Mary Bullman Sands (April 8, 1872 – April 2, 1949) was an American singer of old traditional ballads during the early part of the 20th century.Mike Yates and Kriss Sands, A Nest of Singing Birds: Cecil Sharp, Mary Sands, and the Madison County Song Tradition. Musical Traditions, March 15, 2002. Retrieved: December 22, 2012. She was known locally as "Singing Mary" due to her singing talent and extensive knowledge of the words and melodies of many old-time traditional songs that had been passed down through previous generations.Virginia Sparks Turner, "525, Sands and Bullman," in Madison County Heritage - North Carolina Vol. I, comp. Madison County Heritage Book Committee (Marceline, MO: Walsworth Publishing, 1994), 190. In 1916, English folklorist Cecil Sharp, along with his assistant Maud Karpeles, visited Madison County to collect and record traditional folk songs being sung in America that would have originated generations earlier in the British Isles. Sands sang 25 songs for him, 23 of which he included in his book, English Folk Songs from the Southern Appalachians.Cecil Sharp, Maud Karpeles (ed.), English Folk Songs from the Southern Appalachians (London: Oxford University Press, 1932).
Early life and family Mary Sands née Bullman was born on April 8, 1872, in the Laurel section of Madison County, North Carolina. Her parents were John Wesley Bullman (1847–1895) and Rosannah Shelton ( Franklin) (1836–1909). She had a twin sister, Martha Bullman (1872–1897), who died while in her twenties. She also had an older sister, Melvina ("Jane") Bullman (c. 1865 – c. 1930) and an older brother, Christopher Columbus ("Sonny") Bullman (1869–1935). John Wesley Bullman (called "Wesley") was the second husband of Rosannah. Her first husband, Hugh Wallin (1826–1864), was killed in the U.S. Civil War. Rosannah and Hugh Wallin had five sonsFrankie S. Johnson, "349, Leroy and Frankie Sands Johnson," in Madison County Heritage - North Carolina Vol. I, comp. Madison County Heritage Book Committee (Marceline, MO: Walsworth Publishing, 1994), 129. – Sands's half brothers – some of whom also became well-known traditional ballad singers.
In 1892, Mary Bullman married James Monroe Sands (1849–1923), who had moved to Madison County from Danville, Virginia. Together they had ten children, none of whom are currently living.
Cecil Sharp When Cecil Sharp came to Madison County in 1916 as part of his project to collect old English ballads, Sands was 44 years old and was eight and a half months pregnant with her tenth child. Of the 39 different Madison County singers that sang for Sharp, Sands provided him the second largest number of songs, 25, with Jane Hicks Gentry of Hot Springs, North Carolina providing him the most, a total of 70,Michael Yates, Cecil Sharp in America. Musical Traditions, January 15, 1999. Retrieved: December 28, 2012. 40 of which were published in his book English Folk Songs from the Southern Appalachians.Betty N. Smith, Jane Hicks Gentry: A Singer Among Singers (Lexington, KY: University Press of Kentucky, 1998), 137. After Sharp's visit, Sands continued to sing, became very active in her church and wrote a number of unpublished religious songs. She was a lifelong resident of Madison County, except for brief stays with her children during the latter part of her life as her health began to fail.
Death Sands died April 2, 1949, due to complications following a stroke, just a few days short of her 77th birthday.North Carolina, State of, 1949 (signed 4-2-49), "Certificate of Death: Mary Sands," Board of Health, Bureau of Vital Statistics, Reg. Dist. No. 11-95, File No. 217. She was buried in the Walnut Methodist Church Cemetery, Walnut, North Carolina.
Songs collected by Sharp This list includes dates, titles, and volume and page references to the second and enlarged edition (two volumes-in-one) of Sharp's English Folk Songs from the Southern Appalachians, published in 1932.
(In some cases, Sands referred to her songs by titles different from their more common titles, and parenthetical entries indicate the titles Sharp used in his book.)
July 31, 1916 The Silk Merchant's Daughter, I, 381 The Perbadus Lady (Pretty Nancy of Yarmouth), I, 379 The Brown Girl, I, 295 Lord Bateman (Young Beichan), I, 81 Fair Margaret and Sweet William, I, 135 Come You People Old and Young (The Suffolk Miracle), I, 261
August 1, 1916 Awake! Awake!, I, 358 Little Soldier Boy (The Lady and the Dragoon), I, 333 The Daemon Lover, I, 244 Earl Brand, I, 16 I Am a Man of Honour (The Virginian Lover), unpublished The Broken Token, II, 70
August 2, 1916 The Outlandish Knight (Lady Isabel and the Elf Knight), I, 5 The Golden Glove, I, 377
August 3, 1916 Lord Lovell, I, 146 Married and Single Life, II, 3 My Sad Overthrow (The Sheffield Apprentice), II, 66 Lord Randal, I, 38
August 4, 1916 Polly Oliver, I, 344 I Waited Out My Hours, unpublished The Boatsman and the Chest, I, 338 If You Want to Go A-courting, II, 6
August 5, 1916 Pretty Saro, II, 10 Lord Thomas and Fair Ellender (Lord Thomas and Fair Ellinor), I, 121 My Dearest Dear, II, 13
Present-day singers The old ballads collected by Sharp from Sands and others over a century ago have not been forgotten. A number of present-day traditional ballad singers have included Sands's songs in their repertoires for live concerts as well as in sound recordings.
