Low Down in The Broom

Shona Donaldson: On Autumn Harvest ah007: Old Songs & Bothy Ballads: Grand to Be a Working Man. Recorded at the Fife Traditional Singing Festival May 2008.

First published in John Pinkerton's Select Scottish Ballads (1783). The song gave rise to an English song under the same title that has survived in current tradition and was often printed on songsheets of the 1800s and has been recorded in recent time by Eliza Carthy and others.

1: My daddy is a cankered carle,
He'll no twin wi his gear,
My mither she's a scaldin wife,
Hauds aa the hoose a-steer.
But let them say or let them do,
It's aa the ane tae me,
For he's low down in the broom,
He's waiting in the broom for me.

2: My auntie Kate sits at her wheel,
And sair she lightlies me,
But weel I ken it's jealousy,
For ne'er a Jo has she.
But let them say or let them do,
It's aa the ane tae me,
For he's low down in the broom,
He's waiting in the broom for me.

3: My cousin Kate was fair beguiled,
Wi Johnny in the glen,
But aye sin syne she cries, "Beware,
O false deluding men."
But let them say or let them do,
It's aa the ane tae me,
For he's low down in the broom,
He's waiting in the broom for me.