@JoshuaACNewman @wlonk No! It's actually kind of strange how nothing bad or weird happens at all. Nobody's a ghost, nobody murders anybody, nobody freezes to death, nobody drowns as a child.

It must not be a New England song.

@lumpley @wlonk Well what the hell is the song about then?

@JoshuaACNewman @wlonk I like the one where the parents imagine that their kid gets married and has a baby who drowns, and it makes them so sad that they fall a-bawling...

And then the imaginary baby's ghost actual haunts them.

@lumpley @JoshuaACNewman that right there is where ghosts come from. We haunt ourselves. Just sayin'.

@wlonk

Supplement for Murderous Ghosts incoming? Little fish big fish swimming in the water?

@lumpley @JoshuaACNewman

@Sandra @wlonk @JoshuaACNewman Ooh, I also REALLY love the one where they're making out, and to tease her he says "hey, you kiss almost as good as my other girlfriend," and there is no other girlfriend, but she doesn't know this, so she stabs him to death and throws his body in the well.

And from then on, all the birds that sing, only sing his name.

@lumpley

That one is on Murder Ballads ♥

@wlonk @JoshuaACNewman

@lumpley @Sandra @JoshuaACNewman

I only recently learned that the use of "stan" as a verb comes from a murder ballad that Eminem wrote. It's a delightful and living tradition.

(YES YES i am behind on modern anything.)

@Sandra @lumpley @wlonk This is the second time I’ve had this conversation in a week!

@wlonk @Sandra @JoshuaACNewman I only recently learned this too! From you in fact, just now. What's the song?

@lumpley

The song is named Stan.

@wlonk @JoshuaACNewman

@lumpley @wlonk @Sandra @JoshuaACNewman I was LITERALLY talking with Joshua about this on Tuesday - there's a very specific age range that automatically knows this and finds its current usage disturbing (it's my age cohort)

@lumpley @wlonk @Sandra @JoshuaACNewman Would you believe it's titled "Stan"?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gOMhN-hfMtY

It also features Dido.

@owen @wlonk @lumpley @Sandra He’s come such a long way. https://fidodido.com/

@Sandra @wlonk @lumpley Brutal.

I hope the notional other girlfriend also haunts her.

@lumpley Not what you were looking for, but I think you'll appreciate Little Yellow Roses anyway: https://mainlynorfolk.info/folk/songs/littleyellowroses.html

@wlonk Oooh

@wlonk I would swear that the name of the song was just "The Whistling Soldier" but I'm getting no returns at all.

It was on a CD I bought at a store 15 years ago or less (since lost). Pop-folk, nbd. How can there be no trace of it online?

I can't believe that there's not a folk song called "The Whistling Soldier" at all, even if it's not the one I mean. What on earth gives.

@lumpley @wlonk
What do you remember about the CD? Have you tried to find a track listing online?

@PaulCzege @wlonk Disconnected impressions. It's actually the album that I'm looking for, this song is the thing I remember most clearly on it.

It has a song of advice for young lovers, where the metaphor is that the willow tree is the first tree to bud in spring. I don't remember the lesson we're supposed to take, though.

And a very sweet original song about how much her grandparents were in love throughout their life.

@lumpley @paulczege This is tall-order territory!

@wlonk @PaulCzege Maybe this'll help? The last time I saw the album, we were rearranging the dining room. Meg was holding it up, saying "what is this? There's no CD in it," and it took me a minute to identify it. This means that she wasn't on Meg's radar, which rules out about a million women in folk music, and it means that I picked up the CD on a whim to listen to on my commute.

(I know it won't help.)

@lumpley @paulczege Oh, I think I saw that around somewhere, yeah, I think Meg put it down somewhere in the kitchen (no, it doesn't help)

@lumpley @wlonk
So it's not an anthology. It's multiple songs by the same artist.

@PaulCzege @wlonk Yep! A singer-songwriter going by her own name, not a group. I think it was a mix of traditional and original songs.

@lumpley @wlonk
Every song you've described has a Gillian Welch vibe to me, but they don't match any specific Gillian Welch songs I know.

@lumpley I'm neck-deep in Mainly Norfolk looking for connections now.

@lumpley As far as song-type goes, is this in the right direction: https://mainlynorfolk.info/folk/songs/theboldgrenadier.html

(Obviously, none of the versions here have the line you mention, but.)

@lumpley (Also, thank you for asking me this, it has me listening to a lot of GREAT music.)