The Unquiet Grave / Bowerman (Digital)

A digital copy of our double A-side single.

To purchase a limited edition 7″ vinyl, click here.

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The Unquiet Grave

Roud no.51, Child ballad no.78.

Also known as ‘Cold Blows the Wind’, we first heard this song on the eponymous debut album by 70’s medieval/prog rockers ‘Gryphon’, put to the tune of the carol, ‘Dives and Lazarus’, as are many other folks songs (including Star of the County Down, Crooked Jack by Dominic Behan, some variants of John Barleycorn and The Murder of Maria Martin (The Red Barn Murder), to name a few). It concerns the real belief that if the dead were perpetually grieved for, their revenant spirits could not lie easy. This is the story of two star-crossed lovers in the best poetic tradition.

Bowerman

This song is inspired by the Dartmoor legend of the Bowerman’s Nose, a naturally formed column of rock on the eastern edge of the moor, near Bovey Tracey. It looks remarkably like a human figure, hence the legend explaining how it got there. The details of the legend were taken from ‘Dartmoor Legends Retold, Vol.II’, by T.H.Grant and W.L. Copley, published by Baron Jay, Plymouth, 1990.