She has the most amazing voice. The actor playing the fiddle is Muse Watson. He played Mike Franks on NCIS, the horse trainer in "Something to Talk Aboot"
I live in the Appalachian mountains this is my heritage and it is slowly being forgotten. The younger kids don't care to learn the music ,cooking ,building smoke houses. I was blessed to have lived here and listened to my grandparents and great grandparents their wisdom will thankfully continue through me and what I've taught my boys.
Everyone knows O Brother Where Art Thou, and that soundtrack is truly gold, but this movie is criminally underrated. This and the Gillian Welch and David Rawlings version of Wind and Rain are just.... fucking perfect.
jim taylor you are right. My dads family all came from WVA mountains.Strangely even though I never lived there. This music calls to me and awakens feelings.
When I close my eyes I can hear my "Omaw" Johnson singing. Her voice so much like this pretty lady. When I was a kid there wasn't any air conditioning. In the summer evenings after supper dishes were washed and put up, everyone would sit on the front porch and either play or sing in the evening breeze until the air stopped moving and the mosquitoes came out. Bless you pretty lady.
Lyrics: When I first come to this country in 1849 I saw many fair lov'yers But never saw mine I viewed it all around me Saw was quite alone Well me, a poor stranger, and a long way from home Fair thee well to ol' mother Fair thee well to father too I'm going for to ramble This wide world all through And when I get weary I'll sit down and cry And think of my Saro, pretty Saro, my bride Well, I wished I was a turtle dove Had wings and could fly Far away to my lovers lodgings Tonight I draw the night; And there in her Lily white arms I'd lay there all night And watch through them little wind'ers for a dawning of day
Being Australian, i grew up with zero knowledge of this kind of music until my Mum made me sit down and watch Songcatcher. Captivated isn't even an adequate description. Appalachian Folk is on a level all of it's own and (if it even makes sense) makes my soul ache to listen to....
What a kind comment. I'm only just beginning to uncover my own Appalachian roots, and I thank you for discovering and appreciating the music of my ancestors. How great is the internet?
@@MrsGranpaws Anybody who's less than 2 generations removed from people whose only entertainment was "porch music" should feel this connection. My folks families both moved from the South 75 years ago, but they were country musicians (or "old time" music, before "country"), so I heard the old songs as I went to sleep for the years of my childhood, even though we were in California. I was later a hippy, but when I started hearing Gram Parsons, and EmmyLou and JD Crowe...man, right in the heart, and the music has been a lifelong blessing, though I think I may have missed disco completely. sry.
Loved the movie. This is where I first heard Iris De Ment and I fell in love with that voice of hers right away. That tune and the way she voices it just gives me shivers. It is so heartfelt and simple yet filled to the top with such emotion. Not everyone's cup of tea; I love it.
This was also my first exposure to Iris DeMent, and I became a lifelong fan. I was fortunate to see her in concert once. Merle Haggard described her as the best vocalist he'd ever heard.
@@minniemouska4320 I had never heard of her until I saw that film. She sat down in that chair, all dirty and unkempt, her husband brought out the scratchy old violin and out of her mouth came a song that just touched me way down. Instantly became a fan.
Great post. I'm from a place called Bunclody in County Wexford, in the south east of Ireland. There is a song called 'The Streams of Bunclody', the lyrics of which bear a striking resemblance to the above. However, our tune is close to an Irish air called 'The Lakes of Coolfin'. It is amazing how songs have a life of their own and how the same themes emerge in different guises all over the world. Thanks again.
This song probably changed very very little over the centuries, and alot of appalachian hill people immigrated here from Ireland, england and Scotland. Ive heard these ballads have been near perfectly preserved in our mountains.
This music is absolutely amazing!! I know i have Celtic heritage and this music speaks to my soul like almost no other. I believe this is the case for many who have Celtic heritage. There is something special in the history of this music. We need to hold onto it and even understand the history further!
