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The Hen's Retreat from the Midden
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Written on the death of our oldest hen, Dansak. Farmyard sounds on a little parlour guitar.
singer songwriter acoustic folk british guitarist song celtic traditional fingerstyle scottish scotland guitar kelso
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Solo singer-songwriter and tunesmith playing British fingerstyle steel and nylon string guitar, and historic instruments. Scots and Irish influences.
I've been writing and playing songs and tunes since teenage years in folk clubs and pubs. I co-organise the Kelso Friday night live music sessions at the Cross Keys (hosted singaround 7.45-10pm) and Cobbles Inn (10-12pm open mic with The Cobbles Band) with the help of many friends. All welcome! Visit us at kelsofolkandlive co uk. It is worth clicking on the tab because the sound quality of my tracks is far higher than the auto player on this page. Many can be streamed or downloaded at 320KBps and the enhancement for solo guitar/voice far exceeds the benefit you get for highly compressed band recordings. My recordings are full dynamic, not compressed. Just select Hi-Fi for the first song, and an MP3 high bitrate window will open - you will still get a sequence of songs. Most of my downloads are free, but some 320KBps tracks are paid-for. These are selected because they make up my main instrumental album. I now have a YouTube page and have started doing some video recordings for fun: @daviddkilpatrick I have mainly played Lowden guitars since 1999. I current play a 1985 S5FN (nylon string), 1986 S22 (jumbo O-size mahogany/cedar), and 1995 S32 (small body rosewood/spruce). I also play my own 1997-built Martin 'kit' Grand Auditorium rosewood/spruce, a Sigma OM-T, Furch Little Jane, Tacoma Papoose, Guild 8-string baritone, Vintage V880 parlour guitar and Gordon Giltrap signature model, a Troubadour mahogany/spruce classical and an Adam Black 12-string. And that's just the guitars... also viola, mandolin, mandola, waldzither, bouzouki, Appalachian dulcimer, low D whistle, keyboards.
Song Info
Genre
Acoustic • Acoustic Guitar
Charts
Peak #69
Peak in subgenre #22
Author
David Kilpatrick
Rights
David Kilpatrick 2005
Uploaded
March 31, 2005
Track Files
MP3
MP3 2.6 MB • 192 kbps • 2:47
Story behind the song
We have kept hens at Maxwell Place for many years. Dansak was the last home-hatched accidental cross, a long-lived (maybe 7, maybe 9?) Brahma/Sussex brooding hen. Courted by a succession of cockerels, in the end her constant companion was Bob the Duck (a Mallard/Aylesbury cross). Bob went to fetch her from brooding whenever they were fed, waddling over to the shed and not leaving her until she came out to eat. He guarded her from the enthusiasm of cockerels, which ill becomes an old lady hen. Ducks are not averse to association with fowl, especially drakes with hens. Bob originally had a brother, Black Bob. Black Bob was a serial rapist. No hen was safe, and life for our long-departed laying Aylesbury ducks would have been safer with wing-mirrors. The thieving starlings and blackbirds in the poultry field became apprehensive. Several wrens had nervous breakdowns. Eventually, Black Bob was smuggled to the banks of the Tweed and released to harrass wild ducks. We still see him occasionally, surrounded by his fan club and causing deep concern amongst bird-watchers. On March 30th 2005, Bob - alone, a celibate solitary drake amongst hens and roosters - came straight to me when I brought the food, and led me, constantly quacking, to where Dansak lay dead. He stood beside her and waited until I had dug a deep hole and buried her. The two rival Scots Grey cockerels (magnificent, tall, powerful birds) set aside midden wars and stood with the remaining hens - and Bob - at the wrong end of the field. This was their matriarch departed. There was no crowing that night. Anyway, after midnight and another single malt I decided I had to write a tune for Dansak and Bob. It's got the cockerels in there, and the sedate staccato manners of an auld hen, and of course, some quacks for Bob. It's in my usual drop D tuning on my little Washburn parlour guitar.
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