#FolkHorrorMonth #FolkMusic #FolkHorror
I have been beset with plague. So I didn't get to do anything with this song - what you're hearing are preliminary scratch tracks to test the key. But the horrors persist and so must I.
For a lot of good info on this song, check out this Mainly Norfolk wiki on it: mainlynorfolk.info/lloyd/songs/theunquietgrave.html This is a lovely song with a really sweet sentiment and it's in Folk Horror Month because it is entirely a ghost story - but, to my mind, it is the sweetest kind of bittersweet love story. A man mourns his departed wife for a year and a day and she rises from the grave and tells him not to waste away mourning, but rather to live his life until death is actually upon him. Also, she's tired and he's keeping her up with all his moanin'. (I kid.) Sort of.
As you'll see in the video, there are two tunes used for this popular old song - the ballad (as sung by The Dubliners & Luke Kelly) and The Star of the County Down tune, perhaps more popular now due to recent use (as in Penny Dreadful.) My original plan was to meld the two into a larger song, there was no guitar, and the resulting medley was for harpsichord, cello, and voice. Maybe some Irish whistle. Things went... AWRY. Even by the time I was recording scratch tracks my voice was starting to fry around the edges and I knew pretty much by the end of that session that I was getting sick. By the next morning I was a mucus monster and my voice was gone, as was every ounce of energy & willpower. Booooo.
Thanks for joining me this year for Folk Horror Month! Until next year - stay weird, get creepy, and have a blessed Samhain & a Happy Halloween. ~m