Bury Me Beneath the Willow

Sung by Alex Caton of Gordonsville, Virginia in 2017.  Born in England, Alex came to live full time in the US when she was 12. She entered college to pursue a degree in classical violin, but quickly switched to Archeology. It was in college that she first began playing Irish fiddle music, which became her gateway to Old-Time Appalachian music. When she invited me to her studio, I was delighted to find that she was not just an accomplished fiddler, but also a master of guitar, banjo, and singing. Alex and I shared an excitement about our interest in the roots of Appalachian folk music, that mixing of British, Irish, Scottish, Bavarian, and African music that created the Appalachian sound. Alex plays a traditional fretless banjo. She sang and played songs on every instrument, but in the end I chose to make a quilt of her version of one of my favorite Old-Time classics, Bury Me Beneath the Willow. Please visit her website alexcaton.com to discover more about her music. 

This Song Quilt is an exact transcription of how Alex sang Bury Me Beneath the Willow, but I left out the instrumental breaks. The "root" color of this song is a rich navy with a palette inspired by colors typical of colonial Virginia. I quilted this with a simple chevron pattern, the same pattern found in the wood tiles of Alex's music studio, which her husband built for her.