I saw this movie for the first time yesterday, June 12, 2016 and I was blown away by this song and others in the move. Two thumb up here. I love Appalachian music.
i remember seeing this movie the first time, and it was at this moment, when Iris sang this awesome traditional, that i really began to "get it." Wonderful.
my family is from sw virginia by way of the mountains and moved there from western nc about one hundred yrs ago. i grew up breathing this music. no one captures its spirit better than iris. she is a blessing. i and my daughter sang her "these hills" at my mom's funeral.
It ain't lost, it's alive and well. Us young folks over in the mountains keep it alive. Heck, there's an old general store from the early 1900s by my house, about a 5 minute drive. It's no longer open, but every Friday members of the community come on out to it for 3 hours and bring guitars, banjos, fiddles and mandolins. We sing these old tunes, and new bluegrass ones. The young folks flatfoot/buckdance/clog, whatever ya wanna call it, there. I have old Hymn Books from the 1800s-1880s that I still sing hymns out of acapella out on my family's property, or when I'm taking a walk at work.
Never Ever - luckily there were people working for the Library of Congress that researched theses songs.... Folk music in England and Ireland and Scotland developed and the older forms were forgotten but in the Appalachians the old music was geographically isolated and didn't deviate as much from the more ancient songs... just spent some time on a porch with a young man with me playing guitar and he the banjo going through some traditional songs... hopefully more young people will be drawn to folk music and it's power to resonate with the human spirit... hopefully there's hope...
Lovely. Peggy Seeger has a lovely variant on TH-cam. I would listen to them all. I'm a city singer since the 1940's when ,with my child's voice at the time, I learned and sang one of the Pretty Saro variants. Now I teach and run a family singing group. Even being from the city, I have looked, found and learned much beautiful mountain music. Keep it alive even if you aren't a great singer.
@gjc82071 makes a good point. My teenage daughters who are definitely not into mountain music or bluegrass or country and western both enjoy the movie and are happy to sit with me for the replays !! This upload introduced me to the movie, but, I had to purchase a copy as the DVD was not available for rent - in Australia. So thanks for the upload, great movie and Iris is a wonderful singer.
I lived in Mt. Alto, PA for awhile, right in the Northern Appalachians, and met people who had lived there for generations. All kind and generous, for the most part. A few hell raisers.
This music will live as long as there is a longing for home or love or belonging. The fiddle, the mandolin or the pipes make the music but the voice of the singer makes it soar. Here in ND it is not forgotten.
I'm sure I have the Appalachian mountains on my track, some other life time that touches me deeply when I hear this kind of Music! I would so hate to lose it entirely. Love Iris, and loved that movie!
This movie is great and so is this song. I love ballads. "Pretty Saro" and " Raglin Road" always work to put my niece and nephew to sleep when I sing to them. There is just something so great about these ballads that even after all these years they still evoke something in people. I especially love the fiddle music in this song.
My dads family came from Appalachia. My gran delivered mail on horseback, Dad walked 5 miles in the snow to a one room schoolhouse to get an education. Gran and great gran knew these songs and the heartbreak they sang about.
Oh my stars...I have tried for years to think of thus movie title!!!! Thank you!! I could watch the movie everyday and still not get enough of that heartfelt music!!
The actor is Muse Watson (NCIS), and the actual playing is done by David Mansfield, the music director. I assume Watson was using a brand new bow which had never been rosined, because that would make no sound when drawn across a string. David Mansfield said that this scene was done live, with him playing fiddle off-camera, while Iris was actually singing, rather than doing an audio track later in a studio, and mixing it in with the video in post-production.
If you want to see a woman's true beauty...just look at Iris. With no makeup no nothing..she exudes Ultimate Beauty. And on top of that? Iris' music is simply Heaven Itself. Iris is one of our greatest Heroines of Music. Thank you Iris. Thank you and God bless you.
Iris is actually singing this in real time, and Muse Watson is doing a fiddle pantomime using a brand new bow, which has never had any rosin applied. That makes the fiddle completely silent. It's fairly visible to a fiddler who knows what to look for, as the bow hair is shown in good detail. David Mansfield, the music director and writer/director's husband is playing off-camera while Iris sings, all in real time. That, and the difficulty of it, is discussed in Special Features on the DVD.
