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.
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