Ghosts Of The Night

I was looking through some folk tunes the other day for some ideas for a chord progression that I might use for a new song. I was feeling a little stale with my usual combinations and thought this might be a great way to springboard an upbeat song rather than my usual doom-laden minor chord accomplishments. I came across ‘The Hesleyside’, a tune I hadn’t heard before, which had an interesting chord progression in it’s A part:

GG GG CG AmD
GG GG CG DG

The Am to D change in the 4th bar and the D to G change in the 8th bar had me hooked and I played around with the chords for a week or so without thinking too much about words or melody. I sat down a couple of days ago and words started to bubble up for me for these changes and a melody and a nice little structure too:

G G G G
C G Am D
G G G G
C G D G

As I was out walking the
Moors late one night
I spied a black stallion in
The bright moon light

And there beside him stood a
Grey dapp-led mare
And then I decided to ride them
To Ban-bury fair

But I’m no fine lady with
Rings on my toes
For that wild stallion fair
Blood-ied my nose

So just the mare for
My ride ho-me
But she kicked up her heels and
Left me all a-lone

Instrumental Break

I wandered those moors until
Ear-ly day light
Saw no more of those two
Ghosts of the night

C G Am D
Ghosts of the night

C G D G
Ghosts of the night

PDF copy of the chords & lyrics here: Ghosts Of The Night