Sunday, July 29, 2007

Jean Ritchie


Jean Ritchie
Originally uploaded by paynehollow
Last night was the second night of the annual Kentucky Music Weekend festival. The night's festivities were closed out, as they have been the last few years, with Kentucky's own Jean Ritchie.

Some lyrics from one of my favorite songs of hers, The Cool of the Day:

My Lord, he said unto me
Do you like my garden so fair
You may live in this garden if you'll keep the grasses green
And I'll return in the cool of the day

Now is the cool of the day
Now is the cool of the day
This earth is a garden, the garden of my Lord
And he walks in his garden
In the cool of the day

Then my Lord, he said unto me
Do you like my pastures so green
You may live in this garden if you will feed my sheep
And I'll return in the cool of the day

Then my Lord, he said unto me
Do you like my garden so free
You may live in this garden if you'll keep the people free
And I'll return in the cool of the day

Now is the cool of the day
Now is the cool of the day
O this earth is a garden, the garden of my Lord
And he walks in his garden
In the cool of the day

7 comments:

Pam in Tucson said...

How wonderful to hear Jean Ritchie, Dan! I guess you do every year - I'm jealous. She's one of my all-time favourites from way back in the 50's.

Michael Westmoreland-White said...

That's a great song!

brd said...

Very sweet!

D.Daddio Al-Ozarka said...

Heck...let's add that one to canon!

Dan Trabue said...

Not sure if you're serious there, Daddio, but it's a song that's been sung at our church as special music before. It's a hauntingly beautiful melody, but might be a bit hard to sing as a group song.

Caeles said...

hey Dan, my choir has done this piece arranged for SATB before...it's not too bad at all. Check out Youtube. :)

Dan Trabue said...

Do you have a link? I looked on YouTube under Caeles but could not find it...