Well I never...Ian alerted me on my personal page, otherwise I might not have noticed that someone was requesting one of MY songs!
The lyrics given are very near to being right. The song is entitled, Early Fields, and may be found in my book, CELEBRATION OF LIFE (now under revision, but we have a few of the originals left). I'll just write it out here, though, for those that might want it:
^^
EARLY FIELDS
(Jean Ritchie)
As I walked over the early fields
I heard a song a-bornin;
It fell around me like the rain
That washes off the mornin.
O I love the pipes, and I love the drum,
I love the wild harp ringin,
But there's naught on earth can e'er match the sound
Of one clear voice, singin!
It filled the wood, it filled the sky,
It filled the fields around me.
So far away, no-one could I see-
And yet the song, it found me...
So far away, the words were dim,
And still I knew their sadness,
I knew their peace; I knew their pain,
I knew their joy and gladness.
O I love the pipes and I love the drum,
I love the wild harp ringin;
But there's naught on earth can e'er match the sound
Of one clear voice, singin!
And still I walk my fields in vain
As evening shadows linger,
But a better journey have I had
In searching for the singer...
O I love the pipes, and I love the drum,
I love the wild harp ringin;
But there's naught on earth can e'er match the sound
Of one clear voice, singin!
(Jean Ritchie Geordie Music Pub. Co.)
Greenbeer, please give my love to AnnaLee- now THERE'S a voice! It has been many years since we met at a festival at the top O' the country somewhere! Just ought to explain that somehow it didn't seem right to sing the words, "ringing" and "singing," so I took the "g's" off as we usually do in Kentucky."