Chris Thile's rendition of Robert Burn's "Sweet Afton". Filmed at the Brig O' Doon House Hotel in Alloway, (Ayrshire, Scotland). For Lyrics, goto: www.bbc.co.uk/r...
I just came upon this now eleven year old RU-vid this morning as California fires rage in many parts of of California, and relatives are preparing to evacuate from their town of Healdsburg. Here in my Mendocino studio on the edge of the Pacific, cool winds keep the air polluted smoke away and we can pretend that only the Covid pandemic disturbs the peace. The fiddle player backing Chris singing this beloved song is the great John McCusker who has visited with me in my flute making workshop here in Mendocino when he played with the Battlefield Band. I also had for many years a second workshop in my beloved homeland, Scotland, where I first met a 17 year old John, when the B. Band played in a big tent at Brodie Castle a few minutes drive from our Nairn cottage, but it was when he later tried my Gibson mandolin in Mendocino that he fell in love with the instrument. He dazzled me the way he brought it to life, and wanted to buy it, but had no spare cash. I knew there and then that Gibson deserved a musician of John's calibre We settled on a win win agreement, witnessed by the rest of the Battlefield Band, he would walk away with the mandolin, I choose to sell it at half the price I bought it for, to be paid later, plus John would write and record a tune in honour of my uncle, Roderick, now deceased. Well, he did, I got my money and tune. I wrote him something of my uncle's life to inspire him, and you can hear that tune if you own a copy of John's CD, "Yella Hoos". The track is called, "The Guid Man". Thank you John! I follow you and Chris Thile so easily, you are over RU-vid. I am still making flutes in my 84th year, and hope to to have the priviege to keel over at my bench, the dirt still under my fingernails! Aye! Rod Cameron
Fabulously beautiful song...I sure miss the Nickel Creek days. I was a complete addict to their music for years. Superb solo rendition of this classic, Mr Thile.
He left out the third verse. How pleasant thy banks and green valleys below, Where, wild in the woodlands, the primroses blow; There oft, as mild evening sweeps over the lea, The sweet-scented birk shades my Mary and me. He does it on the Nickel Creek version.
This is one of the most beautiful songs I ever heard, but it's because of WHO is performing it. I played this cd over and over in 2000 for weeks. It's on the first Nickel Creek cd. Nobody sings OR PLAYS like Chris Thile!!
Clearly, there are 8 people floating around in the multiverse that have no soul.... Anyone that can listen to this kind of heaven and still hit the thumbs down button is either inhuman or just plain deaf....
The song's melody was written in 1838 By Jonathan Edwards Spilman, who married a niece of President Zachary Taylor. His daughter, Byrd Spilman Dewey, was a famous author of the 19th. century.
@mandolin12348 Not really, maybe bluegrass dredges never use different tunings. Even Paul MCcartney tunes down a whole step ... check out on Memory Almost full ..
We musicians often have a deeper sense, which makes us LOOK angry sometimes... its an intensity. We crawĺ into the song, whereas many just listen, we FEEL it.
