Dellie Norton

Dellie Norton and Inez Chandler: were both from Sodom Laurel, although Inez had moved a few miles to the town of Marshall when I met her.  Dellie, who was born in1898, lived up the road from Evelyn and Douston Ramsey, and was the sister of Berzilla Wallin.  One of her other sisters, Zipporah Rice sang a version of Lord Bateman to Cecil Sharp in 1916.  Dellie sang in an older exaggerated style and was one of the most impressive singers that I have ever met.  She told one interviewer, "I just heard my mother singing and old people way back. I used to could learn a song first time I heard it."  One neighbour told me that, "She loved knowing songs her parents knew and singing along with them."  In many ways she reminded me of the Scottish singer Belle Stewart, both being similarly proud of their respective traditions.  Inez sang me a number of short, often fragmentary, songs and it was only years later that I discovered that she had known a complete version of The Cherry Tree Carol.

Part of the booklet notes, written by Mike Yates, to the Musical Traditions Records CDs Far in the Mountains (MTCD321-4)