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I have been playing "Omie Wise" for twenty years. It's one M, not two. Elvis does the song justice. I like the Doc Watson version better. He plays it out of an eerie Am. Omie wise is a murder ballad as were much of the songs from Appalachia of the late 19th century. Most people were illiterate and news spread through music. Only the well -to-do read newspapers and most folks relied on song for their news. That's where the "murder ballad" started.
Ben--I've seen it spelled both ways--though I don't really know which is correct. I do know that her real name was Naomi.
Yeah, the balladeer as newsgiver dates back a loooooonnnnngggg ways. Epic poems such as Beowulf were sang, rather than told, around the fire. It was in existence for a couple of hundred years before it was ever written down. Now there's an exercise in memorizing. I think that poem has about 20,000 lines. Yikes. Makes memorizing all of Desolation Row seem easy.
Eric
Eric
"If music be the food of love, play on" Shakespeare
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