The Hadley Witch, a Verve Music Original

A raw Pioneer Valley roots ballad arranged for mandolin and fiddle, tracing the true 1684 story of Mary Webster. Accused of bewitching Deacon Philip Smith, she survived a mob hanging along the Connecticut River floodplain. An authentic piece of Hampshire County history.

A driving roots ballad chronicling Mary Webster's survival of the 1684 witchcraft accusations in historic Hadley, Massachusetts.

#TheHadleyWitch #HampshireCountyHistory #RootsMusic

Buy yours and downlod for $1.50: https://vervemusic.bandcamp.com/track/the-hadley-witch-a-verve-music-original

A gritty roots ballad built on the documented lore of Half-Hanged Mary Webster, Deacon Philip Smith, and the 1680s trials along the Connecticut River.

#HalfHangedMary #HadleyWitchcraft #PioneerValleyRoots

Verse 

Cold winds blow down from the Holyoke Range,

Across the river street,

Old Mary Reeve walks in the snow

With frost beneath her feet.

Deacon Philip Smith took sudden ill,

The Puritans swore the sign,

They cursed the poverty at her gate

And laid it on the line.

Chorus

Half-Hanged Mary of Hadley town,

The noose could never pull her down,

Before the craze at Salem’s bell,

She broke the rope and lived to tell.

[Fiddle Break: Fast, eerie modal reel in D minor, sliding through sharp, cutting double-stops]

Verse

Sent down to Boston in eighty-four,

Before the judges grand,

Acquitted by the Court of Men

Back to the valley land.

Cotton Mather called it witchcraft foul,

The young men took their spite,

They strung her up to a winter limb

And left her in the night.

Chorus

Half-Hanged Mary of Hadley town,

The noose could never pull her down,

Before the craze at Salem’s bell,

She broke the rope and lived to tell.

[Mandolin Break: Driving percussive chops breaking into frantic cross-picking and ringing open strings]

Verse

They found her breathing upon the ground,

She survived the buried snow,

An experiment of wicked hands

Three hundred years ago.

From the meadow flats to Norwottuck hill

Her defiance echoes on,

She walked right past her neighbors’ stares

And saw the rising dawn.

Chorus

Half-Hanged Mary of Hadley town,

The noose could never pull her down,

Before the craze at Salem’s bell,

She broke the rope and lived to tell.

[Fiddle and Mandolin Breakdown: Dual lead trading back and forth, closing on a sustained, ringing unison D drone]