than Martinmas, and happily return to their Savior at the end. Indeed, Jesus may speak to the Wife at the end, telling her she had nine days to repent; she dies at that time and is taken to heaven. The ballad has much in common with some variants of "The Clerk's Twa Sons O Owsenford". The Christmas appearance has been cited to explain why, in that ballad, the two sons are executed, but their father tells their mother they will return at Christmas; the father may mean they will return as ghosts. Recordings Buell Kazee recorded the song as "Lady Gay" in 1928. The Chieftains recorded it as "Three Little Babes" on "Further Down the Old Plank Road". A version of the ballad by folk-rock pioneers Steeleye Span can be heard on their 1975 album All Around My Hat. Andreas Scholl performs the song on the album Wayfaring Stranger: Folksongs (2001), and Karine Polwart on her album Fairest Floo'er (2007). Versions appear on the Bellowhead album Broadside and on the Runa album Current Affairs. Adaptations In autumn 2010, Quondam toured an Arts Council England-supported "new play with songs" called The Wife of Usher's Well to 27 venues. Inspired by the border ballad, this reprised the historic text in a new setting of a mother's losing her son in the war in Afghanistan. The writer was Jules Horne and the cast was Helen Longworth, Danny Kennedy, Ruth Tapp and Andrew Whitehead. In July 2018, as part of the SHEnyc festival, an adaptation written by Sophie Netanel was performed in the Connelly Theater, New York. Joanna Newsom recorded a version of this song calling it 'Three Little Babes', on her album The Milk Eyed Mender. References External links The Wife of Usher's Well with commentary Wife of Usher's Well Wife of Usher's Well Year of song unknown