Category: songs

Lui Collins 1992

 

“I still remember, all these years later, how when the autumn sun got to just the right late afternoon slant, all the windows of the house across the street from where I lived when I wrote this song would light up with an uncanny glow. But what moved me to write this song on September 27, 1992 was the way that same slanty autumn light lit up the yellow leaves of the New England oaks.”

Lui Collins: https://luicollins.bandcamp.com/track/gold-upon-the-trees

https://luicollins.bandcamp.com/track/gold-upon-the-trees

The leaves are turning golden, the autumn call is heard And I’d be going south now if I only were a bird But I live in New England, it’s here I found my voice Though I sometimes think of leaving, I know I stay by choice. Chorus Harvest moon in New England, and the nights are crisp and cold But have you seen the sunshine? It’s a glory to behold Late afternoon it slants in and touches on the leaves There is treasure in the autumn light, gold upon the trees I mourn the summer’s ending, the loon call in the morn The moon upon the water, the fire on the shore But the children have gone back to school, cold winds will blow in soon For the summer days have fallen, it’s the time of harvest moon My garden never did produce, it’s overgrown with weeds I barely gave it any time after I sowed the seeds There’s plenty in the orchard, we’ll eat well anyway And my harvest for the summer need not be stored away. For I have grown much stronger, and clearer every day My feet upon the ground now in a very different way My blossoms are the songs I’ve written all throughout the year My fruit I give unto you, to bring you winter cheer.

 

 

Andy M Stewart 1986

 

Silly Wizard: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HyGeWKEAt4w

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HyGeWKEAt4w

Slowly, slowly, walk the path, And you might never stumble or fall. Slowly, slowly, walk the path, And you might never fall in love at all. Chorus Golden, golden, is her hair, Like the morning sun over fields of corn. Golden, golden, is her love, So sweet and clear and warm. Lonely, lonely, is the heart That ne’er another can call its own. Lonely, lonely, lies the part That has to live all alone. Wildly, wildly, beats the heart With a rush of love like a mountain stream. Wildly, wildly, play your part As free as a wild bird’s dream

 

 

Andrew VanNorstrand 2018

 

“This song celebrates the impermanence of summertime.”

Wake Up Robin: https://wakeuprobin.bandcamp.com/track/goldenrod

https://wakeuprobin.bandcamp.com/track/goldenrod

Some quiet words and a warm embrace Dirty hands and barefoot grace You kiss me only to say goodbye No matter how I try Chorus: Sometimes I think I’ve seen the face of God When the hills shine with goldenrod When a cool wind scatters the white milkweed And when you’re near me I’m sorry my dear but there’s something I need to say Two weeks from now I’ll still be here and you’ll be far away And I can’t let you go so soon It’s just too soon

 

 

Armand Aromin 2021

 

The Vox Hunters: https://photos.app.goo.gl/1t7Akotu9ArQMZSL9

https://photos.app.goo.gl/1t7Akotu9ArQMZSL9

I had a notion as I watched Late summer’s sun descending Like the final hour of jewelweed flowers Impatience at its ending Chorus: Give to me the goldenrod And the sweet New England aster Sway the ever-setting sun To keep time from moving faster When vital green begins to blush In full chromatic splendor The trembling trees will yield their leaves In musky-sweet surrender Fleeting fields of purple and gold Paint Autumn’s mirthful chorus But alone the plumes of winterbloom Shall face the frost before us Through sunless stretch of slush and toil When shadow’s forms are sprawling Those bygone blooms that left so soon I’m constantly recalling A crocus mid persistent snow Defies the reign of winter The bleak and grey must fade away For the green of life to enter As waves roll on the constant sea So steady flow the seasons But the heart abides for a chosen tide Content with its own reasons

 

 

trad 1700s

 

Collected across southern England, in Scotland, and Kentucky. It also appeared on broadsides and in songsters. It may be the basis of Robert Burns’ O Gude Ale Comes, published 1803 which is the earliest datable reference, although some date it to the first half of the eighteenth century.

The Copper Family: Good Ale

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q_gWPEJPzZg

It’s of good ale to you I’ll sing And to good ale I’ll always cling I like my cup filled to the brim And I’ll drink all you care to bring Chorus Oh good ale, thou art my darling Thou art my joy both night and morning It’s you that helps me with my work. And from tasks I’ll never shirk While I can get a good home brew And better than one pint I like two I love you in the early morn, I love you daylight, dark or dawn And when I’m weary, worn or spent It’s turn the tap and ease the vent It’s you that makes my friends and foes. It’s you that makes me wear old clothes But since you come so near my nose It’s up you comes and down you goes And if all my friends from Adam’s race Were to meet me here all in this place I could part from all without one fear Before I’d part from my good beer You’ve caused me debts and I’ve often swore, I never would drink strong ale no more But you for all that I’ll forgive And I’ll drink strong ale as long as I live.

 

 

Paul Metsers 1983

 

Dutch-born Metsers moved from NZ to England in 1980, made 5 albums, and toured folk clubs extensively until 1989 when he retired from music to make wooden board games. This is from The Hurricane’s Eye where he writes about it “We often run out of time to carry out the plans we?ve made.’

