Shady Grove (song)
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Shady Grove is an 18th century folk song popular in the United States. As it is usually played, the melody uses a Dorian pentatonic scale. Many verses exist, most of them describing the speaker's love for a woman called Shady Grove. There are also various choruses, which refer to the speaker traveling somewhere (to Harlan, to a place called Shady Grove, or simply "away"). The melody is strikingly similar to that of an old English ballad, Matty Groves.
[edit] Recordings
There are numerous artists who have recorded this song, notably:
- Jerry Garcia, Tony Rice and David Grisman on the Pizza Tapes
- Garcia and Grisman also recorded it on their album, Shady Grove
- Doc Watson
- Blood Oranges
- Quicksilver Messenger Service on the album of the same name
- Bill Monroe
- Jean Ritchie
- The Kingston Trio performed on their live album "...from the hungrey i"
- Richard Fariña
- Patty Loveless
- Ricky Skaggs and Kentucky Thunder
- Kerosene Brothers, also better known as Hayseed Dixie
- Crooked Still
- The Mayflies, from Iowa City, IA on 2007's release "Jerusalem Ridge"
- Lise Winne, from the 1998 release, "Come to Me in Dreams." She rewrote the lyrics (kept the melody) so that Shady Grove is a man instead of a woman.
- Carey Creed, from her 2007 release, "Peace of Wild Things." [1]
- Mudcrutch, Tom Petty's first band, in their debut album in 2008
- Kris Drever
[edit] External links
Mattie Groves, an old English ballad with a very similar melody.
