Vocals, arrangement and video by Farya Faraji. This is a song I arranged last year in late February but decided to re-arrange because I wasn’t content with the result. I Wish My Baby Was Born is an American folk song from the region of Appalachia, specifically from the Bluegrass style. Bluegrass is a style closely related to country with roots in English, Scottish and Irish folk, as well as elements lifted from African influence such as the banjo, which is ancestrally descended from African instruments. Bluegrass is characterised by pentatonic melodies--the same pentatonic you'd find in East Asian music, but then the underlying instrumental arrangement uses chord progression and harmony that utilise the entire seven-note palette of most Western music. Bluegrass melodies are often in major pentatonic modes, which have a "happy" sound, but the underlying chord progression may have minor elements, which are "sadder." This creates an extremely effective emotional for me; it makes the lyrical content of this song far more affecting for me--the sadness seems to be underlined by a sense of hope and bitter-sweetness.

I wish, I wish my baby was born
Sittin on her mama's knee
But you, poor girl are dead and gone
And grass is growing over thee.

Oh I'm not no saint, no I never shall be
Til the sweet apple grows on a sour apple tree
Still I hope that the day will come
When you and I will walk as one.

I ain’t no ahead nor never shall be
Til the sweet apple grows on a sour apple tree
Still I hope that the day will come
When you and I will walk as one.

I wish I wish, my love had died,
And sent her soul, to wander free,
That we might meet, where ravens fly,
And let our poor bodies rest in peace

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