I’ve been playing hookey — just didn’t feel like writing much. Now that I want to get started again I thought I’d post some more music. This may be my favorite fiddle tune. I hear it slow and sentimental, unlike the famous western swing treatments by Bob Wills and the Texas Playboys.<\/p>\n
Bob Wills didn’t write Maiden’s Prayer<\/a>, only some sentimental words for it. Frankie McWhorter quotes Wills in Cowboy Fiddler in Bob Wills’ Band<\/a><\/i> telling the story of how Wills locked himself up with a Mexican fiddle player in Roy, New Mexico, where he was working as a barber.<\/p>\n Bob said, “He played ‘The Spanish Two-Step’ and I locked the door where he couldn’t get out and nobody else could get in, and I made him stay there until he taught me that and ‘Maiden’s Prayer.’ Finally he nodded. I didn’t know whether he needed to go to the bathroom or if I was doing it right, but I let him out.” That Mexican taught him those two tunes.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n Here’s a lovely performance<\/a> featuring Aly Bain and Jay Ungar. Ungar is more famous as the composer of “Ashokan Farewell<\/a>,” which was used as the theme song of Ken Burns’ Civil War series.<\/p>\n