“Three Little Babes” is a traditional Appalachian folk song whose origins can be traced back to its 18/19th century Scottish/English ancestor called “The Wife Of Usher’s Well”. Popular in the South and Midwest of the USA, the song tells a story of a woman whose three children died while being away from home. Their spirits visit their mother on Christmas day, but despite all her joy and heartfelt welcome (she doesn’t realise they’re ghosts) they won’t stay saying that there’s a better world waiting for them.
The song is, understandably so, very often sung in a rather slow, haunting manner, sometimes a cappella; however, we decided to give our version a somewhat different feel. We’re very grateful to our special guest, Maciek “Magic” Zaworonek, whose brilliant harmonica playing imparted a very special spark into this otherwise very gloomy story. The recording was also our first opportunity to test the experimental CFBbDGC guitar tuning in action.
