Aşık Veysel - Kara Toprak (Turkish Folk Song) Fingerstyle Guitar

My interpretation of this old folk tune.

You might recognise it if you’re a fan King Gizzard’s “Flying Microtonal Banana” album, which essentially did to Turkish baglama music what Elvis and the Stones did to Blues artists of yore; repackaged an existing or marginalised art form, and sold it to a largely white, oblivious audience that mistook it for genius originality. Veysel was born into a poor family in rural Anatolia, and became blind from an early age after contracting smallpox during one of the many outbreaks that occurred amidst the violence and hardship that was the backdrop to the Ottoman Empire’s collapse in the late 19th and early 20th century. The song is about man’s interconnectedness with nature and our inevitable return back to the “black earth” when our time comes.

I hope you enjoy.

[trnobles]

some really cool harmonies in there, especially in the intro! love the way you worked the sound of the microtones in there too, even without a microtonal guitar.

[ostrodmit]

Man, this is very, very enjoyable. Hats off!

[brunopiga]

Brother, marvelous rendition of this beautiful song! What tuning are you using? Want to learn it too. Thanks