Smith's song reworks ballad.

• Author: Bell, Michael J.
• Position: Letter to the Editor

Your February article on the music of Stephan Smith ("Slash and Burn," by Natasha Saulnier) was a welcome introduction to the emergent vitality of a new generation of protest music. I was especially pleased to note your and his willingness to acknowledge that a portion of his work involved rewriting and reworking of traditional songs such as "Shenandoah" and "Omie Wise." Unfortunately, I was especially disappointed to note that you did not extend the same courtesy to the traditional tune and text undergirding his most famous song, "The Bell." It is a reworking of the traditional ballad "The Fause Knight upon the Road," first recorded in William Motherwell's Minstrelsy, Ancient and Modern in 1827...