She Moved Through the Fair

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Often reserved for the female voice (though clearly a 'male viewpoint narration' and originally performed by a male semi-classical Edwardian music hall star) my version of this Irish tale of marital desertion. With drone guitar, mountain dulcimer a

singer songwriter acoustic folk british guitarist song celtic traditional fingerstyle scottish scotland guitar kelso

David Kilpatrick

Solo singer-songwriter and tunesmith playing British fingerstyle steel and nylon string guitar, and historic instruments. Scots and Irish influences.

I've been writing and playing songs and tunes since teenage years in folk clubs and pubs. I co-organise the Kelso Friday night live music sessions at the Cross Keys (hosted singaround 7.45-10pm) and Cobbles Inn (10-12pm open mic with The Cobbles Band) with the help of many friends. All welcome! Visit us at kelsofolkandlive co uk. It is worth clicking on the tab because the sound quality of my tracks is far higher than the auto player on this page. Many can be streamed or downloaded at 320KBps and the enhancement for solo guitar/voice far exceeds the benefit you get for highly compressed band recordings. My recordings are full dynamic, not compressed. Just select Hi-Fi for the first song, and an MP3 high bitrate window will open - you will still get a sequence of songs. Most of my downloads are free, but some 320KBps tracks are paid-for. These are selected because they make up my main instrumental album. I now have a YouTube page and have started doing some video recordings for fun: @daviddkilpatrick I have mainly played Lowden guitars since 1999. I current play a 1985 S5FN (nylon string), 1986 S22 (jumbo O-size mahogany/cedar), and 1995 S32 (small body rosewood/spruce). I also play my own 1997-built Martin 'kit' Grand Auditorium rosewood/spruce, a Sigma OM-T, Furch Little Jane, Tacoma Papoose, Guild 8-string baritone, Vintage V880 parlour guitar and Gordon Giltrap signature model, a Troubadour mahogany/spruce classical and an Adam Black 12-string. And that's just the guitars... also viola, mandolin, mandola, waldzither, bouzouki, Appalachian dulcimer, low D whistle, keyboards.

Song Info

Genre

World • Traditional Irish

Charts

Peak #31

Peak in subgenre #3

Author

Trad. Arr. David Kilpatrick

Rights

David Kilpatrick

Uploaded

November 24, 2003

Track Files

MP3

MP3 4.6 MB • 128 kbps • 5:02

Story behind the song

It was suggested by various friends that a song can't have only one chord. I suggested that some songs are based on a single-chord drone harmony with shifting accents - 9th, 7ths, minor 3rds and so on - and that this was one of them. This recording was made to show that it is possible to hold down a D9th chord on the guitar and never move fingers once. The chord, in drop D tuning, is 000230. 

I have added a McSpadden mountain dulcimer (www.mcspaddendulcimers.com), which echoes the vocal line in places and adds a ticking sound almost like a clock, and a large bodhran played with the fingers. In the middle of the song where the 'force' is greater the bodhran is struck with the nails very hard to make whipcrack sound through the microphone. At the end of the song, my nails are dragged round the skin of the drum while moving it in front of the microphone to create the eerier rushing sound like distant thunder (or a busy airport!). This is then panned when mixing down. No pickups are used for this track, just a Beyer vocal mike and an AKGC1000S condensor mike for the instruments.

Lyrics

My young love said to me
My mother won't mind
And my father won't slight you
For your lack of kine
And she stepped away from me
And this she did say
It will not be long love
Till our wedding day

She went away from me
And moved through the fair
And fondly I watched her
Moved here and move there
And then she went homeward
With one star awake
As the swan in the evening
Moves over the lake

The people were saying
No two were ere wed
But one had a sorrow
That never was said
She went away from me
With her goods and her gear
And that was the last
That I saw of my dear

I dreamed it last night
My dear love came in
So softly she came
That her feet made no din
She laid her hand on me
And this she did say
It will not long love
Till our wedding day

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