Hard Times Come Again No More

Every once in a while I feel the need to do a little recording. I have heard this Stephen Foster song done by many different performers and somehow it always feels like a Shaker choir "reporting" that times are hard somewhere. To me, however, it always seemed like it should be sung by a fairly common person or persons and was in fact meant to be an angry frustrated cry that times were indeed hard and the singer wanted it to end!

Unpolished and organic are the two words I would use to describe this little offering. The unpolished part is obvious and apparent. I claim it to be organic insomuch as both instruments used for the recording were made by myself. The guitar is an over-sized baritone guitar that I started about 16 years ago and finished up about 5 years ago. It is also quite unpolished but it sounds pretty good. The few swipes of cello notes that are heard were played on the cello that I recently re-faced.

Last week I watched the Ken Burns special on the history of the Dust Bowl and this song was used as background for parts of the show. The way I sing many of the words in the piece is meant to be somewhat of a reflection of the voices in that film as well as those that I grew up around singing in a small-town Oklahoma church.