South for Winter Shares Haunting New Single "Ten Black Crows"

Nashville’s folk-blues trio South for Winter is back with a brand new single.

Titled “Ten Black Crows,” the track is gritty and haunting and comes complete with a riveting, foreboding story line that follows a Western outlaw who eventually meets his karmic fate.

"I randomly had this 'wild west' idea for a song with these lyrics as the chorus - 'Ten black crows, circling overhead, any final words? is what the hangman said’,” South for Winter vocalist Dani Cichon revealed. “I showed it to Nick, who immediately pulled out this bluesy guitar lick from an instrumental he'd written several years ago. The parts didn't really seem like they should work together but they somehow did, and that lick added a cool swampy groove to the song. The lyrics evolved into the murder ballad of an 1800's outlaw with ten black crows being a metaphor for death, which follows the outlaw everywhere he goes. As karma has it, the song ends with the crows spelling out the outlaw's own fate inside the hangman's noose."

Developing almost as an experiment—“It was the first time we’d ever mixed blues into our music,” Cichon said—the song surprised the band with how quickly it caught on with their fans and new listeners alike. "We never thought it would become anyone's favorite song, but amazingly enough, it's now the one people request the most and is our favorite song to play live,” she said. “This song has heavily influenced the debut album we're currently recording here in Nashville, as well as our sound and direction as a band."

Listen to “Ten Black Crows” below.