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I tend to like the more melancholy/haunting tunes and I'm just curious if any of you folks have a favorite that you gravitate towards for that kind of sound. I'd like to expand my repertoire in order to keep me and my depression's relationship spicy. Thanks!
Edited by - this_machine_is_out_of_tune on 07/02/2022 18:37:41
My guess is that it was 1994 that I heard Dr. Ralph et al. They were touring with the "National Tour of Traditional Banjo Styles. (Tony Ellis was on that fantastic bill, too.) At intermission, I asked Dr. Ralph, "Do you have that song on one of your CDs?" "Why, yes, young man," and he made the sale then and there of Saturday Night & Sunday Morning. The song was Rank Strangers, e.g., https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1eLxTZIDP_o and https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YqpOdKMrZS0 .
Tony Ellis' Trail of Tears was the first to come to mind. Knowing the backstory is important.
"I'm So Lonesome I Could Cry",
" Oh Death",
"Hush Little Baby, Don't You Cry",
"Donna Donna".
Edited by - tdennis on 07/02/2022 19:36:37
Darlin' Cory
Little Sadie
Streets of Laredo
Pretty Polly
Definitely got to add Earl Scruggs’ “Nashville Blues” to the melancholy tune list… to me many tunes that have a minor type of key/sound represents that emotion pretty well.
As far as songs with lyrics… man. I agree with the above and would add…
Dock Boggs’ “Country Blues”… and his “Danville Girl”…
There are many by The Stanley’s… old mountain songs… “The Lovers Quarrel”… if you want lonesome and sad I don’t think “The Fields Have Turned Brown” can be beat… “The White Dove”…
Some of Ralph Stanley's would be “The Midnight Storm”… “I Only Exist”… “Hot Night In August”… “The Darkest Hour Is Just Before Dawn”… etc.
Edited by - Pick1949 on 07/02/2022 22:36:03
Blue Night
Love Please Come Home
Body and Soul
Lonesome River, Ralph Stanley
Banks of the Ohio
Sally in the Garden
O Death
Drunkard's Lone Child
Drunkard's Doom
I'm Dying, Mother
Cold Blows the Wind
Edited by - TheLastWord on 07/03/2022 04:10:49
Tunes in G modal tuning (aka Sawmill or Mountain Minor) have a spooky character. There's a ton of them, so it's a rabbit hole you can down a long time. Here's a thread:
https://www.banjohangout.org/archive/358187
If you are in open G, just tune your B string up to C and there you have it.
Edited by - Eric A on 07/03/2022 04:28:57
Let's not forget LIttle Glass of Wine or Caleb Meyer.
Oh Death
Alone and Forsaken (Hank Williams, Sr)
There'll Come a Time (Ernest V. Stoneman and sheet music by Charles K. Harris, 1895)
Rock Salt and Nails
Dark as the night, Blue as the day
Undone in sorrow
Alison does haunting better than anyone I know of.
Without Anastasia https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XCxfZMpouZ4
Drawing Down The Moon https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oLWzjmyw1uA
Carrowkeel https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZXqpVnoGw60
The Devil Went Down To Berkley https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ekkcfGMR9HE
Edited by - Sheenjack on 07/03/2022 06:17:05
What would you give in Exchange for your Soul: Stanley Brothers
Oh no! Not liver and onions.
Okay, not a mournful tune but, to this once young kid, it sure as hell outta been.
Edited by - mrphysics55 on 07/03/2022 07:36:27
Red River Valley
Bury Me Beneath The Willow
Little Cabin Home On The Hill
Rock salt and nails Bed by the window. Pretty green hills. Poor Ellen Smith
It seems to me that most posters are listing songs, not tunes. Also seems to me that lyrics can influence judgment of a tune as mournful. So, herewith a few mournful tunes, only one of which has lyrics: 900 Miles (the minor version, lyrics notwithstanding, via Woody Guthrie); the aforementioned Nashville Blues; Clinch Mt. Backstep; Sally in the Garden.
Bill, you are correct. And now for some reason I can’t think of a mournful tune…. Now that’s sad .
Good point Bill. Aren't most folk or bluegrass tunes and lyrics usually about sorrow or death or sadness? I'm personally not a big on lyrics person but more of a tunes petson...My wife listens to the lyrics first and then the tune. So funny ha!
Originally posted by Bill RogersIt seems to me that most posters are listing songs, not tunes. Also seems to me that lyrics can influence judgment of a tune as mournful. So, herewith a few mournful tunes, only one of which has lyrics: 900 Miles (the minor version, lyrics notwithstanding, via Woody Guthrie); the aforementioned Nashville Blues; Clinch Mt. Backstep; Sally in the Garden.
Edited by - Jack Baker on 07/03/2022 14:49:32
If youre talking instrumentals , the first section of NGR's Bigfoot is hauntingly beautiful and lonely
Speaking strictly instrumentals:
Crossing the Cumberlands, sounds kinda haunting…
Edited by - AGACNP on 07/03/2022 19:58:44
quote:
Originally posted by Will FradyRock salt and nails
You wouldn't by any incalcuably small chance have a 2F tab of Rocksalt and Nails?
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