"Ah woe is me, woe, woe is me,
Alack and welladay!
For pity, sir, find out that bee
Which bore my love away."
-Robert Herrick, "The Mad Maid's Song"
Grant Shreve and Julia DeConcini met in Tucson, Arizona in the summer of 2004 under circumstances the two deem too lewd to be shared with polite company. Their romance was passionate but brief, as all loves of that nature tend to be. But being two youths belonging to that noble class of people who answer dissolution with creation, Grant and Julia, in the final days of their affair, recorded one simple song entitled, “You Left Your Banjo (When You Left Me),†which featured no more than a banjo and Julia’s dusky voice. The response to this little ditty was—much to their surprise—the delight of many, both inside and outside their respective circles. This one song, though, would be all that the two would craft for more than a year. Up until just recently, fate has left the pair adrift in the world, separated by thousands of miles of countryside. Grant has spent the past year traversing the country in the back of a Greyhound bus, battling addiction and striking up a string of love affairs across the nation. Were one so inclined, they could’ve traced his course solely by the hearts he’d left broken. Julia, meanwhile, has settled herself into a quiet, pastoral life on a small farm outside Olympia, Washington, tending animals and crafting grand pieces of art which, upon finishing, she is compelled to relegate to the darkest corners of her house where they’re only seen by the moths and felt by the dust. She lives alone, praying on bended knee for letters which never seem to arrive. Her faith is strong; her hope, though, wanes with each setting sun.
The two have recently reunited in Tucson, again, under the moniker of The Woe is Mes, and committed themselves to exploring what John Milton called “That Talent which is death to hide,†and are already deeply engaged in writing and recording more sparse songs of loneliness and heartbreak.
Curiosities:
Brief history of the phrase "woe is me": http://www.phrases.org.uk/meanings/413900.html
Full text of Robert Herrick's "Mad Maid's Song": http://www.bartleby.com/101/268.html
"Woe is me! for I am as when they have gathered the summer fruits, as the grapegleanings of the vintage: there is no cluster to eat: my soul desired the firstripe fruit."
-Micah 7:1
"Ah, woe is me! Winter is come and gone,
But grief returns with the revolving year;
The airs and streams renew their joyous tone;
The ants, the bees, the swallows reappear;"
-Percy Shelley, "Adonais", XVIII
