The Rising Sun  
Boys were equally treated with horrific brutality  
in those times, and were imprisoned and hung  
for even the smallest of infractions. There are  
other versions of the ballad that describe  
almost exactly the same fate for boys as was  
described by Johnny Handle for the fate of the  
girl.  
The Potato Blight (in the 1850s) occurred  
throughout Ireland, Scotland and in many parts  
of Europe killing millions of people during that  
time, and that event prompted the largest  
migration into America during the 1850s and  
even nto the 1920s and 30s.  
Statues created to remember those who  
starved from the Potato Blight of the 1850s.  
As part of the KelticDead Music project and initiative, I took the lyrics from earlier  
versions of the ballads that were central to the times in Liverpool in that period, and I  
infused them into a new version that I call “The Rising Sun” to capture the theme.  
There is a place where I am bound  
I call the rising sun.  
There is a place where I am bound  
I call the rising sun.  
And, many a soul comes here to die,  
and Lord I know I am one.  
And, many a soul comes here to die,  
and Lord I know I’m one.  
Now mothers don’t let your children  
grow to do - what I have done.  
It’s here, I await the morning sun  
And now - my life’s undone.  
My Father, he was a gambling man,  
My Mother, she begged and whored.  
And all I knew was misery  
To live my life in sin.  
There is a place where I am bound  
I call the rising sun.  
And, many a soul comes here to die,  
and Lord I know I am one.  
While drunk, he beat my mother  
down In rage - I struck him dead,  
And now, I await the morning sun  
And end this life of dread.  
I adapted the lyrics to still focus upon the theme of  
the ballad as a recount of someone dying. It is not  
uncommon in folk music traditions to mix and blend  
lyrics of the same ballad to reflect differing times and  
events. This theme is also one used in the American  
west version, “Streets of Loredo.”  
The folklorist, Alan Lomax with his wife, set up  
equipment in Middlesboro, Kentucky in the house of  
Tillman Cadle to record “The Rising Sun Blues.”  
The performance was done by Georgia Turner.  
Georgia was the 16-year-old daughter of a local  
miner, and it was the first recording of the melody  
that we know today.  

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