I've heard there was a time when everyone made music instead of just listening. It was more unheard of to not know how to sing or play an instrument than for it to be considered a talent. Maybe it had to do with not having anything to play it back on. When you can't just pull up a song you like, if you want to hear it you have to play it or find someone who can. Something about the necessity of being able to make music in order to hear it made people more musical. This movie represents that time and place.
Frottog as late as the 1900s, an educated person was expected to know another language such as French or Latin,be able to write beautiful handwriting,and play an instrument. It is amazing to me how many of the old Irish and Scottish folk songs came over here because someone always could play the fiddle and people used to sit on their porches in the evenings and sing together. Now people no longer socialize and pass on the songs and they are being lost. I wonder if the rise of technology has caused more social isolation.
I might not be from the Carolinas, or the south, etc., but (I am from P-Town OH.), I am proud of my roots, my grt. grandma came from poverty, raised during the depression, her mom was literally born in the cliffs of KY, talikng about literally pulling yourself up by your boot straps, very proud of my heritage, ...there is something beautiful about having simple kind of life, close to God and nature as they were in the movie, close enough you knew what plants were there and how to use them.
One of our favorite scenes from this monumental film. How my heart pines for those mountains now destroyed for the coal they bore... Reminds me of my Daddy's Mama's side of the family and makes me proud.
This is the way this song should sound -- just what the movie tells us. This is roots music, reflecting genuine experience. And it is a fine movie! Iris Dement really sings from the soul. She has what Jean Ritchie has.
Pretty Saro (4) I came to this country in seventeen-forty-nine, I saw many a true love, but I never saw mine. I looked all around me and found I was alone. And me a poor stranger, and a long way from home. Down in some lonesome valley, down in some lonesome place, Where the wild birds do whistle their notes to increase, I think of pretty Saro whose waist is so neat, And I know of no better pastime than to be with my sweet. I wish I were a poet and could write a fine hand, I would send my love a letter that she could understand. And I'd send it by a messenger where the waters do flow And think of pretty Saro wherever I go. Notice the 1800's date in the second version and how the folk process converted "waist is so neat" to "ways air so complete" or vice versa. Dorothy Scarborough in "A Song CAtcher in Southern Mountains, American Folk Songs of British Ancestry" (Columbia University press, 1937) includes two versions that she collected in 1930. One was from the Blue Ridge Mountains in Virginia, the other was collected in the Asheville, North Carolina area near the Smoky Mountains. She has a somewhat different take on the origins of the song as indicated by the book title and the following passage from the book: "Mrs. Stikeleather also sang it (i.e Pretty Saro) into my Dictaphone and contributed it to this collection. She told me that while the date 'eighteen-forty-nine' is used in some of the versions of the song, 'seventeen-forty-nine' is more probably correct, as that year witnessed considerable immigration to North Carolina from Ireland and Scotland, and this old English song was no doubt adapted to its new setting at that time" This is an interesting anecdote, and plausible too, but can't be considered strong evidence because there is no connection made to the purported English predecessor. Later Scarborough says that and a song assembled in the USA by recent English-speaking immigrants. Here is the text she collected in NC RR apr00
My granddaddy used to beat a fiddle to death! My grandmother sounds just like Iris.. it’s like watching them. They have been gone for a long time now… that sound n voice are so specific.
I do love Iris Dements version if Pretty Saro When I first came to this country in 18 and 49 I saw many fair love-yers but never saw mine.... And there in her lily white arms, I'd lay there all night and watch thru the little winders for the dawning of day
Thanks Destiny. I think that I heard quite a long article on NPR severl years ago about this movie. But not being a movie goer, never got to see it. I believe I saw a part of it on a TV magazine. But as I said before, I'm becoming a great fan (not that I'm great, you know) but that voice and that face are just wonderful.
