“Say Darling Say” is a traditional Appalachian old-time song, an unusual cousin of the familiar lullaby “Hush, Little Baby.” It borrows that lullaby’s catalog of promised gifts — the mockingbird, the diamond ring — but turns the gentle cradle song into a brisk dance breakdown, with verses about courtship, drink, and rough living mixed in.
The song reached records in the late 1920s through the old-time musician Ernest Stoneman and a band of fellow players, recorded under several names as was common at the time. It has no single author; like much old-time material, it took shape through oral tradition.
“Say Darling Say” has stayed alive among old-time and bluegrass musicians as a lively, easily extended favorite. The version heard here is by the fiddler Tatiana Hargreaves, from her 2009 album “Started Out to Ramble.”
