Jenrose: Music

• MP3 short clip, hi-fi play (broadband)
• MP3 short clip, lo-fi play (modem)

A song for Deb, an amazing woman who I never had the pleasure of meeting.

Once upon a younger day
Many years ago
I wandered down a couple towns down
To join the summer show
One day while I was mending some clothes
Upon a chest I came
And pulled from there a skirt and a shawl
In which were stitched her name
And I had not seen her face before
Her time had come and gone
And on that room a quiet fell
For she had died too young
And a warm wind blew right through that room
As I heard her life retraced…

That was the first I heard of the place
they call Abiding Grace

And every time I heard that name
Ever since that day
Everyone who knew her at all
They all had this to say:
A purer soul you will not find
Although you search the world
And every time I wore those clothes
I thought about that girl.
I thought of how the body surrenders
But the spirit survives
For never before had I met a dead woman
Whose presence was so much alive
Then a woman there with whiskey hair
And a soft and handsome face

Said Let me take you down to the place
We call Abiding Grace

So we went out that night
Gathered under the moonlight
And all I could see was the wide open sky
And all I could hear was the raising of voices
In shadows of smoke rising up from the fire (singing)
Undertaker, won’t you please drive gently
Undertaker please drive slow
for that body that you’re haulin,’ Lord
I hate to see her go…
Long though I’ve tried, I cannot seem to find
The words for that time and that place

But I went that year from a girl to a woman
Who’d found abiding grace

And I can still see her gravesite
All the trees lined with crystals and beads
Feel the chill up my spine as they shine in the moonlight
Hear the wind whispering through the trees (singing)
Please lord please, remember me with a smile upon your face

And rest my soul, lord, down at the place we call Abiding Grace
Yes rest my soul, lord, down at the place we call Abiding Grace.