Re: "Dark" Fiddle Tunes?
As you suggest, old time tunes, with the exception of waltzes, are generally relentlessly cheerful, which is often a good thing, but we're not always happy. Try waltzes, such as the Tennessee Waltz and Ashokan Farewell. Otherwise, I'd lean to so-called "Celtic" music. Cape Breton fiddlers generally play Scottish laments and "slow airs" which can be quit melancholy. There are dark Irish tunes as well. "Neil Gow's Lament for The Death of His Second Wife" is a Scottish classic. (We don't know what he composed when his first wife died -- a jig perhaps.) If the links don't work, search YouTube for "Buddy MacMaster/ Neil Gow's Lament".
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ny2beJky_KM
Robert Johnson's mother, describing blues musicians:
"I never did have no trouble with him until he got big enough to be round with bigger boys and off from home. Then he used to follow all these harp blowers, mandoleen (sic) and guitar players."
Lomax, Alan, The Land where The Blues Began, NY: Pantheon, 1993, p.14.
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