I love me the cross-cultural pollinations.

One of the songs my mother used to sing to me, horribly smeared by the movie Animal House nonetheless, is the folk song "The Riddle Song."

You know how it goes, right? :

I gave my love a cherry that had no stone
I gave my love a chicken that had no bone etc.

Ever since I learned my friend, Helena Handbasket, was learning to play the chinese lute (erhu) I have heard that sliding melody accompany in my mind as I sing that song to my own children at night. It works, just trust me.

Anyway, through the Endicott Studio Blog for the Mythic Arts I found this amazingly beautiful version of the traditional Scottish ballad, "Lament of MacCrimmon" sung without the usual plaintive droning of bagpipes.

It's a version by Sheila Chandra , a person of Indian heritage, and instead of the droning pipes, we get the shimmering tone of a bowed, Indian instrument underneath, contrasting beautifully with that deocorated, pure tone that I associate with sad songs I accidentally encounter on the Indian musicals channel when I'm surfing the upper registers of my dish network guide.

Listen to it, it's amazing sad and beautiful, and it strikes such an interesting chord because it's not-quite-Scottish melody invokes other parts of your brain then you're used to.