The actor Muse Watson (NCIS) is shown playing fiddle with Iris. He plays saxophone, so that helped with his looking a lot like he was playing fiddle, though a fiddler would spot in a couple of seconds that it was an Instrument Lip Sync. Actual playing was done off-camera by David Mansfield, the music director and husband of Maggie Greenwald, the writer/director and
I would have never discovered the Movie Songcatcher or Iris Dement if I had not seen it featured on David Letterman show so thanks to DL for having such varied taste in music on your show.
For those who are wondering, the singer is Iris Dement. Merle Haggard described her as the best vocalist he'd ever heard.
She is a treasure.
Iris is born and raised in Paragould, NE Arkansas. Still a part of the far reaches of 'Appalachian culture.'
She has the most amazing voice. The actor playing the fiddle is Muse Watson. He played Mike Franks on NCIS, the horse trainer in "Something to Talk Aboot"
The songs she sings with John Prine are amazing
@@tmcsweeney3104 she was born in Arkansas but raised in Los Angeles
I live in the Appalachian mountains this is my heritage and it is slowly being forgotten. The younger kids don't care to learn the music ,cooking ,building smoke houses. I was blessed to have lived here and listened to my grandparents and great grandparents their wisdom will thankfully continue through me and what I've taught my boys.
Good for you +Kimberly Parrish
Peace and Love from NYC
+Kimberly Parrish Blessed indeed.
please teach me
Good for you! The old ways need to be preserved and our heritage continued. I known some of them, but no one is interested in learning.
bud turner which part of Appalachia you from if you don't mind me asking?
Everyone knows O Brother Where Art Thou, and that soundtrack is truly gold, but this movie is criminally underrated. This and the Gillian Welch and David Rawlings version of Wind and Rain are just.... fucking perfect.
For those who live in the Appalachians, this music is in their DNA. I can feel it a bit myself. Love the movie.
jim taylor you are right. My dads family all came from WVA mountains.Strangely even though I never lived there. This music calls to me and awakens feelings.
@@minniemouska4320 Iris Dement singing pretty Saro. .. it is so soulful that I feel it in my blood.
Im from the netherlands. Even I feel it in my dna.
I'm people are from Newfoundland, and before that England... this resonates with me
Everybody is kind of related by blood😮
Being from rural North Carolina, I can tell you that this piece is pitch perfect! Go Iris!
When I close my eyes I can hear my "Omaw" Johnson singing. Her voice so much like this pretty lady. When I was a kid there wasn't any air conditioning. In the summer evenings after supper dishes were washed and put up, everyone would sit on the front porch and either play or sing in the evening breeze until the air stopped moving and the mosquitoes came out. Bless you pretty lady.
Lyrics:
When I first come to this country in 1849
I saw many fair lov'yers
But never saw mine
I viewed it all around me
Saw was quite alone
Well me, a poor stranger, and a long way from home
Fair thee well to ol' mother
Fair thee well to father too
I'm going for to ramble
This wide world all through
And when I get weary
I'll sit down and cry
And think of my Saro, pretty Saro, my bride
Well, I wished I was a turtle dove
Had wings and could fly
Far away to my lovers lodgings
Tonight I draw the night;
And there in her Lily white arms
I'd lay there all night
And watch through
them little wind'ers
for a dawning of day
Thx for posting the lyrics here! I love music from the Appalachians
Thank you! ❤
Thanks. One adjustment... it's "tonight I'd draw nigh." To draw nigh means to get nearer.
🌹♥️💔Home sweet mountain voice.
When i hear that fiddle saw i can just feel it in my blood this is what my ancestors created, this is for me to carry on, this is who i am.
Music comes from the heart and soul, carry on, teach it to the young uns. i play guitar myself
I agree when I hear these songs it pulls ar mu heart and makes me proud of my Appalachian heritage I will tell the stories and keep the music alive
Me too....
I felt that in my soul
Fancy seeing you here, buddy. Couldn't have said it better myself.
