Wobbly sleepy songs about crows and true love at a witches altar… #lifegoals I guess! #tradmusic #morningperson #altar #paganaltar #altarspace #hygge
“Blackest Crow” is one of MANY variations on the traditional lover’s lament… other versions sometimes are called The Turtle Dove, or, As Time Draws Near. It has lots of ‘floating verses’ and lyrics are pretty hard to pin down.
Bruce Molsky has a famous version on his album “Lost Boy” that I’ve listened to since I was very young and which formed the basis for my harmony part ~ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DJzQNQoUe6w
(Side Note: I first met Bruce when I was about 13 or 14… a wonderfully nice guy and a great teacher! Took his fiddle classes a few summers running as a teen and ran into him years later in college on the night he played ‘Bury Me Not on the Lone Prairie’ live for the first time ever. He asked me afterwards what I thought and I answered honestly that it had made me cry. Sometimes memories sound like they must have happened to someone else!)
Rhiannon Giddens also has a gorgeous version called “Black As Crow” on her equally gorgeous album “They’re Calling Me Home” ~ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xk9nuQv-TpM
The tune I sort of badly transition into (normally I do this whole chord thing but I wasn’t awake enough) is called “Wildwood Flower” and I can’t find the original version that I used as a base! I thought it was from Brett Ridgeway’s list of sample tunes but I’m not sure now… anyway, here’s Stephen Seifert’s version instead ~ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FGQuVVEnqDU
He also has a great live version of Blackest Crow which was a starting point for me coming up with my own dulcimer version ~ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Kcx3wl21PYo
(If you can mentally filter out the Christian elements, there is no better feeling than waking up on a cold mountain morning to someone playing music like this on a cabin porch.)
I promise I normally play it better but like… with more coffee and less camera!!!!!!
Leave a Reply