Carbon Leaf Countdown #43: Unknown Bride
Jan 19
Written in the early 00s but not released until 2010, next up at #43 is “Unknown Bride.” You’d think they would figure out who the bride was in all that time…
One day I’m going to get into the movie business and just use Carbon Leaf to score any scenes that need music. Here’s what I picture as “Unknown Bride” plays. An old guy. Disheveled clothes. A look of loss and despair in his eyes. He’s on a train heading west and images of the scenery interlace the solemn look he gives the window. I would be so awesome at that job. Anyway, I can spin the lyrics pretty well as I’ve shown so far, but even I know that’s nothing what the lyrics say in “Unknown Bride.” Barry’s voice is just so restrained until the end and the guitar work chugs along just like a train that it’s all I can picture really. I know I spent all last song talking about the guitar work so I won’t bore you here, but really at the point when there’s 3-4 guitar parts going around, it’s really cinematic to me of that old guy picturing his best days behind him. Poor old Jasper. Oh, his name is Jasper by the way.
Lyrically though, the song is so vague and so descriptive at the same time. It ends up shrouding the song in a sense of mystery that just hooks you. The best lyrics are really those phrases & words that just seem so strange when paired together. “Unknown bride” are two words that just rub against each other so peculiarly that you find yourself just lost in the song trying to figure it out. It’s almost like an old folk-tale with a women waking up with amnesia somewhere and people rushing her to her groom. Fits in perfectly with the theme of the Old West now doesn’t it? Not exactly “7 Brides For 7 Sinners,” but we’ll get there.
Song: Unknown Bride
Album: How The West Was Vol. 1
Year: 2010
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Jan 21, 2012 @ 00:45:28
You hit on what I love the most about my favorite Carbon Leaf songs (including this one). The images they invoke – and how those images vary from listener to listener. I imagine a man, having lost or perhaps never found the love of his life, wandering past one of those old prairie churches and witnessing the lovely bride standing on the steps, just outside, waiting to make her entrance. Barry Privett’s lyrics weave some poignant tales.
Jan 21, 2012 @ 15:48:57
I’ve heard Barry tell the backstory to this song. They were in Texas loading out when he heard church bells and ran up this old cobble stone alley to the top of a hill to see a mission style church. The church doors opened just as he got there right as the wedding let out. It’s a lovely image that leaves the imagination wide open. Also the lyrics have changed slightly over time. Shows from 2006 when they originally performed it are bit different than what ended up on How the West Was Won. The imagery is beautiful either way.