richard", was recorded by English folk singer Tim Hart in 1969 and its liner notes state: " is a shorter version of the ballad 'Young Hunting.' this version comes from Motherwell's Minstrelsy of the Scottish Border." John Spiers and Jon Bode recorded a version of the English variant in 2001 on the album Through & Through and credited the author as "Miss Stephenson of Glasgow" and said it was written in 1825. "The Proud Girl" is an arrangement of the song by A.L. Lloyd that was performed at the Top Lock Folk Club in Runcorn, Cheshire on November 5, 1972. This performance, which was the basis of Frankie Armstrong's 1997 version, was released in 2010 on An Evening with A.L. Lloyd. and was noted to have been traced back three generations further.