Shady Grove

Our Broken Creek project started when Lach really wanted to play Shady Grove on the banjo and I absolutely hated the song. Though the melody was catchy as all hell, with it’s modality somewhere in between major and minor like so many of those mountain songs, I just couldn’t get into the lyrics which seemed really creepy to me such as this verse: “Every night when I go home/Wife, I try to please her/The more I try, the worse she gets/Damned if I don't leave her”

“Lach, I just don’t relate to the lyrics, I can’t sing what I don’t relate to!” But then I thought about what kind of folk song it was - a courtship song, and I thought about what that meant to me - how Lach and I met and have worked together ever since we were teens, striving for that 50/50 split of work and equal support of each other’s dreams. So I rewrote the song so that you heard from both sides of the relationship

Cheeks are red as a blooming rose, eyes the prettiest brown

She’s the darlin’ of my heart, pretty little girl in town

Shady Grove, my little love, Shady Grove my darlin’

Shady Grove, my little love, I’m going back to Harlan

When I was a little boy, I wanted a Barlow knife

Now I am a great big boy, I’m looking for a wife

When I was a little girl, I wanted to visit London,

There’s so much more I wanna do, I aint ready for a husband!

Peaches in the summertime, apples in the fall

If I can’t have the one I want, I don’t want none at all

I wish I had a banjo string, made of golden twine

And every tune I’d play on it, I wish that boy was mine

When I was in Shady Grove, I heard those pretty birds sing

Next time I go to Shady Grove, I’ll take along a diamond ring

Every time I walk this road, it’s always dark and cloudy

But every time I see that boy, he makes my heart so happy

A kiss from my girl Shady Grove is better than brandy wine

And there is no girl in this world who’s prettier or smarter than mine