Mr. Tunney's version of "The Lowlands Of Holland" was the best this old American folkie has ever heard. It stayed with me for years but I was never able to come close to doing his grace notes and small ornamentations to my own satisfaction. Then, one day, I tried accompanying myself on the 5-string banjo. The hammer-ons and the pull-offs possible on that instrument were perfect for this great small song which left so much unsaid even while tossing out gloriously enigmatic little semantic hints at something bigger going on. It was better, in it's brevity, than more complete versions with 20 verses.
I was always one who needed to hit the notes on my instrument first--just a fraction of a second before I sang it----in order to stay somewhere near the melody. I followed my picking on my banjo or guitar like I might follow a pitch pipe.

Now that I'm unable to pick much of anything at all, there is no way I can begin to do this fine golden fragment of a song----but the tune and the graceful nuances Paddy Tunney saved on vinyl for us will be with me for a long old while I suspect.

Art Thieme