Lyr Add: Road to Aberdeen (Nanci Griffith)

Subject: Lyr Add: Road to Aberdeen
From: RobbieWilson
Date: 25 May 08 - 07:43 AM

just watched an old Transatlantic Sessions (2) where Nancy Griffith sang this song. I really liked it. Does anyone know who wrote the song?

Also, I looked and did not find it in the DT. Do ordinary catters like me add stuff to the DT or do we post in threads and some gnome extract to DT?

Subject: Lyr Add: ROAD TO ABERDEEN (Nanci Griffith)
From: GUEST,Shanty Kees
Date: 25 May 08 - 09:09 AM

Robbie,

I found these lyrics on the web stating that the song is written by Nanci Griffith herself.

Kees


ROAD TO ABERDEEN
(Nanci Griffith)
As recorded by Nanci Griffith on "Transatlantic Sessions, Series 2, Vol. 3" (2013)

Oh, I thought I saw my mother's eyes
On a road to Aberdeen
And they did shine above a stranger's smile
The color of the sea
And one day I'll take my mother there
To see what I have seen
The eyes of her great grandfather
On the road to Aberdeen

Now I thought I heard my father's voice
Along the coast of Wales
Singing sweet of tenor in a Cardiff pub
With the wind a gust of gales
And one day I'll take my father there
To sing the harmony
He'll sing high across the water
In his grandfather's voice he'll sing

(chorus) Old land you are holy
To the children 'cross the sea
Old land may the sea understand
We are all one family

In a flower shop in Amsterdam
I saw grandmother's hands
They were the fragile grace of porcelain
With a small gold wedding band
And the tulip that I purchased there
Is pressed upon a page
In a book of psalms grandmother saved
From her grandmother's Holland days

Now my sister has grandmother's hands
And the skin of ivory
And my brother has my mother's eyes
They're the color of the sea
And me, I got my father's voice (and his legs)
To the coast of Wales I sing
And I do cherish these remembrances
On a road to Aberdeen

(chorus) It's old land and it's holy
To the children 'cross the sea
It's old land; may the sea understand
We are all one family

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Road to Aberdeen
From: RobbieWilson
Date: 25 May 08 - 09:35 AM

Hi, yes thanks I did the same but it was not clear whether NG is liisted as the performer rather than the writer

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Road to Aberdeen
From: RobbieWilson
Date: 25 May 08 - 09:56 AM

OK
I've searched and found this where Nanci herself talks about writing the song, which is incidentaly called "Old Land", not Road to Aberdeen.

Old Land, Nanci Griffith

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Road to Aberdeen
From: RobbieWilson
Date: 25 May 08 - 10:13 AM

Following on from this, one of the contributors on the you tube discussion describes Nanci as a celt, scots mother and welsh father. Is this just made up from the lyric? I looked at quite a few biography pages but they all seemed cut and pasted from each other and while they all said she had musical parents it did not mention them being from somewhere other than Texas.

Anyone know?

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Road to Aberdeen
From: GUEST
Date: 26 May 08 - 02:06 PM

refresh