Great version of the traditional Irish folk ballad 'She Moves Through The Fair' live @ The Church of St. Anne & The Holy Trinity in Brooklyn NY back in 1992. Again, an old audience VHS recording with a very good sound..
The lovely thing about these old songs is that they can be sung in different ways and they adapt to the different interpretations without losing anything. I love this song. When I was young and had a higher voice, it was my "party piece", sung unaccompanied. I enjoy Richard Thompson's version. His guitar work is sympathetic to the shape of the story, I think.
OK. To the point. I'm a 60-year-old Yank from the midwest...retired public school band director that also plays guitar. So I'm looking thru an old 1991 issue of Guitar Player mag & see an interview/article about Richard Thompson I'd not paid any attention to. I check him out on YT & was basically enjoying a different approach to the instrument...not bowled over, but enjoying his music/performances. Then, I heard it! A zydeco shuffle that I've only heard a few random times over the last 3+ decades, but never heard/saw any clue as to the artist or title of the song(!) I love it and it stimulates my DNA & causes spontaneous mood lift & desire to dance in some way...plain & simple! The tune is 'Tear-Stained Letter' And there's more sharing I must do, and ask a question or double-check that which I believe you know already as fact. So, I'm enjoying my listening experience with other RT tunes and some RU-vidr has found or arranged a beautiful New Age minute-long snippet of text she attributed to a poem by Richard Thompson entitled: 'She Moves Through the Fair'. Naturally, I assume it's a longer song off of a studio album...hoping anyways to hear more of that gorgeous chordal tapestry. Well, all I could find on YT were live versions of the song, and my impression was old folk tale music of northwestern England...? Naturally, I Googled for lyrics as the next step in my quest. The results came back and the primary hit attributed a Loreena McKennitt as the composer...not stated thusly, but then there was no info on if she was credited in another capacity like arranger, lyricist, performer, etc. (SO of course I go & check her out, and that's another story/adventure for me later...she is a stunning creature, suffice it to say!). Bottom line: my instinct tells me Thompson & McKennitt are not the creators of the text & subject, just folk musicians rendering an adaptation of a tale handed down thru the ages. Furthermore, talking about an EXTREME musical aesthetic experience this old retired music teacher had just 20 minutes ago...one I feel I need to share with whoever or the entire world is that once Richard hinted before playing it that it is a romanticly spooky tale...and so I read the entire lyrics....and an intense long-lasting cold shiver went up my spine - alone here with the cat on a Sunday morning...and as I followed the words along I realize I'm not sure of some meanings, i.e. '..she moved through the Fair' and here in the USA when in this context 'Fair' would be a busy hectic carnival with rides, screaming kids/people, corndogs and cotton candy...I don't think that's the correct definition...but I don't know...and it doesn't matter as my imagination is filling in the blanks. And she went her way homeward With one star awake, as the swans in the evening move over the lake... Good God man, I've never been into poetry or song lyrics for some abnormal reason, but this is about the most perfectly mysteriously beautiful concept put in words I've ever encountered! Just...I....my paltry vocabulary can't say any more about it to even get close to expressing the combined effect of the concept, the lyrics and the performance all together create something greater than its separate components, if that makes sense. ANn now I'm savoring in an eerie way, and getting that chill again up/down my back, that last verse '..so softly she entered, her feet made no din...' Hmmmmm...woooeeeeuuuu...could you - dare you - fall in love with a ghost? All this experience & learning because I was sure that zydeco tune was by Flaco Jimenez, The Texas Tornadoes, The Mavericks or some obscure Tejano/TexMex band! Nope! By an eclectic 70-year old Englishman...go figure! Cheers!
She moved through the Fair is a very old song, Richard didn't write it. As far as I can tell he hasn't released a solo version of it, but he did do a version with Fairport Convention on their 1969 album What We Did On Our Holidays. That version was sung by Sandy Denny.
@@Erik-em5od Hello Erik & thanks for the info! I'm still captivated by 'She Moves...' and really enjoy any new version I may come across on YT, such as the instrumental duet (lute/viol) I recently saw. The same duet segues into 'John Barleycorn Must Die' and I just love their arrangement! I recon the first I've ever heard any music from Fairport Convention and Sandy was just 2 years ago. Sandy really had a powerfully beautiful tone quality to her voice. Precise, yet organic. Poor thing...now she moves through the fair. :( And what a talented hoot Richard is! (Check out 1000 Years of Pop Music his trio did live in a documentary style. He's hilarious & a pretty gosh darn good picker, too!)
This is a poem traditional beautifully done by Mr Richard Thompson, I heard with Fairport,omg beautiful as well,it all started when I heard the Belfast Child, simple minds,wow( when covid first hit the world)
@joni36 in all seriousness thank you... without your videos this wonderful music wouldn't be part of my life and that is something that deserves some gratitude, so very sincerely, Thank you very much.
So strange; I saw a comment from a geezer at the NET, said dismissively RT used only standard banjo technique like Earl Scruggs. Cannot understand, Scruggs connotes folk music to me and RT has been a hero for me all my life - more because of his poetry than his guitar if I may say so.
So glad he packed in this guitar tapping nonsense......never saw Jansch, Renbourn and Graham do that. Great rendition of a great song that’s been with me all through my life.
Spare, sparse, simple and haunting, and guitar playing that sends shivers up the spine. I have heard this one from Fairport and Sinead O'Connor but I like Thompsons' version best. I get that maybe some folks don't like Thompson's voice, but he sings (and plays) way better than say Bob Dylan, and yet Dylan is a household name and Thompson is not....there ain't no justice in this world!. And to anybody that doesnt recognize Thompson as one of the premier songwriters and guitarists of all time, I feel sorry for you...
