Please Array A Path For Me

February 5, 2011 7:58 AM

Does anyone know anything about the song snippet at the end of The Decemberists' song "Why We Fight" (which starts at about the four and half minute mark)?
posted by El_Marto to Media & Arts (4 answers total)

Best answer: It is a song by the owner of Pendravis Farm outside Portland, the barn in which the album was recorded. It it is sung by her to one of her animals, a pig or dog, I forget.
posted by Danf at 8:30 AM on February 5, 2011

I got the album as an Amazon mp3 download last week I think, and it came with a different version of that song without the little snippet. Then this week I got an email from Amazon saying there was a new version that "more accurately reflects the artist's vision." The new version had the song snippet. Curious.

We thought maybe it was Dave Rawlings, though listening again I am wondering if I was insane to think that. Danf, do you have a source for your info?
posted by librarina at 11:22 AM on February 5, 2011

librariana, living in Oregon, is just seems to be common knowlege. . .I read it somehere, probably on the Decemberists' site, or in one of the local rags.
posted by Danf at 2:48 PM on February 5, 2011

The track closes with a raw recording of a woman singing about her dog running through a field, accompanied by banjo and harmonica. The female voice belongs to studio owner, Sherry Pendarvis, and she is accompanied by Chris Funk and Jenny Conlee of the Portland troubadours jamming on a porch. "She was sitting out front with her dog," Meloy told Spin. "She had just been to the vet and she was soaking the dog's paw and started making up this song."
posted by Danf at 3:04 PM on February 5, 2011 [2 favorites]