Jan’s Take 15: Girl From The North Country

Posted on August 15, 2026 by Jochen Markhorst

by Jochen Markhorst

In this series, we shine a spotlight on a thriving, fascinating, and polarizing fringe phenomenon within Dylanology: the semi-professional cover artist. And more specifically, on a veteran from the southern part of a small country on the North Sea: Jan Barten from Breda, the Netherlands.

Jan: “The song begins with an acoustic guitar and a steel guitar, played by guest guitarist Arnold Hoekstra. This is followed by the bass (Roland), drums and piano, with an organ (NordStage) joining in later. Fons Havermans’ vocals are interspersed with solos on the piano, organ and guitar (Arnold) – a long guitar solo leading up to the climax at the end.”

“Scarborough Fair” was “my thing”, says Martin Carthy. Every artist in that folk circle, in the late 50s, early 60s, had their own signature song, so to speak. Davey Graham had “Angi” (or “Anji” or “Angie”), Bert Jansch “Strolling Down The Highway” and Carthy had “Scarborough Fair”. He stopped playing it himself (“too much baggage”), but

“I love the fact that Bob Dylan got ‘Girl From the North Country’ from it. It was very typical of him to do that – very him. In fact, he came back and he said [cue Bob Dylan impersonation], “I wanna sing you this!” And he started to sing it, and he was trying to do the guitar figure. He got halfway through the first verse and he said, “Oh man, I can’t do this!” [Laughs] He wasn’t really ready. He was just so excited about it.”

… and that “Scarborough Fair” was more or less taken away from him by Paul Simon doesn’t really bother him anymore either: “It was my signature piece, but it’s a traditional song, for god’s sake! Why shouldn’t he do it?” When Paul Simon performs in London in 1998, he apparently remembers a debt of honour, and invites Martin on stage to play the song together. The generous Carthy is happy to oblige.

Like Simon, Dylan is still aware of Carthy’s contribution decades after the fact, as evidenced by his words in the Rolling Stone interview in 1984:

“But I ran into some people in England who really knew those songs. Martin Carthy, another guy named Nigel Davenport. Martin Carthy’s incredible. I learned a lot of stuff from Martin. Girl From The North Country is based on a song I heard him sing – that Scarborough Fair song, which Paul Simon, I guess, just took the whole thing.”

Which, by the way, contradicts his own quote in Nat Hentoff’s liner notes on The Freewheelin’. Hentoff writes there:

“Girl From The North Country was first conceived by Bob Dylan about three years before he finally wrote it down in December 1962.”

… and then quotes Dylan, who implicitly confirms this genesis: “That often happens. I carry a song in my head for a long time and then it comes bursting out.” Which is then rebutted by both Carthy and Dylan himself, and a first superficial song comparison indeed does demonstrate it; Dylan must have turned the old folk song into “Girl From The North Country” in the same days that he was introduced to Carthy’s version of “Scarborough Fair”, December ’62. That he would have walked around with it for “about three years” is one of the many fables peddled in those liner notes.

Covers abound. Hundreds, if not thousands. Almost all of them beautiful; the song just cannot be broken. At the very least worth mentioning is Rosanne Cash, who, in 2009, began her late father’s homework. Johnny Cash once gave Rosanne a list of “100 essential songs”, and for her album The List she records the first fourteen of them; classics like “Miss The Mississippi And You”, “Long Black Veil” and “500 Miles”… and “Girl From The North Country”.

Fine, but lacking the intensity of, say, Joe Cocker (with Leon Russel on Mad Dogs & Englishmen, 1970), Rod Stewart (who actually always produces great Dylan covers, this one is on 1974’s Smiler) or – especially – the American guitar beast Walter Trout. The studio version (Prisoner Of A Dream, 1991) is superb, but truly goosebump-inducing are the many live versions, in which Trout seems to get into The Zone every time. Not too surprising; in 2017, when Walter against all odds has survived liver cirrhosis thanks to a liver transplant, and has returned to the spotlights, he declares from the stage in Leeuwarden, the Netherlands, that he owes everything to three foundations under his work:

    1. the release of Bob Dylan’s first album,
    2.  The Beatles’ performance on 9 February 1964 on the Ed Sullivan Show, and
    3.  listening to Paul Butterfield for the first time.

… by which he no doubt does not mean Dylan’s actual first album, given his decades-long, unconditional loyalty to the girl from the North, but rather The Freewheelin’. “Girl From The North Country” he usually announces as “my favourite song, a song written by my friend Mr. Bob Dylan” – and always he uses the song to demonstrate his exceptional skill with the pinky-swell technique. Usually in the second solo.

(sound-wise, the live version on No More Fish Jokes, 1993, is much better – but the intensity of this 1991 recording in Holland is irresistible)

Jimmy LaFave, James Last, Ramblin’ Jack Elliott, Waylon Jennings, Link Wray, Eels, Eddie Vedder… throw blindfolded a dart into the record shop, and you’ll always hit a bin where a cover can be found. And by far the majority of these don’t stray too far from the original -all of them staying close in terms of tempo, instrumentation and elegance. Though one might get some extra goosebumps if the song is sung by a real girl from the north, by the enchanting Ane Brun for example, with a chilling interpretation on the beautiful album Leave Me Breathless (2017).

For the truly special je-ne-sais-quoi, we will have to look not only across national borders, but across language borders. The song can – of course – be found in all languages, and even dialects thereof, and it might be obvious to go first of all to a North Country to find a perfect cover. Plenty of choice there, too. “Flickan från landet i norr”, “Hvis du reiser nordover”, “Pigen fra det højeste nord”… more than one cover can be found in the national language in every Nordic country. But they, like German, Czech, Hebrew and all the others, have to lose out to the languages that just happen to always sound good: Italian and French.

French wins. There may be plenty Ragazzi del Nord, but none of our Italian friends match the sheer beauty of Francis Cabrel, when he joins forces with Jean-Jacques Goldman in 1999, picking up Hugues Aufray’s translation, and recording a thoroughly elegant, ultimately moving “La Fille du Nord” for the charity project Sol En Si.

Si tu passe la-bàs vers le Nord
Où les vents souffle sur la frontière
N’oublie pas de donné le bonjour,
À la fille, qui fut mon amour

A-t-elle encore ses blonds cheveux si long, c’est ainsi que je l’aimais bien… In retrospect, it’s a shame that Echo Echo Star Helstrom, Dylan’s blonde childhood friend and the song’s muse, lived in Duluth. And not in Quebec, just across the border.

Jan – or rather, singer Fons – remains true to the English language and injects just that touch of country that elevates the ballad to a country rock classic in the style of the Flying Burrito Brothers. Without, that is, becoming whiny. After all, it’s not a tear-in-your-beer ballad. It’s a monument.

To be continued. Next up Jan’s Take 16: Ballad Of A Thin Man

Previously in the series

 

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