The D.K. Wilgus article I mentioned in my first post this week divides the American versions of what it refers to as the “Rose Connoley” ballad into two forms. The first is what Wilgus calls the “Come-all-ye” form, which normally includes about 12 stanzas, the first beginning with that phrase, and occasionally includes other details (like, for instance, the killer’s name). I haven’t yet heard a recorded version of this form of the song. The second, the “Down in the Willow Garden” version, is far more common, and usually just includes stanzas 2, 3, 4, 8, 9, and 10. Those lyrics, or close variations, can be found here. Most of the arrangements of the song follow the “Old Rosin the Beau” melody, with some close variations.
The one main exception I can find on the arrangement is Nick Cave’s, which I’m including both because it’s the principal exception on the melody front, and because Shaleane would give me the business if I ignored it. (Plus it will be helpful later, I think). Cave stays with the latter, six-stanza lyric form, but gets away from “Rosin.”
Cave can be seen performing his post-punk arrangement here at a concert in Chile:
“Down in the Willow Garden,” by Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds
Somewhat more mellifluously, singer-songwriter Ruth Gerson reprises Cave’s arrangement on her murder ballad album, “Deceived.” (Cave’s version isn’t available on Spotify, Gerson’s isn’t available on YouTube.)
In this NPR interview discussing the release of “Deceived,” Gerson makes some interesting comments about the challenges of enacting so many stories of violence against women in “Deceived.” She also reflects more generally on the experience of singing these song, and what that experience does for the singer:
“As a singer, there are moments when it is difficult to sing because an emotion erupts, and in some ways the physical task of singing can save you from getting caught up in the emotion. The most important thing are the words and the melody. They are inseparable. They shape each other and they shape you.”
When I first envisioned this post, I thought it would be a discussion of how few female interpreters of the song there were. Then I realized the sheer factual inaccuracy that premise would represent, and abandoned ship on that line of discussion. In fact, a good many of the contemporary interpreters of the song are women, and there’s none of the mixing around of who the singer is that there occasionally is in “Frankie and Johnny.” Everybody sings the song from the perspective of the perpetrator.
Incidentally, I did take note that “Down in the Willow Garden” was included on Herta Marshall’s 1957 recording, … um…aptly titled: “To You with Love: American Folk Songs for Women.”
In poking around on YouTube, though, I noticed this clip that made me wonder if it’s easier for a female performer to pull off the song as a serious piece. Sure, Dan Tyminski and Tim O’Brien have done recent versions, but my guess is that they set up their performances a bit more successfully than the gentlemen below.
Matt Downer and Clark Williams
Rather striking, I think, to hear a crowd in Sweetwater, Tennessee react with laughter to the song. It’s hard to know without understanding the context of the performance, or being able to see the expressions of the performers where this reaction may have come from. Now, don’t get me wrong; I know there’s a distinction between taking something seriously and not having a sense of humor. I believe you can take something seriously, and have a sense of humor about it, which is what the Coen Brothers get right. But, it does seem odd to me that the audience would find this song so excessively violent as to be comical. (Again, I think comedy and the murder ballad awaits us still in the weeks ahead.)
Kristin Hersh, of Throwing Muses, performs a solo arrangement below, which she sets up for her audience with some sardonic acknowledgment of the song’s content. Nevertheless, it’s pretty clear she has her audience right where she wants them.
Kristin Hersh
Perhaps it’s because the audience is British. Nevertheless, an effective performance, I think–with a slight variation off of the “Rosin” tune source. Not entirely there, but not entirely distant from it.
Bailey Cooke
There are a host of professional, semi-pro, and amateur performances of this song out there. I’ll wrap up with one of my favorite performances (in the semi-pro category, I guess, at the time), a young Bailey Cooke performing at the 83rd Annual Johnson County Old Time Fiddlers Convention in Laurel Bloomery, Tennessee on Friday 22 August 2008.
The clawhammer banjo performance crackles with energy, the vocal delivery is spot-on and unaffected, and the crickets don’t hurt, either. Make sure to turn it up so you can hear the crickets. It’s not too hard to imagine a young Jean Ritchie enjoying a similar performance on her family’s porch a few decades before Ms. Cooke was born.
