Winter Woods

This song is a story told from the perspective of a ghost with images of the southern Appalachian forest.

It was largely inspired by a short story by Óscar Cerruto (considered the Bolivian Borges) and a postcard in an antique store in Clayton, Ga. Although it was originally written as a country/folk song, I had Cueca/Andean rhythms and Swedish folk music I was working with as an at the time I wrote the song.

This interpretation with andean instrumentation was produced and composed by Federico Gamba and recorded in Jujuy, Argentina in March, 2022. It features charangista Elo Guitierres, vientista Mauro Aleman, and bombista Facundo Soto.

Lyrics:
In the grey charcoal mountains
With a forest like a fleet of ships
with their masts swaying in the wind
And great hulls groaning
I will dwell

You left for war oversea
in letters of rolling black ink
And wrote of smoke and steel machines
And coming home again

I will wait in the winter woods
I will haunt these hills
I will wait in the winter woods
I will haunt these hills

As autumn came and left
a bitter winter set
And sickness stole my health
And death fell over me

If you make it home
Go walk beneath the oaks
(And) Ín the glístening snów
listen close

For
I will wait in the winter woods
I will haunt these hills
I will wait in the winter woods
I will haunt these hills

I will rustle in the leaves
under the sky’s grey veil,
I will murmur in the breeze

And I
will wait in the winter woods
I will haunt these hills
I will wait in the winter woods
I will haunt these hills