“Darling Nellie Across the Sea” is credited to A. P. Carter. The Carter Family (A. P., Sara and Maybelle Carter) recorded it for Victor in Memphis on 25 November 1930, the day after they cut “On the Rock Where Moses Stood” at the same sessions. Victor paired the two on 23513 in 1931, and Montgomery Ward also issued the coupling on its own label. Victor reported sales of 16,407 copies.
The story is told in letters and graves. On a dark and stormy night a message comes from Nellie, far across the sea. She writes to Jack that she is dying, with no friends or parents left, and reminds him of a home for them on high. He tells his mother he must leave her and go across the sea to find the girl who cares for him. The next verse finds him wandering through a graveyard, where he comes on Nellie’s grave and kneels to pray. The song closes with his wish to be laid close by her side when he dies.
Bluegrass bands began recording it in the 1950s. Charlie Bailey and the Happy Valley Boys issued it on Event in April 1956, backed with “Memory of Your Smile.” On 10 August 1958 Hylo Brown cut it at Bradley Film & Recording in Nashville, with Red Rector singing lead, Brown tenor and Tater Tate on fiddle, and Capitol released it on the LP Hylo Brown in April 1959. Hazel Dickens and Alice Gerrard (then Alice Foster) recorded it in Washington, D.C., with Gerrard singing lead and Dickens tenor, backed by Lamar Grier on banjo, David Grisman on mandolin and Chubby Wise on fiddle. It appeared in September 1965 on their Verve/Folkways album Who’s That Knocking? and later on the Smithsonian Folkways reissue Pioneering Women of Bluegrass. Red Rector came back to the song with Norman Blake on their 1976 County album Norman Blake & Red Rector.
