Music To Smash Your Lute By

April 15, 2008 3:34 AM

Looking for digital recordings of rock songs played "ren faire style" on medieval-type instruments.

I'm doing an online roleplaying thing where my character, a modern-day Earthling, is trapped in a medieval world. She was a guitar player on Earth and has been tinkering with the instruments available to her. You can pipe in any mp3 or wav into this game and have it play through the avatar; right now she's playing the sort of filky, time-period-appropriate pieces that came bundled with her lute.

She is not the only character that's there from the current day, and the other ones joke with her whenever she plays, requesting things like "Stairway to Heaven" or bellowing "PLAY FREEBIRD!". I want to shock the crap out of them and actually do it.

So what I'm looking for are stripped-down, single-instrument digital recordings of rock songs, done on something like a dulcimer or sitar. Banjo or acoustic guitar might work, too. The more minstrel-esque the instrument, the better. Vocal accompaniment would be okay, as long as the singer is female.

Bonus points for things that are free/cheap to download and use, as I am broke. Double bonus points for anything by grunge-era bands like Nirvana.

I am aware of the "Pickin' On..." series and have picked up a few of those, but the bluegrass vibe is really not what I'm going for overall. I want, like, Loreena MacKennitt covering Alice in Chains; not so out there that it disturbs the ambiance of the world for everyone else, but just enough that people will recognize the the song and chuckle.

Thanks in advance, hive mind.

posted by Gianna to media & arts (12 comments total)

Rondellus have covered Black Sabbath songs in a medieval style. However, I think these involve more instruments than your scenario allows for.
posted by Grinder at 3:59 AM on April 15, 2008

This isn't single instrument, but the Vitamin String Quartet might give you a place to start. (It's a string quartet, you see...) But they cover entire albums of all sorts of alt/rock, so there's at least a host of source material.
posted by ASoze at 6:53 AM on April 15, 2008

My suggestion is only vaguely correct, but there is a music style that is 'metal done using medieval instruments' - Mittelalter Rock, I believe it's called? Bands that I have listened to in the genre are Subway to Sally, Schandmaul, Corvus Corax, who unfortunately are all German and sing mainly in German.

They play with a variety of instruments [bagpipes, dulcimer, lute, shawm, hurdy-gurdy, etc] - pretty good start, could check their wikipedia pages for more people like that. I do know Subway to Sally does a version of Carrickfergus, a classic Irish (Scottish?) tune.

Good hunting!
posted by Lemurrhea at 7:18 AM on April 15, 2008

I really like Apocalyptica they play Metal on cellos, it is well done and really rocks! here are some samples
posted by Wezzlee at 7:32 AM on April 15, 2008

I play in this band -- in a long shot, I emailed the cittern player to see if he's wiling to record something specific for you on cittern or bouzouki.

We used to do a medievaloid version of Deep Purple's "Smoke on the Water"... and there's a version of Black Sabbath's "Behind The Wall of Sleep" (female vocal + fiddles) on our album.
posted by omnidrew at 8:19 AM on April 15, 2008

nina gordon covers nwa's straight outta compton (youtube) on acoustic guitar. you can probably find it on mp3 somewhere.
posted by judith at 9:19 AM on April 15, 2008

Stonehenge by Spinal Tap?
posted by umbú at 9:28 AM on April 15, 2008

From what little I know, you just described almost everything by the group "They Might Be Giants". But I don't know a lot about it...
posted by Class Goat at 9:30 AM on April 15, 2008

The first Page and Plant CD had a few songs re-arranged with traditional Moroccan instruments. I don't think it's quite what you're looking for, but you might give it a listen and see.
posted by nebulawindphone at 10:06 AM on April 15, 2008

The answer: Rockabyebaby. Seriously.

Class Goat: You must be thinking of another They Might Be Giants, sorry.
posted by artifarce at 10:09 AM on April 15, 2008

Fer'instance. Stairway to Heaven.
posted by artifarce at 10:17 AM on April 15, 2008

Speaking of Deep Purple, Ritchie Blackmore founded a group called "Blackmore's Night", which plays medieval-inspired rock (or rock-inspired medieval music, take your pick). Most of their stuff is original, I think, but they did a cover of "The Times They Are A Changin'". It's not a single instrument, unfortunately, but their lead vocalist is female, and it might just be funny to pipe it in for the heck of it.

The song is on their album "Fires at Midnight" You can also read more about the group on Wikipedia.

Good luck!
posted by CrazyGabby at 8:38 AM on April 16, 2008