Being Australian, i grew up with zero knowledge of this kind of music until my Mum made me sit down and watch Songcatcher. Captivated isn't even an adequate description. Appalachian Folk is on a level all of it's own and (if it even makes sense) makes my soul ache to listen to....
Nathen Surman it indeed makes sense, mate
What a kind comment. I'm only just beginning to uncover my own Appalachian roots, and I thank you for discovering and appreciating the music of my ancestors. How great is the internet?
Whatever you do. Save your music. It is the oldest of its kind from English, Irish and Scotish roots. We are all connected.
@@MrsGranpaws Anybody who's less than 2 generations removed from people whose only entertainment was "porch music" should feel this connection. My folks families both moved from the South 75 years ago, but they were country musicians (or "old time" music, before "country"), so I heard the old songs as I went to sleep for the years of my childhood, even though we were in California. I was later a hippy, but when I started hearing Gram Parsons, and EmmyLou and JD Crowe...man, right in the heart, and the music has been a lifelong blessing, though I think I may have missed disco completely. sry.
This is one of the most beautiful songs I've ever heard. I seriously started to tear up the first time I heard this.
Its new to me,but the second she began to sing,I started to bawl.I have no connection to Appalachia thru family or anything, but it felt like home.
Stop it 😊
Rhiannon giddens does it incredibly well too.
Loved the movie. This is where I first heard Iris De Ment and I fell in love with that voice of hers right away. That tune and the way she voices it just gives me shivers. It is so heartfelt and simple yet filled to the top with such emotion. Not everyone's cup of tea; I love it.
This was also my first exposure to Iris DeMent, and I became a lifelong fan. I was fortunate to see her in concert once. Merle Haggard described her as the best vocalist he'd ever heard.
Iris Dement captures that Appalachian mountaineer music exactly.
@@minniemouska4320 I had never heard of her until I saw that film. She sat down in that chair, all dirty and unkempt, her husband brought out the scratchy old violin and out of her mouth came a song that just touched me way down. Instantly became a fan.
Iris's voice is most suited for Pretty Saro. hummm how many times can one hit replay, love that old ballad.
Iris inspired me to stang up the old fiddle.
Great scene in a excellent movie. Iris is so raw and real.
Love how at the end of the song, the man and woman shyly look at each other and smile, showing a true connection between them through the music.
This movie is how I was exposed to this amazing artist 11 years ago. I love her more and more every day.
I just adore Iris Dement. Saw her in concert years ago. Wonderful doesn't begin to describe the experience.
History brought to life right before us through such an amazing and authentic voice.
Great post. I'm from a place called Bunclody in County Wexford, in the south east of Ireland. There is a song called 'The Streams of Bunclody', the lyrics of which bear a striking resemblance to the above. However, our tune is close to an Irish air called 'The Lakes of Coolfin'. It is amazing how songs have a life of their own and how the same themes emerge in different guises all over the world. Thanks again.
This song probably changed very very little over the centuries, and alot of appalachian hill people immigrated here from Ireland, england and Scotland. Ive heard these ballads have been near perfectly preserved in our mountains.
This music is absolutely amazing!! I know i have Celtic heritage and this music speaks to my soul like almost no other. I believe this is the case for many who have Celtic heritage. There is something special in the history of this music. We need to hold onto it and even understand the history further!
damn, i love iris dement, such sad, heartfelt emotion, a true national treasure.
Like a lightning bolt straight to the soul, this is the pure sound of time.
I saw this movie for the first time yesterday, June 12, 2016 and I was blown away by this song and others in the move. Two thumb up here. I love Appalachian music.
i remember seeing this movie the first time, and it was at this moment, when Iris sang this awesome traditional, that i really began to "get it." Wonderful.
my family is from sw virginia by way of the mountains and moved there from western nc about one hundred yrs ago. i grew up breathing this music. no one captures its spirit better than iris. she is a blessing. i and my daughter sang her "these hills" at my mom's funeral.
