I spent considerable time searching for a version of St. Paul's song so I could learn it for my Faith & Folk Music program. It's something that had crossed my path several times without much impact. Somewhere, I have the Pierce Pettis cassette with it, but couldn't find it. I've a version recorded by Magpie, but their tempo was so excruciatingly slow and grandiose that it never registered as something I needed to learn either, though I love some of their other songs.

It wasn't until I heard Caroline Paton sing it to me in a crowded room at the Getaway, the year Sandy died, talking about singing it for memorial services that it hit me what a wonderful setting this was. I tried to find sheet music for it - perfectly willing to pay for it, but Pierce Petis' website doesn't seem to have that as an option. It wasn't showing up anywhere else online as anything other than the lyrics or a couple YouTube videos. I watched Ms. Devine's YouTube of it (999's link above) about 75 times to get it down, and figure out chord changes (I'm not very experienced at getting a song down this way) and worked it out in the key of C for singing with Autoharp. It's in the top of my repertoire these days. I talked to Caroline about it this spring when I was sorting songs for the project and now that I've got it, I need to record it and send it to her, with thanks.

It still surprises me that a few songs I cherish were NOT "love at first go round." Amazing how much context and personal interpretation feed into our reception of information!

Joanne in Cleveland