We’ve updated our Terms of Use to reflect our new entity name and address. You can review the changes here.
We’ve updated our Terms of Use. You can review the changes here.

The Unquiet Grave (Child Ballad No. 78)

from Pine Barrens Volume One by Jackson Pines

/

  • Compact Disc (CD) + Digital Album

    Our new album of Pinelands folksongs, Pine Barrens Volume One, on Compact Disc with fully pressed CD case, special edition disc artwork by Steven Omark, and shrink-wrap.

    Only 100 for now. Grab em while there are still CD players.

    Includes unlimited streaming of Pine Barrens Volume One via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality download in MP3, FLAC and more.
    ships out within 2 days
    edition of 100 

      $15 USD or more 

     

  • Streaming + Download

    Includes unlimited streaming via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality download in MP3, FLAC and more.
    Purchasable with gift card

      $2 USD  or more

     

  • Buy the Full Digital Album

  • Limited Edition 10" Lathe Cut Vinyl
    Record/Vinyl + Digital Album

    This is a super rare edition 10" Lathe Cut Vinyl Record of Pine Barrens Volume One.
    For record enthusiasts, collectors, and those who love surface noise and lathe cut vinyl.

    It plays at 33 1/3 RPM.
    Each one is one-of-a-kind and hand made by For The Record in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.

    Because of the amount of time on a 10", the vinyl has five songs on it:

    Side A:
    1. Depression Song
    2. Mt. Holly Jail

    Side B:
    Love Is A Gamble
    The Unquiet Grave
    Herdman Hymn (Duet)

    NOTE: This is not an audiophile, super-HD plate pressing, but instead is hand made on a lathe from the 1940's and sounds like a recording from that era, which is what we intended when we recorded the songs at The Boghouse in the Pine Barrens.

    For The Record suggests: Lathe cut records have shallower grooves and some needles may skip across the record. Please make sure the vinyl and needle are clean before playing. They also suggest increasing the anti-skipping setting and/or increasing weight on the tonearm compared to plate pressed vinyl.

    Includes unlimited streaming of Pine Barrens Volume One via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality download in MP3, FLAC and more.     ... more

    Sold Out

about

"The Unquiet Grave" is the second single from our new album, and is perhaps the cornerstone of this project. A very old song about grief.

The lyric goes back as far as circa 1400CE England or Scotland, and the music we sourced was recorded in Ocean County, NJ in the 1930's. Its journey from where it began to where we found it is one of the reasons we made this album.

This tune is referred to as a Child Ballad. It's not a song for children, and is not a song about children. Far from it. In the 1800s, Francis Child spent his career collecting 305 English and Scottish ballads, writing down every version of every one he could find. Although many ballads have been found in NJ, No. 78 had only been found in Newfoundland and Kentucky, until...

This song was heard by songcatcher Herbert Halpert in 1937, when an 82 year old man by the name of Allen Clevenger sang his version of this song in Magnolia, NJ, a town that no longer exists. He said he learned it from his mother-in-law, Mrs. Grover, who grew up in Colliers Mills, where we grew up fishing with our dads in our hometown.

The melody was different from the many Appalachian versions we had heard, and so we created our own arrangement around the melody and devised this interpretation. We felt the flute a correct addition for a tune that also goes by "Cold blows the wind."

Our version continues the tradition by applying the Pine Barrens melody to an older version of the lyrics, with accompaniment created by us in the Pine Barrens in 2022. Quite the story.

credits

from Pine Barrens Volume One, released February 3, 2023
Joe Makoviecki - vocals, guitar
James Black - stand-up bass
Cranston Dean - vocals
Max Carmichael - wooden flute

Single art: From "Folklore Songs of The United States"

Special thanks to Dorothea Dix Lawrence, whose book Folklore Songs of the United States we used to research the Pine Barrens variation of this ballad and who put Pine Barrens folk music "on the map", literally.

license

all rights reserved

tags

about

Jackson Pines image

Jackson Pines Philadelphia, Pennsylvania

New Album "Pine Barrens, Volume One" and single "Wheel" out now!

* * * * *

"A cross between Mississippi John Hurt-like country blues and Paul Simonesque folk-rock." - The Aquarian

"These guys are 'workers in song,' to quote Leonard Cohen. They are engaged in the pursuit of music and songwriting for all the right reasons, the honest burning hunt to reach the heights." S. Felice ... more

contact / help

Contact Jackson Pines

Streaming and
Download help

Redeem code

Report this track or account

If you like Jackson Pines, you may also like:

Bandcamp Daily  your guide to the world of Bandcamp

On Bandcamp Radio

Featuring Riley Pinkerton (aka The Rat Queen) from the theatrical NYC rockers, Castle Rat.
listen now