Artist: Fern Maddie
Hometown: Worcester, Vermont
Song: “Green Grass Growing”
Album: Ghost Story
Release Date: June 1, 2022
In Their Words: “‘Green Grass Growing’ is a spooky, minor banjo tune I wrote in the dark time of the year in 2021. I recorded it live with the help of my friend Ari Erlbaum, who plays the bones. The title is inspired by a common motif in tragic ballads, in which the singer describes their present or future grave, with the ‘green grass growing’ over their feet. I’ve always found this a calming image: the knowledge of our inevitable return to the earth and our presence in the quiet beauty of a graveyard. I used this motif in another track on the album — the original grief ballad ‘You Left This’ — in which I sing about the ‘green grass growing’ where my loved one once stood. In his review for Tradfolk.co, Jon Wilks described the song as sounding ‘like a skeleton tap-dancing on a gravestone.’ I think that sums it up nicely.” — Fern Maddie
Photo Credit: Eli Jager
