John Hartford-Lorena

John Hartford-Lorena...
A QUOTE F.T.C. - "What a powerfully sad song. John's voice and banjo fit it to perfection, so sweet and plainly stated. I'm working it out for guitar, memorizing the lyrics, and my greatest challenge is simply to get through it without crying. By the time I get to "lost years, sleep on," I'm just a basket case. This will ease with practice, but I could swear I hear some of the same in John's voice as he crackles through the last couple lines.

The Wikipedia entry for Lorena says, "One Confederate officer even attributed the South's defeat to the song. He reasoned that upon hearing the mournful ballad the soldiers grew so homesick that they lost their effectiveness as a fighting force." Okay, that sounds hyperbolic, and that "one Confederate officer" is probably apocryphal, but then again, I could almost see it. What a song. And here, what a perfect rendition. Oh, to go to a John Hartford show tonight and hear him sing it live...