Flee As A Bird

Free MP3, MIDI, sheet music, etc at http://soupgreens.com/2009/02/07/roots-of-new-orleans-funeral-music/

A morbid bluesy number with a Spanish tinge that was published in 1857. I discovered it because Jelly Roll Morton quotes it in "Dead Man Blues," so I gave it a New Orleans ending with a quote from "Yellow Dog Rag" by W. C. Handy, as if it was about to go into a happy blues and turn into a New Orleans funeral. That's where you normally hear this song now -- as the gothic minor bit at the beginning of a second line funeral.

Tom Waits influence in the singing, Flamenco influence in the guitar.

Creative Commons BY SA 3.0 license: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/

Played on a National Estralita, video made with Garageband, iMovie HD, and the built in camera.

Category:

Music

Tags:

• Flee
• As
• Bird

[pyrodork]

love it. just heard this song on an 1895 gramophone record played by sousa's band. very noisy playing it back, but i liked it. decided to look it up to see if anyone else knew it. i gotta learn how to play this one. thanks!

[lcsgze]

I'd love to hear that original. It'd be amazing to hear what Sousa did with it.

[PollyX5]

Very impressive arsenal of tunes you have, and prime performances you give!

[lcsgze]

Thanks, PollyX5!

[dannyclayburn]

Beautiful as always bro! Fantastic playing

[pyrodork]

if i can find a way to clean it up, i'll post it on here and let you know. it was very sloppy. maybe playing it back on a victorola will make it sound better.