Thursday, December 2, 2010

Ashokan Farewell

New Yorker Jay Ungar wrote "Ashokan Farewell" in 1982 and for nearly a decade, the sweet waltz, written in the style of a Scottish lament, was known mainly only to Jay's fellow fiddlers. But then in 1990s, filmmaker Ken Burns used it as the title theme of his Civil War series on PBS and suddenly the tune was an international hit. The song's always been a late-night favorite at the Flood jam sessions, especially when, like last night, Doug Chaffin moves over to guitar to partner with Joe Dobbs' beautiful fiddle.

No comments:

Post a Comment