From my album ‘Sorrow Bound’. Available in the USA via Kingswood Records, and elsewhere via my website www.kaiakater.com
This song draws its title from an old Tommy Jarrell tune, but is my own composition.
I was inspired by the beauty of the words ‘when sorrows encompass me round.’ It had a dark, rich complexity to it. As a songwriter, I mostly create characters based on my own experiences or those of others — I take them from history books and novels. I decided to set the traditional song aside and write based on the feel of the words. ‘When Sorrows Encompass Me Round’ is the story of a runaway slave who truly knows the darkness of being alone in this world. He’s outwardly proud, and is sure that he doesn’t need anyone to save him or help him. He’s encompassed by hate with dogs running after him (‘Take your hounds, chase me down into the big mud’), and he finds himself face to face with the devil — the white slaver (‘Six barrel shotgun, loaded revolver at the gates of hell’). Yet, in every refrain, he is flooded with memories of tender moments with someone in his past. The sorrow of the memory is mixed with the joy of it. He remembers it all.