Wildwood Flower

It started as a parlor song, "I'll Twine 'Mid the Ringlets," published in 1860 with music by Joseph Philbrick Webster and words credited to Maud Irving. The song passed into oral tradition, and collectors found it in Kentucky and North Carolina in the 1910s under titles like "The Pale Amaranthus" and "Raven Black Hair."

The Carter Family recorded it for Victor in 1928. Maybelle Carter's guitar part, carrying the melody and the rhythm at the same time, is the best known example of the "Carter scratch." Woody Guthrie later used the melody for "The Sinking of the Reuben James."