No one seems to know what the father in this song has against Rose Connelly or why he would encourage his son to kill her and why, even though he promises to buy his son out of trouble, he doesn't do it. The melody is a variant of Rosin the Beau. It was recorded as "Rose Connelly", "Down in the Willow Garden", "In the Willow Garden" or "The Willow Garden" at various times by G. B. Grayson and Henry Whitter, Wade Mainer and Zeke Morris, Charlie Monroe and His Kentucky Pardners, The Stanley Brothers, The Osborne Brothers, The Everly Brothers, Art Garfunkel, Jack Elliot, Oscar Brand and Lester Flatt and Earl Scruggs. It became a bluegrass standard after Charlie Monroe's recording. It was printed in John and Alan Lomax's Best Loved American Folk Songs and Alan Lomax's Folk Songs of North America.