Rigs o Rye

Is this one of the most popular trad love songs from Aberdeenshire?

Rigs o Rye is a love song with a false betrayal from the North East of Scotland. The earliest record of the song may be a chapbook with title Ridges of Rye printed in Glasgow by J. & M. Robertson in 1799. From John Ord’s Bothy Songs and Ballads. Noted down by J.B. Allan, a Glasgow organist, from the singing of an ex-Aberdeenshire ploughman

A hugely popular song, the Greig-Duncan Folk Song Collection has 35 versions.

Recorded by singers such as Archie Fisher, Barbara Dickson, Sara Grey, Jane Turriff, Fred Jordan, and Jean Redpath.

Twas in the month o sweet July
Afore the sun hid pierced the sky
Twas in atween twa rigs o rye
I heard twa lovers talkin

The lad said ‘Lassie, I must away”
Fur I’ve got nae langer time tae stay
But I’ve got a word or two tae say
Gin ye’ve got time tae tarry”

Noo yer faither o you, he taks great care
Yer mither combs doon yer yalla hair
But yer sisters say that ye’ll get nae share
Gin ye gang wi me a stranger

Let my faither fret, and my mither frown
My sisters wirds I do disown
Though they aa were deid and allow the grun
I wid gang wi you a stranger

Oh lassie lassie, yer fortunes sma
And mibbie it’ll be nane ata
Yer nae a match fur me ava
Lay yer love doon on anither

Noo the lassies courage began tae fail
Her rosy cheeks grew wan and pale
And her tears cam tricklin doon like hale
Or a hivy shower in the simmer

Then he’s taen his hankie o linen fine
He’s dried her cheeks an he’s kissed her syne
Saying “Lassie lassie, ye shall be mine,
Fur I said it aa tae try you”

Noo this laddie being o courage bold
A lad o scarce nineteen year auld
He ranged the hills and the valleys aa
And he’s taen his lassie wi him

This couple they hae mairried noo
And they hae bairnies wan and two
And they bide in Brechin the winter through
And in Montrose in the simmer