That's one of my all time favorite songs by her....and what a beautiful setting.....that's where my heart lies.
best movie ever! my great grandma came from the appalachian mountains
A real nice Song saw her in concert lots of times this is a nice old time song Beautiful young Iris
Imagine how much of this music is lost. Death found a bunch of them. I cant believe I even have the privilege to enjoy this.
It ain't lost, it's alive and well. Us young folks over in the mountains keep it alive. Heck, there's an old general store from the early 1900s by my house, about a 5 minute drive. It's no longer open, but every Friday members of the community come on out to it for 3 hours and bring guitars, banjos, fiddles and mandolins. We sing these old tunes, and new bluegrass ones.
The young folks flatfoot/buckdance/clog, whatever ya wanna call it, there. I have old Hymn Books from the 1800s-1880s that I still sing hymns out of acapella out on my family's property, or when I'm taking a walk at work.
My old ghost town misses that. I'll send a prayer for you. Thanks the32712.
And I wish you and your friends many more awesome Friday nights.
Never Ever - luckily there were people working for the Library of Congress that researched theses songs.... Folk music in England and Ireland and Scotland developed and the older forms were forgotten but in the Appalachians the old music was geographically isolated and didn't deviate as much from the more ancient songs... just spent some time on a porch with a young man with me playing guitar and he the banjo going through some traditional songs... hopefully more young people will be drawn to folk music and it's power to resonate with the human spirit... hopefully there's hope...
Alotta men fought and died to preserve this and more.
Lovely. Peggy Seeger has a lovely variant on TH-cam. I would listen to them all. I'm a city singer since the 1940's when ,with my child's voice at the time, I
learned and sang one of the Pretty Saro variants. Now I teach and run a family singing group. Even being from the city, I have looked, found and learned much beautiful mountain music. Keep it alive even if you aren't a great singer.
This song is raw an clear beautifully coming thru the mountains an valleys reminding us of times past.
Saw this film for the first time recently. Loved it. Music is so touching. Similar music can be heard in the film- The Dollmaker (1984). Great movie.
@gjc82071 makes a good point. My teenage daughters who are definitely not into mountain music or bluegrass or country and western both enjoy the movie and are happy to sit with me for the replays !! This upload introduced me to the movie, but, I had to purchase a copy as the DVD was not available for rent - in Australia. So thanks for the upload, great movie and Iris is a wonderful singer.
I remember the first time I heard Iris Dement sing this in the movie, I felt like I was finally totally grounded and reconnected. She is so amazing.
I lived in Mt. Alto, PA for awhile, right in the Northern Appalachians, and met people who had lived there for generations. All kind and generous, for the most part. A few hell raisers.
Her singing is wonderful.She sings a little bit of blues and a little bit of happiness.
the fiddle in that is amazing, complement to her voice
i got chills through that!! beautiful!!
this is my favorite movie ever and Iris is awesome
This music will live as long as there is a longing for home or love or belonging. The fiddle, the mandolin or the pipes make the music but the voice of the singer makes it soar. Here in ND it is not forgotten.
I loved the movie. Thank you for this sound track.
I'm sure I have the Appalachian mountains on my track, some other life time that touches me deeply when I hear this kind of Music! I would so hate to lose it entirely. Love Iris, and loved that movie!
This movie is great and so is this song. I love ballads. "Pretty Saro" and " Raglin Road" always work to put my niece and nephew to sleep when I sing to them. There is just something so great about these ballads that even after all these years they still evoke something in people. I especially love the fiddle music in this song.
This is the most moving scene in a movie I've seen in a long while. Awesome.
Loved the movie!!! Watched it in full twice back to back! I fell in love with Iris' s music! Beautiful voice!
My dads family came from Appalachia. My gran delivered mail on horseback, Dad walked 5 miles in the snow to a one room schoolhouse to get an education. Gran and great gran knew these songs and the heartbreak they sang about.
Oh my stars...I have tried for years to think of thus movie title!!!! Thank you!! I could watch the movie everyday and still not get enough of that heartfelt music!!
