"Cruel Sister" (Child 1, 10, Roud 8, ca. 17th century) is a very sinister story about a dark haired girl who was jealous of whom her yellow haired sister was about to marry, so she drowned her in order to marry the knight who was courting. In old traditional songs, they would sing “dark girl,” “black girl,” or “yellow girl” based on the color of her hair. Most old ballads value yellow, or blonde, women as more attractive, or desirable, than brunettes for whatever reason.

The yellow haired girl drowned and was found on the shore by some minstrels. They took the bone of her breast, cleaned it up, and strung it with three locks of her hair to make a harp. The minstrels brought the harp to their father’s hall where the dark haired girl was getting married. The story does not mention whether the minstrels knew this and purposefully brought the harp there, or if was serendipitous.

The harp itself then sings the story of the dark haired girl drowning her sister. The song ends with “surely now her tears will flow,” indicating that the dark haired sister was humiliated, as she had been caught. I mean, who would have thought that somebody would find the body and make it into a harp, bring it to the wedding, and the harp sings the story. That’s pretty bad luck if you ask me. What are the odds? She certainly deserved it though. There is no known mention of what happens after this point.

As with many folk songs, there are different variations of melodies and verses, while the story is relatively the same. This version is adapted from Pentangle’s “Cruel Sister.” They used a different melody than most versions of this song to adapt it to their own. My arrangement is directly inspired by Pentangle, as I play the guitar part similarly to Bert Jansch’s and I use all of the verses, slightly modified, that they used. The sitar part is very similar as well. I added in a bunch of other fun instruments to make it different.

'Cruel Sister'

Blake Hornsby: Guitar, Vocals, Backup Vocals, Singing Bowls, Bells, Kazoo, Shruti Box

Sam Fanthorpe: Fiddle, Backup Vocals

Jonathon Sale: Tabla, Singing Bowls, Goat Nail Shaker, Brushed Piano Strings

Gaia Lawing: Steel String Banjo

Joe Ridolfo: Sitar

Jerry Wallace: Didgeridoo

Embryonic Journey

Blake Hornsby: Guitar

This tune was written by Jorma Kaukonen for Jefferson Airplane's album Surrealistic Pillow. I learned it from watching a YouTube video of Jorma playing it and, although it's only a couple minutes, it took some time to learn it well. He is one of the greats. One time he was riding around on the back of a golf cart at Floyd Fest and I made I contact with him and threw him a peace sign. He smiled and gave a thumbs up as he zoomed away.

I'd like to give a special thanks to all who directly contributed: Gaia, Sam, Jonathon, Jerry, Joe, Drew, and Luke. I also want to thank my mother, Pentangle, Bert Jansch, Matt Evans, Mississippi John Hurt, Mike from Ramble Records, and whatever power it may be that is the essence of the universe.

Blake Hornsby: Guitar

Engineer: Drew Carroll
Mixing Engineer: Luke Craig
Mastering: Anders Peterson at GS Mastering and Post Stockholm, Sweden.

Recorded at the Bomb Shelter Studio in Nashville, TN. in May and August, 2022.