Premiere: Crimson Calamity unravel an old ‘Wives’ Tale’

My grandmother used to tell the most outlandish stories about her grandmother, Ida Mae. Allegedly, Ida once was sleep-walking with the mattress on her back and ended up in a neighbor’s house. Another time, on her way home late one evening, a black panther attacked her and tore at her clothing. She arrived home in one piece but scared out of her wits. On a separate occasion, Ida balanced a bucket of water on the end of a butcher’s knife, which hung over the side of the table. That’s how these old stories go, you know.

This is all folklore, of course, but they’re fun recounts of a time gone by, a more simpler era of middle-america mountain living when spoken word was embedded in the culture. Roots duo Crimson Calamity share an urban legend of their own with a new song called “Wives’ Tale,” which depicts a story about their grandmother and a lover gone awry. “When I was 18, mamaw said to me, ‘Girl don’t lose your head over your man. If his heart ain’t true, here is what you do to make sure that you keep the upper hand. Don’t let him know what you know. Don’t let him see you cry. There is a wisp beneath the willow that leaves him wondering why,'” Lauren Harding and Mallory Trunnell sing, taut harmonies peaking out beneath a spooky, string-laden arrangement.

On the second verse, the story remains shrouded in mystery, hinting something far more sinister below the surface. “Mamaw had a man before she met grandad. Word was he was wicked as they came,” the pair brood, exposing the story’s ominous underpinnings. “When his hands got rough, she’d had enough. Swore he’d never hurt a soul again.”

Later, Harding and Trunnell propose two critical questions about what actually happened, leaving a chill in the air: “Did a fella desert her? Or did he leave his ghost?” they ponder. We may never know…

“‘Wives’ Tale’ is the continuation of a tradition we started with our first EP. We try and write a short tune of a more traditional country/Appalachian nature,” they tell B-Sides & Badlands, premiering the song today. “It is a tune of caution that speaks of the treacheries that could fall upon a man who is vastly mistreating the lady in his life.”

“Wives Tale” samples the duo’s forthcoming sophomore EP, Gypsy Heart, out later this spring.

Listen below:

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