Black Horse and the Cherry Tree was the 2004 breakthrough hit for Scottish singer KT Tunstall. She first performed it live on Jools Holland's British music show, and it was later nominated for a Grammy. It's based on the Bo Diddley Afro-Latin beat (you can hear it clearly in his Who Do You Love), which is related to the earlier hambone rhythm of a traditional African-American dance. So from Africa to America (tinged with the Caribbean) to Scotland, this tune takes us on a worldwide musical journey. Plus the title features both a plant and an animal, making it the perfect transition song.
Note: Things are unsettled in musical blogland since the demise of MegaUpload earlier in the year, and the other file servers are now very twitchy. Very soon I'm going to delete my own music links older than a month or so to hopefully delay a suspension from my host. I think we all feel vulnerable these days, even though we hope that our posts are benefiting artists who may be introduced to new listeners.
Is it ironic that this post is the one that got me permanently suspended from my file server? Looks like I'm on an extended hiatus, folks, but I had a great time while it lasted.
