This traditional song makes you re-evaluate your relationship to birds after hearing the legendary interpretation done by the sinister, bespectacled mountain wizard Roscoe Holcomb. With a most idiosyncratic way of picking the banjo, and with a voice no moon can overdo in high lonesomeness, all the recorded pieces I have heard by this man, hits me with the immediacy and intensity of a lightning crash.
Just take a look at the film clip below, where Roscoe plays Little Birdy. By his side sits a baffled Pete Seeger trying to understand how he does it!
For a further look into the life of Holcomb and the high mountains of Kentucky in days of yore, please do make yourself aquainted with the highly recommendable film "That High Lonesome Sound" by John Cohen. If you happen to live in Oslo, you have the chance to pick it up at the public library, where also several records by Roscoe Holcomb can be found. Good luck! Little Birdiiiiiiiiiiiiiiii
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