I was hoping to play a solo gig in Busan at a vegan restaurant called Home Bistro, where in my first days here I played a few songs impromptu on a small guitar the owner had propped up next to the counter.

Here is some of it on Instagram.

Sunny the owner asked me to come back and play again before I left Korea, but that plan couldn’t happen.

Before it fell though, though, I bought a harmonica holder and a couple Korean harps to play at the gig, one of which is a tremolo harmonica, a special kind that is much more popular in Asia than it is in the States. My tremolo has 24 holes which have double reeds tuned slightly off from each other to create a shimmering effect (the way they do for some accordians tuned “wet”). They are used to play folk melodies rather than blues or solos.

I have been trying to learn to play it the right way, and I needed a good traditional melody. With Rob and Misun’s help, I found that there is no better melody for this purpose than “Ariran,” a famous and ancient traditional Korean folk song originally sung by people condemed to execution, a song about the beauty of their homeland and how they hated to leave it. Centuries later, it came to be sung, Musun explained, by Korean men conscripted into the Japanese army.

“This song is in our blood,” she tells me. As I practiced the melody myself, even though my mistakes and ignorance she danced alone on her rug in front of me, moving her arms and legs slowly to the 3/4 rhythm with a serious expression.

I learned the melody from a live verson by Pete Seeger who sang it with English lyrics and accompanying himself with his banjo, making it sound, as only Pete could do, not like a regional American instrument, but with a timeless, universal sound, full of respect and memory.

As I practiced this ancient melody on this new instrument, a heavy monsoon rain was falling outside the window into the trees, and I became aware of the immense privilege of learning this song here and now in its own land.

So instead of playing a full set of American folk songs to a friendly and grateful audience, I have had the opportunity to accept the gift of this beautiful tune as it settles itself into my own grateful soul.