Several variations of this ballad were collected by Child. Another version was collected by Cecil Sharp in the Appalachians in 1916.

The basic story is that Fair Annie's lord, usually Lord Thomas in this, tells her to prepare a welcome for his bride, and to greet her looking like a maiden. Annie protests that this is impossible as she has borne him seven sons and is pregnant with the eighth. Clearly a very understanding partner, she welcomes the bride kindly and very hospitably, but is heard weeping, and even wishing harm to her children, thinking of herself as a cat and her sons as rats. The bride comes to ask her why she is crying, and asks her about her family. Of course it turns out that they are sisters and that Annie was stolen by her lord. The new bride offers to give Annie her dowry so that Annie can marry the lord instead of her. As the marriage has not been consummated, she can return home to her father, who has plenty of money to find her another husband. In some versions the father will not be happy about her return, but in the version I sing he will be pleased to hear that Annie is alive and well.

It has been recorded by Ewan MacColl and Peggy Seeger on their album "Blood Red Roses", and also by Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds. Peter Bellamy recorded it as the title song on a cassette album.

My version of the song is actually longer than the ten minutes allowed by YouTube, so I had to cut out some of the verses and abbreviate some of the guitar work between verses, which resulted in some jerky editing. You can find the lyrics of the complete song on my website here: http://raymondfolk.wetpaint.com/page/Fair+Annie+%28Child+62%29

You can watch a playlist of my renditions of the Child ballads:
http://www.youtube.com/view_play_list?p=B2D0D5657EA394E4

Lyrics and chords of my songs can be found on my website: http://www.raymondcrooke.com