Melrose Quartet: https://melrosequartet.bandcamp.com/track/good-intentions

https://melrosequartet.bandcamp.com/track/good-intentions

It’s one day we’ll go sailing Just you my love and I We’ll take us down to the waters Where fair the waters lie Chorus And then with good intentions We’ll try our debts to pay But the sun will swing the seasons And ever win the day Then one day we’ll go climbing Get closer to the stars And pray that those in spaceships will leave them as they are Then one day we’ll start building We’ll take what comes to hand We’ll twine what needs entwining And bind what needs a band

 

 

trad 1700s

 

Recorded by The Watersons 1975, Manx Primitive Baptist hymn from at least 1750s

Eliza Carthy: Eliza Carthy & The Ratcatchers-The Good Old Way@Buxton2007

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xkt4xhsdZZw

Lift up your hearts, Emmanuel’s friends And taste the pleasure Jesus sends Let nothing cause you to delay But hasten in the good old way Chorus: For I have a sweet hope of glory in my soul (x2) For I know I have, and I feel I have A sweet hope of glory in my soul Our conflicts here, though great they be Shall not prevent our victory If we but strive and watch and pray Like soldiers in the good old way Ye valiant souls, for heaven contend Remember glory is at the end Our God will wipe our tears away When we have run the good old way Though Satan may his powers employ Our happiness for to destroy Yet never fear, we’ll gain the day By marching in the good old way And far beyond this mortal shore We’ll meet with those who have gone before And shout to think we have gained the day By marching in the good old way

 

 

trad 

 

Nicole Singer: “A summer camp song learned from land friends, with some lyrics rewritten with my shipmates aboard the schooner Mystic Whaler. When you know only part of a song and need to finish singing it without internet access, you make up the next verses. As a result, the food theme takes a distinct maritime turn.” A web page from Ohio State University attributes the song to an unknown author from that college’s Men’s Glee Club, in the 1890s, with different verses but a similar format.

Nicole Singer: https://nicolesinger.bandcamp.com/track/good-peanuts

https://nicolesinger.bandcamp.com/track/good-peanuts

He who shall have any good peanuts And giveth his neighbor none He shan’t have any of my good peanuts When his good peanuts are gone Oh won’t it be joyful, joyful, joyful Oh won’t it be joyfull when his [soft sweet soda crackers and his] good peanuts are gone Soft sweet soda crackers Rich ripe round strawberry shortcake Guaranteed to be heard over one mile of water for small power boats, sixty-five feet or shorter?horn Carhartt 100% cotton guaranteed not to rip or tear double-fronted triple-stitched flannel-lined pants

 

 

Jim Boyes 1992

 

Arthur Davis: https://beckyandnicole.bandcamp.com/track/the-goodnight-song

https://beckyandnicole.bandcamp.com/track/the-goodnight-song

Chorus So goodnight my friends, as the dawn comes pale And the eastern wind brings the threat of gales Keep a hold on hope through the darkest vale And we’ll meet further on down the road I have travelled far from this island strand From the icy waste to the burning sand Ploughed the raging sea, seen the verdant land Been at home in a place far away Many differences but much the same Though the ways are strange and have different names But a friendly face breaks a thousand chains And a smile breaks the lock on the door We have joined in song, laughed a night away Swapped our tales of woe, kept the clouds at bay In the morning clear we’ll be on our way But we’ll meet further on down the road So lets drink a health to good times gone by When our spirits soared and we touched the sky And we’ll bid farewell but not goodbye And we’ll meet further on down the road

 

 

Utah Phillips 1976

 

Cattle-driving trail active 1866-80s stretched from central TX north through NM and CO to Cheyenne WY. Finest Kind: “This Bruce (“U. Utah”) Phillips classic depicts the lot of the chuckwagon cook (“the old woman, in cowboy lingo) on the cattle drive from the upper Brazos River in West Texas, through New Mexico to Denver, Colorado. The trail with the romantic- sounding name was blazed by two Texas cattlemen, Charles Goodnight and Oliver Loving”

Finest Kind: https://ianrobb1.bandcamp.com/track/goodnight-loving-trail

https://ianrobb1.bandcamp.com/track/goodnight-loving-trail

Too old to wrangle or ride on the swing, You beat the triangle and you curse everything. If dirt was a kingdom, then you’d be the king. Chorus On the Goodnight Trail, on the Loving Trail, Our Old Woman’s lonesome tonight. Your French harp blows like the low bawling calf. It’s a wonder the wind don’t tear off your skin. Get in there and blow out the light. With your snake oil and herbs and your liniments, too, You can do anything that a doctor can do, Except find a cure for your own god damned stew The campfire’s gone out and the coffee’s all gone, The boys are all up and they’re raising the dawn. You’re still sitting there, lost in a song. I know that some day I’ll be just the same, Wearing an apron instead of a name. There’s nothing can change it, there’s no one to blame For the desert’s a book writ in lizards and sage, Easy to look like an old torn out page, Faded and cracked with the colors of age.