Video de I love this song; only wish I could do it half as well as you can hear it done on YouTube by the late John Hartford (from bluegrasbanjolover) and Steve Melton (coolmornings79) on one of his amazing home made banjos I was going to try getting fancy and singing it with my gut-strung Washburn in D (5th string tuned like the usual 1st and so forth) and overdubbing the Gibson capod to D) but about went nuts after several attempts, gave up and just went with the Gibson strangled at fret 7
I first heard Lorena at an old-time music festival some `thirty five years ago There was a Civil War reenactor`s encampment and a young fellow sang it accompanying himself on a gut-stung minstrel type banjo Especially for someone who had great-grandfathers who fought for both the Union and Confederacy it was like entering a time machine; unbelievable
JP Webster, who wrote the melody in 1857 also wrote, a few years later; I`ll Twine `Mid The Ringlets These days we call it; Wildwood Flower
I would imagine the song resonates so because most of us probably have our own Lorena somewhere in our past I know I do
Banjo Lorena
