The Black Velvet Band

 

The Black Velvet Band is a traditional folk song with roots in Ireland and the British Isles. It tells the story of a young man who is tricked by a beguiling woman and sent to Van Diemen’s Land as punishment. Like many folk songs, it has been passed down through generations, each singer shaping the story in small ways.

I wanted to create my own version because I am drawn to the folk tradition of storytelling, and I relate deeply to the tragedy of being deceived, to the sense of fate and misfortune overtaking ordinary life. 

 

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Her neck arched pale, a swan in flight,
Yet terror lay beneath her light;
The laughter soft that drew me near
Was Zeus’s guile, both cold and clear.
O heed, young lads, take warning well:
The fairest eyes may weave a spell;
What seems so soft may bind so fast,
As I was bound, too late, at last,
By the cruel black velvet band.

Before judgement I stood, undone,
Seven long years beneath the sun;
Friends and kin like shadows fled,
And all my youth lay cold and dead.
Yet still her hair, her swanlike grace,
Haunts every bleak and desolate place;
Her eyes, her eyes, like diamonds gleam,
The memory of a vanished dream,
Held fast by the black velvet band.

So hear me, lads, when ale is poured,
And laughter runs along the board;
For beauty hides the power to kill,
And innocence masks a cunning will.
Her eyes like diamonds, coldly shone,
Her hair a swan’s wing, darkly thrown,
And I, alas, by fate unmanned,
Was lost beneath the velvet band.