Sheila Kay Adams, award-winning singer, musician, story teller, and author, has recorded an album entitled My Dearest Dear,Sheila Kay Adams, My Dearest Dear, Granny Dell Records 1220, 2000, compact disc. which includes six songs that are part of Sharp's collection from Sands. They are: "Fine Sally" (a.k.a. "The Brown Girl"), "Awake! Awake!," "My Dearest Dear," "Little Soldier Boy," "Silk Merchant's Daughter," and "Jimmy Randall" (a.k.a. "Lord Randall").
Joe Penland, ballad singer and story teller, has recorded several albums that include songs from Sands, with his most recent album, The Mary Sands Project, Volume I,Joe Penland, The Mary Sands Project, Volume I, 1869 Records 1211, 2011, compact disc. containing eleven of the songs Sands sang for Sharp and one original song written by Sands. They are: "Awake! Awake!," "The Silk Merchants Daughter," "Sweet William (Earl Brand)," "The House Carpenter (The Daemon Lover)," "My Sad Overthrow (The Sheffield Apprentice)," "The Handkerchief (The Suffolk Miracle)," "Lady Marget (Fair Margaret and Sweet William)," "The Boatsman and the Chest," "Lord Thomas and Fair Ellender," "Lady Isabel and the Elf Knight," "Jimmy Randall (Lord Randall)," and "Your Sins Will Find You Out." "Your Sins Will Find You Out" was written by Sands depicting the 1937 shooting death of her son Chesley in Marshall, North Carolina.
Prior to the release of The Mary Sands Project, Volume I, Penland had recorded two other albums that included songs from Sands. They are: Standing on Tradition,J. W. Penland, Standing on Tradition, 1869 Records, 2004, compact disc. which includes "Pretty Saro," and On Shakey Ground,Joe Penland, On Shakey Ground, 1869 Records 00311, 2011, compact disc. which includes "My Dearest Dear" and "Fine Sally" (a.k.a. "The Brown Girl").
Martin Simpson, English folk singer, guitarist, and songwriter, and Thomm Jutz, German-born American singer, guitarist, and songwriter, have collaborated to record an album entitled Nothing But Green Willow: The Songs of Mary Sands and Jane Gentry.Martin Simpson and Thomm Jutz, Nothing But Green Willow: The Songs of Mary Sands and Jane Gentry, Topic Records, 2023, compact disc. It includes these songs from Sands: "Pretty Saro," "Married and Single Life," "The Suffolk Miracle," and "Awake! Awake!"
Other traditional Southern Appalachian ballad singers who have recorded albums containing one or more of Sands's songs include: Donna Ray Norton, Single Girl,Donna Ray Norton, Single Girl, J.O.D. Studios, 2000, compact disc. Forks in the Road,Donna Ray Norton, Forks in the Road, J.O.D. Studios, c. 2005, compact disc. and Forevermore I'll Sing;Donna Ray Norton, Forevermore I'll Sing, 2022, digital album, Bobby McMillon, A Deeper Feeling;Bobby McMillon, A Deeper Feeling, Ivy Creek Recordings ICR 401, 1994, cassette tape. Bill Morris, Blue Ridge Mountain Music, Volume II;Bill Morris, Blue Ridge Mountain Music, Volume II, Ivy Creek Recordings ICR 102, 1993, cassette tape. Jerry Adams, When I First Come to this Country;Jerry Adams, When I First Come to this Country, Rakma Studios, 2000, compact disc. Doug and Jack Wallin, Family Songs and Stories from the North Carolina Mountains;Doug and Jack Wallin, Family Songs and Stories from the North Carolina Mountains, Smithsonian Folkways SF 40013, 1995, compact disc. and Betty Smith, Songs Traditionally Sung in North Carolina.Betty Smith, Songs Traditionally Sung in North Carolina, Folk-Legacy Records, 1987, cassette tape.
Legacy In 2025, the North Carolina Highway Historical Marker Program honored Sands and her role in the preservation of traditional Southern Appalachian ballads by placing a highway historical marker alongside North Carolina Highway 208 near where she lived when she sang for Sharp.
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