Careless Love

Lyrics:

Careless Love – Traditional arrangement Tim O’Brien / No Bad Ham Music / ASCAP

Love oh love oh careless love
Love oh love oh careless love
Love oh love oh careless love
See what love has done to me

You used to wear your apron low
You used to wear your apron low
You used to wear your apron low
And you’d smile at me when I passed your door

Now your apron strings won’t tie
Now your apron strings won’t tie
Now your apron strings won’t tie
You hang your head when I pass by

Love oh love oh careless love
Love oh love oh careless love
Love oh love oh careless love
See what love has done to me

Credits:

Recorded March 27 2013 at the Butcher Shoppe, Nashville
Engineer David Ferguson
Tim O’Brien – guitar and vocal
Gerry Paul – guitar
Trevor Hutchinson – bass

Song Notes:

I love singing and playing this unbreakable and highly adaptable old folk song. To me folk music is a kind of audio national park with an open-source editing feature – we all own it and we each can shape it our own way without getting in too much trouble. Everyone from Buddy Bolden to Janis Joplin and Johnny Cash has used the simple template of Careless Love for their own self-expression. Several years ago, I heard a version with this second verse, and then came up with the third verse, which seemed to complete it. I finger pick my guitar part in the key of F – using a C position with the capo on the 5th fret.