Oh The Dreadful Wind & Rain (Twa' Sisters)

This a strange song about murder and its consequences. A sister is thrown into a river to drown by her jealous elder sister because the boy they both love has chosen the younger as his girl. The drowned sister is fished out the river by a miller & various parts of her body are fashioned into a fiddle by a passing fiddler. The fiddle plays mournfully about the dreadful events.

The song has quite a few variants and originated in the UK - the ballad collector Child has a version of it in his collection of English and Scottish Popular Ballads (Child 10)

I have heard recordings where the song is played in a bluegrass or country folk style by Jerry Garcia, Gillian Welch and Crooked Still. However, given its British roots, I would prefer to play in a British style. So I am working on playing fingerstyle to pick out the melody and putting a bass line to it. It's done now so I will post a version of it.

Nick Benjamin, guitar maker

In addition to limiting myself to learning a few songs over the next few weeks, I will also focus on playing just one guitar - built by Nick Benjamin in Lewes. Lewes has been a centre for guitar making in the Uk for a while & Nick keeps the tradition going.

Nick is a master luthier, who really listens to what customers want and produces outstanding guitars. If you haven't seen his work, check it out at www.benjaminguitars.co.uk

I posted a photo of Nick holding my guitar at the side of this blog