Bushes and Briars (Sandy Denny)

  1. Martin Jonas
    Martin Jonas
    This is a recording I've just made on my short-scale Ozark tenor guitar (in GDAE tuning), of one of my favourite Sandy Denny songs, not to be confused with the traditional English folk song of the the same name.

    Rhythm track and lead on verses 1, 3 and 4 on the tenor guitar, lead on verse 2 and backing on verse 3 on my Gibson Ajr. Recorded dry with no sound processing. Most of the pictures to go with the video are of our local village church.



    Martin
  2. John Kelly
    John Kelly
    A lovely arrangement here, Martin. Tune has a beautiful feel to it and suits the instruments really well. Pictures suit the mood too. Well up to your usual standard.
  3. Ed Goist
    Ed Goist
    Really nice job Martin!
    Excellent playing of a beautiful arrangement. Good job!
    Thanks for posting.
  4. GKWilson
    GKWilson
    Very nice Martin. The quality of the sound on your recordings has really improved. Do you have new equipment or just found the sweet spot for your mic?
    I also love the video. I'm a sucker for old churches and castles. When that church was built the closest thing to it around here was a medicine man in a teepee.
    Gary
  5. Martin Jonas
    Martin Jonas
    Thanks for the kind comments! It's a enjoyably melancholic tune (like many of Sandy Denny's were).

    Gary: same equipment as ever, but I think the sound quality is better on the audio-only recordings with Audacity than on the webcam recordings. Probably because the Logitech webcam software prioritises video quality during real-time encoding.

    Our village church was built from the 12th century onward, with the tower completed in 1571. I should say that three of the pictures (at 1:44, 1:52 and 2:32) are of a different village church, namely that of Cropredy in Oxfordshire, because of that village's close connection to the music of Fairport Convention and Sandy Denny (it's where the annual Fairport reunion festival has been taking place since 1980).

    The pictures are chosen to go with the lyrics:

    I can't believe that it's so cold and there ain't been no snow
    The sound of music comes to me from every place I go
    Sunday morning there's no-one in church but the clergy's chosen man,
    And he is fine, I won't worry about him, got the book in his hand.

    Oh there's a bitter east wind and the fields are swaying, the crows are round their nests
    I wonder what he's in there saying to all those souls at rest
    I see the path which led to the door and the clergy's chosen man
    Bushes and briars, you and I, where do we stand?

    I wonder if he knows I'm here, watching the briars grow
    And all these people beneath my shoes, I wonder if they know
    There was a time when every last one knew a clergy's chosen man
    Where are they now? Thistles and thorns among the sand

    I can't believe that it's so cold and there ain't been no snow
    The sound of music comes to me from every place I go
    Sunday morning there's no-one in church but the clergy's chosen man,
    Bushes and briars, thistles and thorns upon the land.

    Martin
  6. gortnamona
    gortnamona
    lovely Martin, nice one !
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