Jessica McFarland

This is the first of many pieces that I plan to share on this site. Happy listening/playing!!

I don’t write songs very often, but I wrote this one last year. It is about Caroline Helstone, a character in Charlotte Brontë’s novel Shirley. I was ill for a few months, and reading this book was one of the things that kept me sane.

Anyway, Caroline is in love with her cousin (that was all right in the 19th century, apparently), and he pretends not to notice. He isn’t interested. Furthermore, his rejection sends her into a deep despair. She goes into seclusion; she almost dies. I don’t want to ruin the story for you, but I also don’t want you to worry, so I will tell you this: she doesn’t die.

caroline.mp3 – The demo.

caroline – lead sheet.pdf – Here is the paper version, in case you’d like to play it yourself.

The demo was recorded earlier this year. Here are the credits:

Voice + piano: Jessica McFarland
Bass: Sean Davey
Guitar: Bryan Smith
Tenor Sax: Sophia Perruzza
Clarinet: Michael Haworth
Engineer: Tony Draper