Oh how I love this. Sung from some remote part of a persons heart, touching on large chapters of a life lived in the shades of sorrows. So profound.
Your comment is profoundly written you. should be a writer!
If this doesn’t give you goosebumps I reckon I can’t help ya.
I love these songs! love the movie, makes me proud of who and what I am! an Apalachian, these songs are our heritage!
This sound always wrings a tear from me eye....
The wonderful Iris DeMent ❤️
I loved this movie.
I love it too
I most highly highly old town school of folk town music in Chicago. Good friends, good music, good fun
From one of my all-time favourite movies, "The Songcatcher". Beautiful, beautiful,
When he dropped his bow and looked at his wife. The slump in his shoulders was from the weight of his love for her and and my beloved West Virginia!
This is amazing. Been to Smokey Mountains once and loved the place.
I have never had a song hit me as deep as this one sung by Iris DeMint
@NothingED All the singing in this film was mesmerizing. What a treat to find it on TH-cam. Who needs a instrument.
unbelievable movie with great acting and singing...i especially like barbera allen
The actor is Muse Watson (NCIS), and the actual playing is done by David Mansfield, the music director.
I assume Watson was using a brand new bow which had never been rosined, because that would make no sound when drawn across a string.
David Mansfield said that this scene was done live, with him playing fiddle off-camera, while Iris was actually singing, rather than doing an audio track later in a studio, and mixing it in with the video in post-production.
I grew up in Northeast PA. It was polkas and mountain music. This brings back memories of long, long, long ago
I play this tune. Beautiful.
Love this movie.
This is my fav part of this movie ;-) love her voice
I need to watch this movie again. Haven't seen it in quite a while.
iris you give me chills, yet again and take me home, thanks
If you want to see a woman's true beauty...just look at Iris. With no makeup no nothing..she exudes Ultimate Beauty. And on top of that? Iris' music is simply Heaven Itself. Iris is one of our greatest Heroines of Music. Thank you Iris. Thank you and God bless you.
Iris is actually singing this in real time, and Muse Watson is doing a fiddle pantomime using a brand new bow, which has never had any rosin applied.
That makes the fiddle completely silent. It's fairly visible to a fiddler who knows what to look for, as the bow hair is shown in good detail.
David Mansfield, the music director and writer/director's husband is playing off-camera while Iris sings, all in real time. That, and the difficulty of it, is discussed in Special Features on the DVD.
I've heard there was a time when everyone made music instead of just listening. It was more unheard of to not know how to sing or play an instrument than for it to be considered a talent. Maybe it had to do with not having anything to play it back on. When you can't just pull up a song you like, if you want to hear it you have to play it or find someone who can. Something about the necessity of being able to make music in order to hear it made people more musical. This movie represents that time and place.
Frottog as late as the 1900s, an educated person was expected to know another language such as French or Latin,be able to write beautiful handwriting,and play an instrument. It is amazing to me how many of the old Irish and Scottish folk songs came over here because someone always could play the fiddle and people used to sit on their porches in the evenings and sing together. Now people no longer socialize and pass on the songs and they are being lost. I wonder if the rise of technology has caused more social isolation.
Beautiful. And I liked the movie a lot.
Truly one of the finest films ever made.
Hillbilly soul music! So great!
I might not be from the Carolinas, or the south, etc., but (I am from P-Town OH.), I am proud of my roots, my grt. grandma came from poverty, raised during the depression, her mom was literally born in the cliffs of KY, talikng about literally pulling yourself up by your boot straps, very proud of my heritage, ...there is something beautiful about having simple kind of life, close to God and nature as they were in the movie, close enough you knew what plants were there and how to use them.
One of our favorite scenes from this monumental film. How my heart pines for those mountains now destroyed for the coal they bore... Reminds me of my Daddy's Mama's side of the family and makes me proud.
Absolute perfection.
we still sit and play lots of these songs here in sw va mountains.
This is the way this song should sound -- just what the movie tells us. This is roots music, reflecting genuine experience. And it is a fine movie! Iris Dement really sings from the soul. She has what Jean Ritchie has.
