Posted on 10/01/2019 11:22:12 AM PDT by simpson96
"Wildwood Flower" is a variant of the song "I'll Twine 'Mid the Ringlets",[1] published in 1860 by composer Joseph Philbrick Webster, who wrote the music, with lyrics attributed to Maud Irving. The original Carter Family first recorded "Wildwood Flower" in 1928 on the Victor label. Maybelle Carter leads a rendition of the song on the 1972 album Will the Circle be Unbroken, and frequently performed the song in concert with Johnny Cash. The Carter version of the song is considered the premier example of "the Carter Scratch", a form of acoustic guitar playing in which the musician (in the case of the Carters, most notably Maybelle herself) plays both the melody and rhythm lines simultaneously.
Wildwood Flower - Mother Maybelle Carter
(Excerpt) Read more at youtube.com ...
With the roses so red and the lilies so fair
And the myrtle so bright with an emerald dew
The pale aranotus and eyes of bright blue
.
I will dance, I will sing, and my laugh shall be gay
I will charm every heart, in his crown I will sway
When I woke from my dreaming my idol was clay
All portion of love had all flown away
.
Oh, he taught me to love him and promised to love
And to cherish me over all others above
How my heart is now wondering no misery can tell
He's left me no warning, no words of farewell
.
Oh, he taught me to love him and called me his flower
That's blooming to cheer him through life's dreary hour
Oh, I long to see him and regret the dark hour
He's gone and neglected this pale wildwood flower
*music ping*
I was prepared not to like this. (I grew up with Joan Baez.) But not bad!
ML/NJ
I own this album “Will The Circle Be Unbroken” on vinyl from the 70’s and on digital from the late nineties. Great album. Doc Watson did some of his best pickin’ on it. Though I have 4-5 Doc albums too.
I went looking for Carter Style Guitar videos after watching the “Country Music” documentary and came across many, but this one shows something I hadn’t noticed:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qcb55gcSbt0
As he explaines, Maybelle’s style uses the thumb pick to play the melody on the lower strings of the chord. He then shows how Chet Atkins for example, plays the melody on the high strings.
Chet and Maybelle obviously learned a lot from each other, which is why they wanted him so badly, but I wonder if he developed his own unique style just so he couldn’t be accused of copying her?
She had her own style. Remarkable. Thanks for posting.
Woody Guthrie later used the tune for The Sinking of the Reuben James. The Reuben James was sunk October 31, 1941. Since this was after Germany invaded Russia, the party line had flipped. Hitler was no longer Stalin’s ally, Britain was no longer enemy number one, and the Almanac Singers — who had withdrawn their isolationist “Songs for John Doe” immediately after the launch of Operation Barbarossa — were now anti-Nazi and pro-U.S. intervention. That said, Reuben James is a great song, even if it was a party line production.
Always a favorite.
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