"Silver Dagger", with variants such as "Katy Dear", "Molly Dear", "The Green Fields and Meadows", "Awake, Awake, Ye Drowsy Sleepers" and others is an American folk ballad, whose origins lie possibly in Britain. This large group of related songs is sometimes called the "Silver Dagger Family" of songs. It includes "Katie Dear" and the Carter Family's "Who's That Knocking at My Window" in this collection. These songs of different titles are closely related, and two strands in particular became popular in commercial Country music and Folk music recordings of the twentieth century: the "Silver Dagger" version popularised by Joan Baez, and the "Katy Dear" versions popularised by Ian and Silvia and others.
In "Silver Dagger", the female narrator turns away a potential suitor, as her mother has warned her to avoid the advances of men in an attempt to spare her daughter the heartbreak that she herself has endured. The 1960 recording by Joan Baez features only a fragment of the full ballad.
"Katy Dear" uses the same melody but different lyrics, telling a similar story from a male perspective.
Cecil Sharp's #57C has a nearly identical melody to this one.
Steve Roud observes on one version of the song titled "O! Molly Dear Go Ask Your Mother":
"A whole book could be written on this song and its connections with other songs which involve young men at their sweethearts' windows at night, disapproving parents and silver daggers. Hugely popular with North American traditional singers, 'Drowsy Sleeper' was also collected regularly in Britain and appeared on broadsides there from at least the 1820s".
Recording history:
    1926 – Kelly Harrell – "O! Molly Dear Go Ask Your Mother"
    1927 – B. F. Shelton – "Oh Molly Dear"
    1938 – Blue Sky Boys – "Katie Dear"
    1938 – The Carter Family – "Who's The Knockin' On My Window"
    1956 – The Louvin Brothers - "Silver Dagger" on Tragic Songs of Life
    1960 – Joan Baez's - "Silver Dagger" on her debut album
    1963 – The Country Gentlemen - "Silver Dagger" on Hootenanny: A Bluegrass Special
    1964 – Ian & Sylvia – "Katie Dear" on Four Strong Winds
    1964 – Bob Dylan – "Silver Dagger" appears on The Bootleg Series Vol. 6
    1964 – Dave Van Ronk - "Silver Dagger" on Inside Dave Van Ronk
    1999 – Dolly Parton - "Silver Dagger" on The Grass Is Blue