Annotation:Jamy Come Try Me

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JAMY COME TRY ME. AKA - "Jamie Come Try Me." Scottish, Air (3/4 time). E Flat Major. Standard tuning (fiddle). "Jamie Come Try Me" is the air by biography:James Oswald [1] (1710-1769) to which Robert Burns set his lyric "If thou shalt ask my love," the chorus of which goes:

Jamie, come try me,
Jamie, come try me,
If thou would win my love,
Jamie, come try me.

William Ernest Henley and Thomas Finlayson Henderson (The Poetry of Robert Burns, 1897) believe Oswald's air is related to a blackletter song called "The New Scotch Jig or the Bonny Cravat" to the tune of "Jenny Come Tye Me", which can be found in the Roxburghe and other collections. It goes:

Jenny come tye me,
Jenny come tye me,
Jenny come tye my bonny cravat.

The song may have a double meaning.

Source for notated version:

Printed sources: Johnson (The Scots Musical Museum, vol. 3), 1790; p. 238. Oswald (Caledonian Pocket Companion, vol. 2), 1760; p. 34.

Recorded sources:

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