"When I first come to this country in eighteen and forty-nine I saw many fair lovers but I never saw mine I view-ed it all around me, saw I was quite alone And me a poor stranger and a long way from home. Well, my true love she won't have me and it's this I understand For she wants some free holder and I have no land I couldn't maintain her on silver and gold But all of the other fine things that my love's house could hold. Fair thee well to ol' Mother, fair thee well to my Father, too I'm going for to ramble this wide world all through And when I get weary, I'll sit down and cry And think of my Saro, pretty Saro, my bride. Well, I wished I was a turtledove, had wings and could fly Far away to my lover's lodgings, tonight I'd draw nigh And there in her lily-white arms I'd lay there all night And watch through them little winders for the dawning of day.
That is what an entire culture sounds like if you were wondering folks. Growing up in this area of the world I’ve heard songs about going across the sea and leaving the love of your life my whole life. It’s the story of an entire culture passed down the most organically way possible. Thru song, melody, and verse.
My granddaddy used to beat a fiddle to death! My grandmother sounds just like Iris.. it’s like watching them. They have been gone for a long time now… that sound n voice are so specific.
Everyone knows O Brother Where Art Thou, and that soundtrack is truly gold, but this movie is criminally underrated. This and the Gillian Welch and David Rawlings version of Wind and Rain are just.... fucking perfect.
My dads family came from Appalachia. My gran delivered mail on horseback, Dad walked 5 miles in the snow to a one room schoolhouse to get an education. Gran and great gran knew these songs and the heartbreak they sang about.
Lovely. Peggy Seeger has a lovely variant on RU-vid. I would listen to them all. I'm a city singer since the 1940's when ,with my child's voice at the time, I learned and sang one of the Pretty Saro variants. Now I teach and run a family singing group. Even being from the city, I have looked, found and learned much beautiful mountain music. Keep it alive even if you aren't a great singer.
I lived in Mt. Alto, PA for awhile, right in the Northern Appalachians, and met people who had lived there for generations. All kind and generous, for the most part. A few hell raisers.
Oh my stars...I have tried for years to think of thus movie title!!!! Thank you!! I could watch the movie everyday and still not get enough of that heartfelt music!!
She has the most amazing voice. The actor playing the fiddle is Muse Watson. He played Mike Franks on NCIS, the horse trainer in "Something to Talk Aboot"
