Radie Peat reimagines 19th century folk song with new single, "Willow Garden"

"Willow Garden" lands ahead of the album's release this Friday (13 November). The track is a traditional 19th-century folk song, an Appalachian murder ballad originally titled "Down in the Willow Garden", also known as "Rose Connelly". The song traces the story of a man put to death for poisoning, stabbing, and drowning his lover Rose Connelly, as solemnly reinterpreted by Peat.

“This is a traditional murder ballad, mostly sung in America," Peat explains. "There is evidence of its existence in Ireland in 1810 when the tune was noted in the bunting collection, without lyrics, but with the title 'Rose Connolly’. We appear to have lost it since then in Ireland, but it survived very successfully in the Appalachian's. The last verse was transcribed by Matt Kinman from "an old fella" he was living up the mountains with for a while, and I've never found it anywhere else. Thanks to Matt for writing it down for me in a dive bar in Sylva, North Carolina.”