Monday, May 7, 2012

A dab of Jesse Winchester to soothe the soul

The tender and gentle surface of Jesse Winchester's music and the honey warmth of his voice was undercut by a bittersweet melancholy that enabled his songs to cut deeply enough to move others, (such as the musician sitting alongside him in the first clip), to tears. And those who feared that the hard road he traveled as a conscientious objector who left the U.S. to avoid the Vietnam war,  had left him preternaturally solemn and brooding, will be delighted to find that he could be pretty danged silly too. 
Snow 
Sham-a-lam-a-ding
You Can't Stand Up All By Yourself
"You can't stand up all by yourself
You can't stand up alone
You need the touch of a mighty hand
You can't stand up alone."

STEP BY STEP

"Step by step all the happy Saints go marching in
And if one of those Saints step out of line
He'll have to start again
Cause Jacob's golden ladder
Gets slippery at the top
And many a happy-go-lucky saint
Has made that long, long drop
If I'm late don't wait, go on without me
I may tarry awhile cause I need to know
Before I go how come the Devil smiles
Free from care Free from sin
The Saints are trooping in
The children play all around the throne
Innocent of sin
A trillion voices sing the name
The mortals may not know
And Heaven's walls are too high to hear
The trouble down below
If I'm late don't wait, go on without me
I may tarry awhile cause I need to know
Before I go how come the Devil smiles." 


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