There's something about bluegrass music that gets me straight in the gut. I don't care who's playing it, or what the song is, when I hear that hard-driving beat. Sometimes, I think it might be because of a recessive gene, or something.
I got my first taste of live bluegrass when we camped in Mt. View, Arkansas, probably 30 years ago. We've been back numerous times, and about every other trip, one of us - either I or The Husband - comes home with a new (but cheap) instrument. We built a dulcimer from a kit we bought there. I bought a "starter" fiddle and a teach-yourself books and an extra book of songs, but never learned to play any of them; my arms would go numb after only a few minutes of practice.
The song book had the scores to songs like "Cripple Creek," "Soldier's Joy," and "Arkansas Traveler." It also had "A Maiden's Prayer." The first time I heard it, I was transported.
Sixty-ish years ago, or more, country artists recorded the song, but the melody was written in the 1870s, if I remember correctly, by a Polish composer. It is a beautiful tune.
And look at the words - I don't know who wrote them (I should look it up, eh?):
* * * * *
Twilight falls,
Evening shadows find,
There 'neath the stars a maiden so fair divine.
The moon on high seemed to see her there,
In her eyes was a light shining ever so bright,
As she whisper'd a silent pray'r.
Ev'ry word revealed an empty, broken heart;
Broken by fate that holds them so far apart.
Lonely there she kneels, and tells the stars above,
In her arms he belongs, then her pray'r is a song,
Her unending song of love.
* * * * * * *
The singers who recorded it added words to those verses to make them fit the music.
I'm trying to learn it.
Here's the tune, courtesy of a mandolin jam I found on YouTube:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fMkKdKHhVf0
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