Tom Dula

One of the most well-known examples connected to Appalachian and bluegrass music is the story of Tom Dooley.

The song is based in a real-life story of Tom Dula in North Carolina.

And yes, North Carolina, we were involved in in this particular song, but we're involved in a lot of other songs.

And Tom Dula was convicted of murdering Laura Foster in the 1800s.

The story became a legend and then a song and eventually one of the most famous folk murder ballads in American music.

And what I find interesting is how these songs take something tragic and turn it into something that gets remembered for generations.

Have your popcorn ready? Here we go.

Number one, Tom Dooley.

Written in 1868 by Thomas C.

Land, shortly after the execution of Tom Dooley for the murder of Laura Foster.

We are fortunate that Frank Prophet preserved the song through Appalachian oral tradition after he heard it from his aunt, Nancy Prather.

Prophet's version was learned by Frank Warner.

Frank Warner's version was then learned in 1958 by the Kingston Trio, who had a number one hit on the Billboard charts.

It was nearly 30 years after the first known recorded version in 1929 by G.B. Grayson and Henry Witter.

In a separate trial, Ann Melton was acquitted.

Tom Dooley was hanged on May 1st, 1868.

Legend has it that he made some kind of defiant statement while the hangman put the noose around his neck, but we're not sure exactly what he said or how much this might have been exaggerated over time.

As was the tradition, Tom's story was almost immediately turned into a ballad, a song that's become a folk staple in Appalachia for decades, passed down largely by word of mouth.

This ballad was first recorded in the 1930s by a North Carolina singer named Frank Proffitt.

And from there, a couple of decades later, it was picked up at the Kingston Trio.

Their version of Tom Dooley was a number one hit in 1958 and won a Grammy in 1959.

The success of this hundred-year-old song helped ignite the folk revival that we saw in the U.S. in the late 50s and early 1960s.

Ole.

[upbeat music] Hang your head, Tom Dooley, hang your head and cry.

Killed little Laurie Foster, poor boy, you're bound to die.

Met her on the mountain, met her as my wife.

Met her on the mountain and stabbed her with my knife.

Hang your head, Tom Dooley, hang your head and cry.

Killed little Laurie Foster, poor boy, you're bound to die.

[upbeat music] Dug her grave two foot wide and only three foot deep.