Kt Tunstall's "Black Horse and the Cherry Tree"

KT Tunstall is a terrific singer-songwriter from Scotland, of Scots-Irish-Chinese parentage. I first heard Tunstall's name last year on American Idol, when Katherine McPhee sang her song, "Black Horse and the Cherry Tree", very well, barefoot & accompanied by two men playing box drums (cajones). It was one of McPhee's--or anyone's--best performances of that Idol season, & it gave KT's career a well-deserved boost in the USA.
You can find Tunstall on the Web at www.kttunstall.com, www.myspace.com/kttunstall, & www.virginrecords.com/kttunstall/.

This is a live acoustic version of that song:



This is the radio single version:



These are the lyrics, pleasingly mysterious & contradictory, with a wonderful opening sentence:

Black Horse & The Cherry Tree (KT Tunstall)

(woo-hoo,woo-hoo)
(woo-hoo,woo-hoo)
Well my heart knows me better than I know myself
So I'm gonna let it do all the talking.
(woo-hoo,woo-hoo)
I came across a place in the middle of nowhere
With a big black horse and a cherry tree.
(woo-hoo,woo-hoo)
I felt a little fear upon my back
I said don't look back, just keep on walking.
(woo-hoo,woo-hoo)
When the big black horse that looked this way,
Said hey lady, will you marry me?
(woo-hoo,woo-hoo)
But I said no, no, no,no-no-no
I said no, no, you're not the one for me
No, no, no,no-no-no
I said no, no, you're not the one for me
(ooooo,woo-hoo)
And my heart had a problem, in the early hours,
So I stopped it dead for a beat or two.
(woo-hoo,woo-hoo)
But I cut some cord, and I shouldn't have done that,
And it won't forgive me after all these years
(woo-hoo,woo-hoo)
So I sent her to a place in the middle of nowhere
With a big black horse and a cherry tree.
(woo-hoo,woo-hoo)
Now it won't come back , cause it's oh so happy
And now I've got a hole for the world to see
(woo-hoo,woo-hoo)
And it said no, no, no,no-no-no
It said no, no, you're not the one for me
No, no, no,no-no-no
Said no, no, you're not the one for me
(ooooo,woo-hoo) (not the one for me, yeah)
(ooooo,woo-hoo)
Said no,no, no,no, no, no, no
You're not the one for me
Said no,no, no,no, no, no, no
You're not the one for me
Big black horse and a cherry tree
I can't quite get there 'cause my heart's forsaken me
Big black horse and a cherry tree
I can't quite get there 'cause my heart's forsaken me