Recently I attended a songwriting workshop where our assignment was to write a song in a style that we admired but couldn't see ourselves using; my specific assignment was to write a ballad about a family member. During the review portion of the workshop, I was advised to find an existing ballad tune to go with my lyrics.

I know next-to-nothing about ballad tunes, so I'm hoping you'll give me some suggestions of tunes that will not be immediately recognizable as already "belonging" to existing lyrics. One of my friends suggested "The Haunted Hunter"; is that ballad too well-known for me to use the tune for this?

My lyrics are written in "common meter" aka "da-DAH da-DAH da-DAH da-DAH da-DAH da-DAH da-DAH," four lines per verse with an AABB rhyme scheme. With your suggestion(s), if possible, please include a blueclickeything or other reference to a site where I can listen to the tune. Thanks in advance for any ideas you can pass along!