Best Traditional Songs to Paint

Subject: Best Traditional Songs to Paint
From: Richie
Date: 21 Nov 08 - 08:20 PM

Hi,

I post here some and have been working posting the Carter Family song origins. I also put them on my blog. I've recently started painting traditional songs. I try to follow the lyrics carefully and even paint the lyrics on my paintings.

Here are some of my paintings on my blog:
http://richardmattesonsblog.blogspot.com/ You'll need to go back a few posts to see most of them.

My series is called the Bluegrass Series so I'd like to stick to songs and ballads that are found in the US.

I need some help deciding my next song paintings. What would be some great songs to paint?

A couple I'm considering are:

Train on the Island: What powerful lyrics and images!

Pretty Polly: One of the great murder ballads. I've done "Silver Dagger" already, a song I love (see blog).

Black Jack Davy/David:

Someone suggested Red River Valley and I did that for them. Anyway what songs do you think?

Richie

Subject: RE: Best Traditional Songs to Paint
From: Melissa
Date: 22 Nov 08 - 12:24 AM

I looked for the Red Apple Juice one (that was you, wasn't it?) and couldn't find it..is it on your blog?

Have you done Evalina or Black Velvet Band?

Subject: RE: Best Traditional Songs to Paint
From: GUEST,Jack Campin
Date: 22 Nov 08 - 05:03 AM

How about "The House Carpenter"?

Subject: RE: Best Traditional Songs to Paint
From: Richie
Date: 22 Nov 08 - 08:20 AM

Hi,

Thanks for the suggestions. I did a painting of Red Apple Juice, it's on my blog in October. This is a list of the ones so far:

All the Pretty Little Horses
I Wish I was a Mole
Sally Goodin
Molly And Tenbrooks
Bird in a Cage
Froggie Went A-Courtin'
Darlin' Corey
Red Apple Juice
Silver Dagger
Banjo Pickin' Girl
Careless Love
Bury Me Beneath The Willow
Red River Valley

Subject: RE: Best Traditional Songs to Paint
From: VirginiaTam
Date: 22 Nov 08 - 08:36 AM

what about that one from Cold Mountain

I WISH MY BABY WAS BORN

I wish, I wish my baby was born
And sitting on its papa's knee
And me, poor girl Were dead and gone
And the green grass growing o'er my feet

I ain't ahead, nor never will be
Till the sweet apple grows On a sour apple tree
But still I hope, The time will come
When you and I shall be as one

I wish, I wish my love had died
And sent his soul to wander free
Then we might meet where ravens fly
Let our poor bodies rest in peace

The owl, the owl Is a lonely bird
It chills my heart With dread and terror
That someone's blood There on his wing
That someone's blood There on his feathers.


Lot of imagery in this song.

Subject: RE: Best Traditional Songs to Paint
From: GUEST,leeneia
Date: 22 Nov 08 - 09:13 AM

how about 'Colorado Trail.' An inspiration for Rocky Mountain scenery.

Subject: RE: Best Traditional Songs to Paint
From: katlaughing
Date: 22 Nov 08 - 11:34 AM

What a neat thing to do! Thanks for posting the links. I really enjoyed looking at your paintings.

How about The Cowboy's Barb'y Allen as found and done by our own Art Thieme? It's in a thread and/or DT. I esp. like the imagery of "made all the boys ride saddle-sore":-)

Subject: RE: Best Traditional Songs to Paint
From: Richie
Date: 22 Nov 08 - 04:46 PM

Hi,

Thanks for the replies. I've considered Barbara Allen which was a country hit for Bradley Kincaid. I like the image in the last verse. Different lyrics are good too.

I WISH MY BABY WAS BORN is powerful. Colorado trail would be another western scene, like my Red River Valley painting.

R-

Subject: RE: Best Traditional Songs to Paint
From: Alice
Date: 22 Nov 08 - 05:57 PM

I Wish My Baby Was Born, is from an older family of songs, The Butcher Boy

http://www.mudcat.org/Detail.CFM?messages__Message_ID=13356

Subject: RE: Best Traditional Songs to Paint
From: Alice
Date: 22 Nov 08 - 06:20 PM

Richie, you can search the lyrics database here at Mudcat for different subjects by putting an @ symbol in front of the word, such as @mountain. Look for the search box at the top of the forum page. It says "Lyrics and Knowledge Search" above the search box.

Alice (a painter, too)

Subject: RE: Best Traditional Songs to Paint
From: Melissa
Date: 22 Nov 08 - 06:50 PM

My Blackbird is Gone
Razorback Steak

Copper Kettle

thanks for posting a link to your blog, Richie--neat stuff!

Subject: RE: Best Traditional Songs to Paint
From: pdq
Date: 22 Nov 08 - 08:47 PM

The old cowboy song The Santa Fe Trail is a possibility, but don't put none of them saguaro cactus in the picture. They ain't native to New Mexico.

Subject: RE: Best Traditional Songs to Paint
From: Art Thieme
Date: 22 Nov 08 - 09:21 PM

During the 2 decades I played for students in the 8 counties around Chicago--and in Chicago, I always challenged the teachers to use my visit to the school as an excuse for an art project. I asked 'em to have their students draw a picture illustrating one of the songs I had sung.

Folks, I still have some of those illustrations. All were wonderful. My favorites, though, were not from a song I'd sung. It was the drawing of a tall tale I always told after hearing Richard Chase tell his version of it. Here is a shorter version of the tale: --- A dog has an accident and winds up in 2 pieces. I put the two sides together, and tied him up in my shirt for a bandage---and ran home with him to heal. I put him in front of the TV and turned on Oral Roberts--the healing evangelist of the airways. Every so often he would yell, "HEAL" as loud as he could---which drove the dog nuts. My puppy wanted to jump down and hang out by my leg where an obedient dog would go.

Well, all went fairly well actually. Two years later I figured the dog might be O.K. (That very day he stuck his head out of the shirt and ate a hundred dollar bill laying on the bed next to him. I was angry!)

I unwrapped the dog and saw I'd made a huge mistake. I had put him together with 2 legs up and 2 legs down. He could run forever chasing rabbits! He just ran on 2 legs until he got tired, then flip over, and he'd run on the other 2 legs. We never knew if he was coming or going after that. And he could bark at both ends too.

Now---remember that hundred dollar bill he'd eaten? I wasn't gonna let that go. I fed him 12 bottles of mineral oil and locked him in the outhouse. But he couldn't pass it. It was counterfeit!!!

----------------------------------------------------------
The kids loved to draw that puppy the way they imagined it might look as I'd described it. I did make a point of letting the kids know there was no right or wrong way to draw that dog. What mattered was how each one 'saw' the dog. It was amazing.

I would stress the point that, like this puppy, if you get hurt, very often you end up even BETTER than you were before!

Art Thieme

Subject: RE: Best Traditional Songs to Paint
From: Richie
Date: 22 Nov 08 - 10:02 PM

Art,

That's quite a tail or is it two tails?! I dunno.

R=

Subject: RE: Best Traditional Songs to Paint
From: Bert
Date: 22 Nov 08 - 11:03 PM

Clementine
Little Joe the Wrangler
Cripple Creek
The Oregon Trail
Old Joe Clark (Or Old Joe Offer ;-)

Subject: RE: Best Traditional Songs to Paint
From: Richie
Date: 23 Nov 08 - 10:24 PM

Thanks for the ideas everyone.

I'm going to start a new painting very soon.

Richie