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Composed by Braxton County, West Virginia, old-time fiddler Ernie Carpenter (1909-1997).

According to the booklet accompanying Carpenter's LP, the story behind the tune is one of a difficult adjustment to a forced change in Ernie's life. He had worked most of his life for the Pittsburgh Plate Glass Company in Clarksburg, prior to retiring in 1972 to his home in Braxton County, West Virginia.

He was a regular visitor during his working years to his homeplace on the Elk River, and was witness to the planning and construction of the Sutton Dam by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers on the river during the 1950's and 1960's.

Unfortunately, this resulted in the flooding of his boyhood home and the surrounding area, despite the efforts of himself and neighbors to forestall the project through a lobbyist. He refused the government's initial offer for his land (they didn't offer him anything for his house), and took the case to court.

He was able to gain a marked increase in the money he eventually was paid through this process, although he had to pay legal fees out of his pocket. He stayed in his Elk River homestead while the dam was being constructed, even though most of his neighbors had already left. Workmen blocked the roads in and out of the area, but Carpenter found alternate routes until they too were closed off.

"I was the last person out of there," he said," I went ahead then and tore the old place town and brought it up here. Part of its in this house." Of the tune, he remarked: "I was sittin' here one day, an' I had the blues. I reckon as bad as anybody could, thinkin' about my old homeplace up on the Elk River. I started sawin' on the fiddle an' that's what I came up with."

...more at: Elk River Blues - full Score(s) and Annotations

@@ Line 1: / Line 1: @@
 {{SheetMusic
-|f_track=A Health to Betty.mp3
+|f_track=Elk River Blues.mp3
-|f_pdf=A Health To Betty.pdf
+|f_pdf=Elk River Blues.pdf
-|f_artwork=Thomas-DUrfey.jpg
+|f_artwork=Ernie Carpenter.jpg
-|f_tune_name=Health to Betty
+|f_tune_name=Elk River Blues
-|f_track_title=Health_to_Betty_(A)
+|f_track_title=Elk River Blues
 |f_section=abc
-|f_played_by=[https://soundcloud.com/user-642978920 Chris Susans]
+|f_played_by=[https://soundcloud.com/jatek-zenekar Jatek Zenekar]
-|f_notes=Thomas d'Urfey - His multi-volume Wit and Mirth, or Pills to Purge Melancholy, written between 1698 and 1720, is a collection of songs and ballads.
+|f_notes=Ernie Carpenter (1909-1997)
-|f_caption=Thomas D'Urfey also wrote a song to the melody called "Female Quarrel (The)," according to Glen (1900), a lampoon upon Phillida and Chloris. It was printed in Pills to Purge Melancholy (1715).
+|f_caption=According to the booklet accompanying Carpenter's LP, the story behind the tune is one of a difficult adjustment to a forced change in Ernie's life.
-|f_source=[https://soundcloud.com/user-642978920/a-health-to-bettydull-sir-john-playford-1651 Soundcloud]
+|f_source=[https://soundcloud.com/jatek-zenekar/elk-river-blues Soundcloud]
 |f_pix=420
 |f_picpix=200
-|f_article=[[Health_to_Betty_(A) | '''Health to Betty''']]
+|f_article=[[Elk River Blues | '''Elk River Blues''']]
-The tune was published by John Playford in his '''English Dancing Master''' (1651) and was retained in the long-running '''Dancing Master''' series through the 10th edition of 1698 (p. 55), published at the time by John's son, Henry Playford.
+Composed by Braxton County, West Virginia, old-time fiddler Ernie Carpenter (1909-1997).
-The tune was supplanted in later '''Dancing Master''' editions (albeit still called "Health to Betty') and is the same one used in D'Urfey's '''Pills to Purge Melancholy''' (1719). Chappell (1859) asserts the Scots appropriated this tune for their "[[My Minnie's Aye Glowren O'er Me]]," which is the opening line of Allan Ramsay's song set to the tune.
+According to the booklet accompanying Carpenter's LP, the story behind the tune is one of a difficult adjustment to a forced change in Ernie's life. He had worked most of his life for the Pittsburgh Plate Glass Company in Clarksburg, prior to retiring in 1972 to his home in Braxton County, West Virginia.
-John Glen ('''Early Scottish Melodies''', 1900) believes the provenance is just the other way round, and that the English captured the tune as a country dance, to which the words had become detached. Glen points out the tune is in the Scottish '''Blaikie Manuscript''' (c. 1695). Stenhouse, in his notes to Johnson's '''Scots Musical Museum''' ('''Illustrations''', 1853), writes that playwright and poet Allan Ramsay's (1686-1758) words were adapted to an ancient tune, in triple time, called "A Health to Betty," which originally consisted of one strain (which is printed in Thomson's '''Orpheus Caledonius''', 1725).
+He was a regular visitor during his working years to his homeplace on the Elk River, and was witness to the planning and construction of the Sutton Dam by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers on the river during the 1950's and 1960's.
-Ramsay's song was titled "[[Katy's Answer]]" and was a sequel to "The Young Laird and Edinburgh Katy."  Researcher Anne Gilchrist says Ramsay's first verse seems different that the rest, and suspects it was the remnant of an older song that Ramsay fashioned new stanzas for (they "are more sophisticated and do not fit the tune as neatly"<ref>Anne G. Gilchrist, "Some Additional Notes on the Traditional History of Certain Ballad-Tunes in the Dancing Master", '''Journal of the English Folk Dance and Song Society''', vol. 3, No. 4, Dec., 1939, p. 276).</ref>).
+Unfortunately, this resulted in the flooding of his boyhood home and the surrounding area, despite the efforts of himself and neighbors to forestall the project through a lobbyist. He refused the government's initial offer for his land (they didn't offer him anything for his house), and took the case to court.
+He was able to gain a marked increase in the money he eventually was paid through this process, although he had to pay legal fees out of his pocket. He stayed in his Elk River homestead while the dam was being constructed, even though most of his neighbors had already left.  Workmen blocked the roads in and out of the area, but Carpenter found alternate routes until they too were closed off.
+"I was the last person out of there," he said," I went ahead then and tore the old place town and brought it up here. Part of its in this house." Of the tune, he remarked: "I was sittin' here one day, an' I had the blues. I reckon as bad as anybody could, thinkin' about my old homeplace up on the Elk River. I started sawin' on the fiddle an' that's what I came up with."
 }}