Derroll Adams has written several fine songs of which 'Portland Town' is perhaps the best known. For me, 'The Sky' is the pick of his crop. Derroll has said of his songs that they all have the 'freight train whistle's spirit of loneliness'. This is a personal song, an autobiographical song, a song of leaving, but, like a Japanese haiku, it effortlessly transcends the individual experience to the universal. His gentle banjo backing is perfect for this song.

THE SKY
(Derroll Adams)

There's a time when the truth is bad
And it's so very sad
I know, I know
When I was a kid, like a mother's sigh
Used to hear the freight train's cry
It kept me on the go
I know
Even now I stop to hear
Big freight trucks a-shifting gears
Tells me what I want to know
To know

There's a time when you face your soul
To find if you are true and whole
I know, I know
I remember your face so clear
Sometimes it seems I hear
The softness of your sigh
Your sigh
And I remember another time
Autumn here and summer's dyin'
You asked me not to go
I know

There's a time when the past is past
Filled with things that never last
I know, I know
Freight train lonesome whistle's cry
Becomes a song, but here's the sky
Spring always comes again
Again
In that old car and its Christmas time
Filled with kids and they all were cryin'
They had no place to go
I know

There's a time when you face the sky
To find if you are here and why
I know, I know
Freight train's faraway cry
Where on the ground when the dew's not dry
You hear a rooster crow
I know
Just like the morning star
That you see so far
Through the clear, clear sky
The sky

Author: Derroll Adams

Source: Derroll Adams 'Feelin' Fine' Village Thing. 'The Sky' has been reissued recently on a CD entitled 'Songs of the Banjoman' Wundertute.