“Omie Wise” has been with us a long time, and been “folk processed” in a number of different directions.  That it is still with us is evidence of its power to move and affect the singer and the listener.  That there are quite a few professional recordings of it by significant artists gives evidence, I think, of a very large iceberg underneath.  With this post, I’d like to point out a few performances that take the music in a few different directions, and in the end point to a hymn that makes for some striking resonances.


Perhaps it’s a compliment to the song that this American song and story head back to the British Isles with a performance by Pentangle.  They use the most common melody.  Although I don’t think Pentangle cut much new ground with the musical arrangement, it is interesting to hear the song with a British voicing, as opposed to more Appalachian style folk singing.  That Pentagle take it up gives evidence to me of the place of “Omie Wise” in a shared canon.


“Omie Wise” by Pentangle (Spotify)


A more interesting Celtic-American arrangement is provided by Dyad, a group from British Columbia.

Dyad sort of lands half-way between the Appalachian style and Scottish voicing, with harmonies and drones flowing throughout their performance.  The tune is different from the dominant one.


“Omie Wise” by Dyad (Spotify)








Ruth Gerson also varies from the standard tune.  Her arrangement, like Doc Watson’s, is driven by fingerpicked guitar.  She accents the ballad storytelling in the song with some haunting vocal interstices.  Unlike many versions, she adds mention of Lewis’s jailbreak at the end of the song.


“Omie Wise” by Ruth Gerson (Spotify)

The Lonesome Sisters go back to the unaccompanied style of Piedmont or Appalachian folk singing, much like Wallin’s version.  The tune differs with the predominant version.  The starkness and the power of the tune and song go together, I think.  It’s interesting that they change Lewis’s name to “Jimmy.”  The song says that Lewis was captured for killing “a man,” but concludes with his confession of killing Omie.


“Omie Wise” by the Lonesome Sisters (Spotify)


All this talk reminds me of the blog post here, which mentions that the original song may have been sung to the  American tune of the hymn “How Firm a Foundation.”  Here are two performances of the tune.  To line them up with the lyrics while playing, click here.  


“How Firm a Foundation” by Tim Davey (Spotify)


“How Firm a Foundation,” by Sammy Tedder (Spotify)


Cyberhymnal indicates that the melody is called “Protection,” and was published in A Com­pil­a­tion of Gen­u­ine Church Mu­sic, by Jo­seph Funk (Win­ches­ter, Vir­gin­ia: J. W. Holl­is, 1832), so roughly contemporaneously with the creation of “Omie Wise.”  One wonders how the secular song and the religious would have bounced back and forth in the minds of singers, particularly in this verse: