Song picture
Blackwater Side
Like
Playlist
Comment Share
License   $25
Free download
As a flute or fiddle tune, a lovely air: as a song, a short and powerful evocative image. A free rendering with modern guitar accompaniment.
singer songwriter acoustic folk british guitarist song celtic traditional fingerstyle scottish scotland guitar kelso
Artist picture
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 #2
Author
Trad. Arr. David Kilpatrick
Rights
David Kilpatrick
Uploaded
November 24, 2003
Track Files
MP3
MP3 3.2 MB • 128 kbps • 3:27
Story behind the song
A song I've heard in many versions, from Bert Jansch's groundbreaking bluesy guitar take (which I draw heavily on, but don't copy) to Hazel O'Connor belting this out on the stage of the Bongo Club in Edinburgh accompanied by Cormac de Brun on electric Irish harp! It's hard to find short songs in the mainstream ballad tradition, and perhaps this really isn't anyway - but it fits well with other traditional tales of a longer nature. A direct recording using my old Antoria steel string guitar, medium close miked, and vocal mike with minimum interference. Basically a studio 'live take'. I vary the pace and way I play this tune, even the pitch, fairly freely; the lowest notes which are used here are not ideal for performance vocals but OK in the studio, yet the highest notes are pretty tight at the same time. You can compress or expand the range of Blackwater Side by vocal variations very easily.
Lyrics
One morning fair I took the air Down by Blackwater Side And in gazing out all around of me The Irish girl I spied All through the far part of the night We lay in sport and play Till this young man arose and gathered his clothes Saying, faretheewell today That's not the story you told to me When first you lay your head upon my breast I would have believed with your lying tongue That the sun rose in the west Well, go you back to your father's garden Go you home and weep your fill And think you upon your own misfortune Brought by your wanton will
On 9 Playlists
Comments
Please sign up or log in to post a comment.