House of the Rising Sun for Ukeeku.com Acoustic Challenge 2012

House of the Rising Sun is a very old song that has been around in one form or another since at least the late 19th century. Early on the song was from the viewpoint of a young woman who worked in a brothel in New Orleans called the House of the Rising Sun. Over the years, more men began to sing the song and changed the lyrics so that more recent versions are written from the viewpoint of a man whose life was either ruined by frequenting such establishments or, more likely, to imply that he is going to a prison called the House of the Rising Sun.

The song in its "modern" form was actually recorded some twenty years before Eric Burdon and the Animals popularized it in the 1960's. It's been covered by dozens of musicians over the years and, as with many old folks songs, it's become popular to add new lyrics as I have done with the "little brother" verse. (I believe the "baby sister" verse may also be fairly recent, though I'm not sure who penned it.)

I made this video for the ukeeku.com Going Acoustic Challenge 2012 - a contest run by ukeeku.com and hosted/tracked/talked about in the Contests forum at UkuleleUnderground.com.

Category:

Music

Tags:

• Acoustic Music
• Ukulele
• Traditional Song
• Cover
• Songs

[idrnoel]

Very nice. Good luck dude.

[PortlyKnight]

@idrnoel Thanks, 'preciate it!

[MusicMonsterW]

Good to see you do this song. It suits you well.

[PortlyKnight]

@MusicMonsterW Thanks man.  Maybe I'll do this one at UWC open mic this year. :)

[freackykit]

Great Job...Your voice definitely suits this kind of stuff and works well with the strummed bright uke uke sound we all adore.

What you say in your write up doesn't surprise me because many folk songs have been re-written and re-adapted through the years but I didn't know this was one of them...Interesting info and worth chasing up,

Chris

[PortlyKnight]

@freackykit Thanks Chris. I love old songs. Sometimes they become almost unrecognizable or even become nonsensical. I'll have to do "The All Go Hungry Hash House" some time. That's a 19th century song that was recorded decades ago but the recording was very unclear. By the time it was recorded in the 60's or 70's the artists were making up some pretty nonsensical stuff. LOL

[TooManySelves]

Love your voice - definitely perfect for this song.