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Your Favorite Traditional Ballad

I could only find a thread with "Power Ballads". I find myself drawn to more traditional ballads lately. Here are a few of my favorites:

1952 Vincent Black Lightening, Richard Thompson
The Ballad of the Runaway Horse, Emmylou Harris
Pretty much any of the traditionals as sung by Kate Rusby
Ballad of Copper Junction (a Journeyman's Lament), Jeffrey Foucault
Folklore (the entire album is outstanding...my favorite would have to be "The Outlaw Song"), 16 Horsepower

I respect how, with such an economy of words, a songwriter can engrave such deep and powerful stories that resonate and linger.

What are some of your favorites in traditional ballads?
jax2

Showing 1 response by newbee

newbee
4,810 posts
 
'Traditional' ballads - i.e. ballads out of history or ballads which meet some contemporary definition?

If the former, and if you can admit to liking a bit of 'country' music once in a while (I love 'folk' music which has its origins in the British Isles) Eddy Arnold singing Barbara Allen and Wayfarin Stranger is a must hear. They came out in the 50's and I think they were remastered onto a CD 'Wanderin' a few years ago. Eddy Arnold was one of our great county singers and these ballads are IMHO representative of why. These are, I believe, 18th century songs.
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