"Fair and Tender Ladies" is one of the loveliest melodies from the Southern mountains. Prior to the 1960s, the song was usually known as "Tiny Sparrow" or "Little Sparrow". Some versions substituted "Swallow" for "Sparrow". In more recent times, the song's title sometimes finds "Maidens" substituted for "Ladies," and "Come All Ye" or "Come All You" is sometimes omitted. It has been recorded by Edna and Jean Ritchie, The Carter Family, Pete Seeger, Joan Baez, Odetta, Peter, Paul and Mary, The Kingston Trio, Leon Bibb, Makem and Clancy, Emmylou Harris, Bob Dylan, Dave Van Ronk, The Rankin Family and The Country Gentlemen. It was printed in John and Alan Lomax's Best Loved American Folk Songs, Alan Lomax's Folk Songs of North America and Sharp's English Folk Songs in the Southern Appalachians.