Iris has a look on her face that is priceless. I do so love her music. Please come play a concert in the south IRIS !!!
Excellent
love this song, watched the movie for the music, amazing :) Iris has a rare mountain singing voice.
Pretty Saro (4)
I came to this country in seventeen-forty-nine,
I saw many a true love, but I never saw mine.
I looked all around me and found I was alone.
And me a poor stranger, and a long way from home.
Down in some lonesome valley, down in some lonesome place,
Where the wild birds do whistle their notes to increase,
I think of pretty Saro whose waist is so neat,
And I know of no better pastime than to be with my sweet.
I wish I were a poet and could write a fine hand,
I would send my love a letter that she could understand.
And I'd send it by a messenger where the waters do flow
And think of pretty Saro wherever I go.
Notice the 1800's date in the second version and how the folk process converted
"waist is so neat" to "ways air so complete" or vice versa.
Dorothy Scarborough in "A Song CAtcher in Southern Mountains,
American Folk Songs of British Ancestry" (Columbia University press, 1937)
includes two versions that she collected in 1930. One was from the
Blue Ridge Mountains in Virginia, the other was collected in the
Asheville, North Carolina area near the Smoky Mountains. She has a somewhat
different take on the origins of the song as indicated by the book title and the
following passage from the book:
"Mrs. Stikeleather also sang it (i.e Pretty Saro) into my Dictaphone and
contributed it to this collection. She told me that while the date
'eighteen-forty-nine' is used in some of the versions of the song,
'seventeen-forty-nine' is more probably correct, as that year witnessed
considerable immigration to North Carolina from Ireland and Scotland,
and this old English song was no doubt adapted to its new setting at that time"
This is an interesting anecdote, and plausible too, but can't be considered
strong evidence because there is no connection made to the purported
English predecessor. Later Scarborough says that
and a song assembled in the USA by recent English-speaking immigrants.
Here is the text she collected in NC
RR
apr00
For some reason this is not what she is singing
That is EXACTLY what she's singing in this clip!
I love this song period...just the lyrics are wonderful and put wiht Iris DeMent's voice is just awesome.
Stunning.
Wonderful to sit and sing ,this music is integrated to mountain people of the time .
Such a beautiful song and a great movie.
Thank you for sharing it....
love the way she sing's it brings me back to going to church theres a lady that sings just like that i love being from harlan Ky
My granddaddy used to beat a fiddle to death! My grandmother sounds just like Iris.. it’s like watching them. They have been gone for a long time now… that sound n voice are so specific.
Love it! This is the sort of Mountain Music that truly sends chills up your spine!!
Wow, I forgot that was here in the movie....it doesn't get any better than that. I got chills.
I LOVED This Movie so very much!
I do love Iris Dements version if Pretty Saro
When I first came to this country in 18 and 49 I saw many fair love-yers but never saw mine....
And there in her lily white arms, I'd lay there all night and watch thru the little winders for the dawning of day
This song is so beautiful and her singing touches me deep in my heart
One of my favorite movies ever! Thank you so much for putting up the video! :)
Thanks Destiny. I think that I heard quite a long article on NPR severl years ago about this movie. But not being a movie goer, never got to see it. I believe I saw a part of it on a TV magazine. But as I said before, I'm becoming a great fan (not that I'm great, you know) but that voice and that face are just wonderful.
The actor Muse Watson (NCIS) is shown playing fiddle with Iris. He plays saxophone, so that helped with his looking a lot like he was playing fiddle, though a fiddler would spot in a couple of seconds that it was an Instrument Lip Sync. Actual playing was done off-camera by David Mansfield, the music director and husband of Maggie Greenwald, the writer/director and
I loved that movie!! I didn't realize that was Iris singing that song.
So lovely.
I would have never discovered the Movie Songcatcher or Iris Dement if I had not seen it featured on David Letterman show so thanks to DL for having such varied taste in music on your show.
She is the best of the best!
Hauntingly beautiful.