A Fingerstyle guitar arrangement of the folk song 'House of the Rising Sun'.
Like many folk songs, "The House of the Rising Sun" is of uncertain authorship. Musicologists say that it is based on the tradition of broadside ballads, and thematically it has some resemblance to the 16th-century ballad "The Unfortunate Rake", yet there is no evidence suggesting that there is any direct relation. The ethnomusicologist Alan Lomax suggested, in passing, that the melody might be related to a 17th-century folk song, "Lord Barnard and Little Musgrave", also known as "Matty Groves" though a detailed review by Bertrand Bronson showed no clear relationship between the two songs.
Lomax also noted that "Rising Sun" was the name of a bawdy house in two traditional English songs, and a name for English pubs, and proposed that the location of the house was then relocated from England to the US by White Southern performers. In 1953, Lomax met Harry Cox, an English farm labourer known for his impressive folk song repertoire, who knew a song called "She was a Rum One" with two possible opening verses, one beginning
"If you go to Lowestoft, and ask for The Rising Sun, There you'll find two old whores and my old woman is one."
The recording Lomax made of Harry Cox is available online. It is considered extremely unlikely that Cox was aware of the American song. It is also lent credence by the fact that there was a pub in Lowestoft called The Rising Sun and by the fact that the town is the most easterly settlement in the UK (hence "rising sun"). However, doubt has been expressed as to whether Cox's song has any connection to later versions. Whatever the case may be, it is undoubtedly now one of the most well-known folk songs the world over, quite likely due to the Animals' 1964 cover of the tune which went to No. 1 in the US and Canada.
For my rendition, I've ornamented quite a bit of the harmony, added sections of improvisation and moving chromatic basslines, and reharmonised the tune when the main melody theme is repeated at the end of the song.
I’ll be putting out a series of live performance videos over the next while; a mixture of solo guitar arrangements of pop songs, Irish melodies and jazz standards. Follow my channel for updates.
To see more about my projects and to support me visit:
www.patreon.com/chriscomhaill
Website: www.chriscomhaill.com
Instagram: chriscomhaill
@chriscomhaill
Facebook: chriscomhaill
@chriscomhaill