Lyr Req: Village Churchyard (Roscoe Holcomb)

Subject: Roscoe Holcomb lyrics
From:
Date: 07 Mar 99 - 02:31 PM

I've been trying to find lyrics to "A Village Churchyard" from Roscoe Holcomb's "The High Lonesome Sound". It states that the hymn is from "The Old Baptist Songbook", but I have been unable to find it anywhere. Can anyone lend a hand?

Thanks! [e-mail]

Subject: RE: Roscoe Holcomb lyrics
From: MMario
Date: 01 Aug 01 - 03:25 PM

refresh

Subject: Lyr Add: VILLAGE CHURCHYARD (Roscoe Holcomb?)
From: nutty
Date: 01 Aug 01 - 04:53 PM

Is this it?

VILLAGE CHURCHYARD

In a dear old village churchyard
I can see a mossy mound
That is where my mother's sleeping
In the cold and silent ground

There in a weeping willow
Sweet little bird to sing at dawn
It's I've no one left to love me
Since my mother's dead and gone

I was young but I remember
Well the night my mother died
There I saw her spirit fading
When she called me to her side

Saying darling, I must leave you
And God's voice to lead you on
Pray that we may meet in heaven
Where your mother's dead and gone

Oft I've wandered to the churchyard
Flowers to plant with tender care
On the grave of my dear mother
Darkness finds me weeping there

Looking at the stars above me
Waiting for the early dawn
There by mother I'll be buried
And no more be left alone

Subject: RE: Roscoe Holcomb lyrics
From: nutty
Date: 01 Aug 01 - 05:09 PM

Number 182 in this Carter Family compilation is another possibility ...... no lyrics though

In a little village churchyard

Subject: RE: Roscoe Holcomb lyrics
From: Stewie
Date: 01 Aug 01 - 08:11 PM

Nutty, your first one is the the right one - the link to the lyrics for Tim Eriksen's recent self-titled solo album. Eriksen notes that he learned it from an unlabelled tape he found in a friend's basement which turned out to be from John Cohen's recording of Roscoe. Eriksen met Cohen at a Cordelia's Dad concert where he (Eriksen) opened the show with the song. Cohen told him that 'Churchyard' was the last song Roscoe sang in public when, at the Brooklyn Academy of Music, his voice gave way to tears and he couldn't carry on.

--Stewie.

Subject: RE: Roscoe Holcomb lyrics
From: nutty
Date: 02 Aug 01 - 03:36 AM

e-mail sent

Subject: RE: Roscoe Holcomb lyrics
From: nutty
Date: 02 Aug 01 - 03:47 AM

e-mail returned as "mailbox not found" - just hope they check Mudcat

Subject: RE: Roscoe Holcomb lyrics
From: MMario
Date: 02 Aug 01 - 08:40 AM

*grin* it's an old request - but hey, it resulted in two more songs being clickied....

Subject: Lyr Add: VILLAGE CHURCHYARD (Roscoe Holcomb)
From: Burke
Date: 02 Aug 01 - 11:20 AM

VILLAGE CHURCHYARD
From Roscoe Holcomb's "The High Lonesome Sound". It states that the hymn is from "The Old Baptist Songbook"

In a dear old village churchyard
I can see a mossy mound
That is where my mother's sleeping
In the cold and silent ground

There in a weeping willow
Sweet little bird to sing at dawn
It's I've no one left to love me
Since my mother's dead and gone

I was young but I remember
Well the night my mother died
There I saw her spirit fading
When she called me to her side

Saying darling I must leave you
And God's voice to lead you on
Pray that we may meet in heaven
Where your mother's dead and gone

Oft I've wandered to the churchyard
Flowers to plant with tender care
On the grave of my dear mother
Darkness finds me weeping there

Looking at the stars above me
Waiting for the early dawn
There by mother I'll be buried
And no more be left alone

'Churchyard' was the last song Roscoe sang in public when, at the Brooklyn Academy of Music.

BES

Subject: RE: Roscoe Holcomb lyrics
From: Art Thieme
Date: 02 Aug 01 - 08:40 PM

1962 --- Roscoe was singing in an out of the way grotto on the 3rd floor of Ida Noyes Hall at the University of Chicago Folk Festival for just one other person and myself. I had asked him to do "The Unreconstructed Rebel" and he didn't want to sing it for the whole audience at a concert so we went off after a workshop and he sang it for us. Then he took my guitar, tuned it to an open chord (G probably), took a knife out of his pocket and played 2 or 3 songs sliding the knife blade on the strings. It was one of those transcendant moments that I'll always remember.

Art Thieme

Subject: RE: Roscoe Holcomb lyrics
From: GUEST,larry
Date: 21 Feb 05 - 05:17 PM

Looking for the words to Holcomb's "Across The Rocky Mountains" in a hurry. Need the words for next week's show. Can anyone help me??

Thanx, Larry

Subject: RE: Roscoe Holcomb lyrics
From: Mark Ross
Date: 21 Feb 05 - 05:27 PM

Look in the OLD TIME STRING BAND SONGBOOK which used to be THE NEW LOST CITY RAMBLERS SONGBOOK, it's in there I believe.

Mark Ross

Subject: ADD: Across the Rocky Mountain
From: Stewie
Date: 21 Feb 05 - 11:26 PM

ACROSS THE ROCKY MOUNTAIN

Across the rocky mountain I walked for miles and miles
Across the rocky mountain I walked for miles and miles
I'll never forget my mother's looks, God bless her sweetly smile

There was an old rich farmer who lived in the neighbourhood by
He had one lovely daughter, on her I cast my eye
She was most tall and handsome, blue eyes and curly hair
There's no other girl in this wide world with her I could compare

She was courted by three squires, so well they did agree
She was courted by three squiers so well they did agree
But to no one like Jack the sailor who crossed the deep blue sea

Well your cheeks they are too rosy, your fingers they are too small
Your cheeks they are too rosy, your fingers they are too small
Oh, your cheeks they are too rosy to face the cannonball

No, my cheeks are not too rosy, nor fingers not too small
My cheeks are not too rosy, nor fingers not too small
Oh, it would not change my conscience to see ten thousand fall

She was walking through the battlefield, searching up and down
She was walking through the battlefield, searching up and down
All among the dead and wounded, her darling Jack she found

She picked him up all in her arms, she carried him to the town
She picked him up all in her arms, she carried him to the town
She took him to the doctor for to quickly heal the wound

Source: as printed in Cohen/Seeger/Wood 'Old-Time String Band Songbook' Oak Publications 1976, pp 30-31.

--Stewie.

Subject: RE: Roscoe Holcomb lyrics
From: Dani
Date: 22 Feb 05 - 08:29 AM

Does anyone know more about the relationship between this song and "Jackaroo" (or "Jack-a-Roe?") They seem mostly the same, only a wealthy merchant's daughter from London who goes to see to find Jack, and they marry in the end?

Dani

Subject: RE: Roscoe Holcomb lyrics
From: Stewie
Date: 22 Feb 05 - 03:48 PM

Known by a variety of titles, including those you mention, 'Jack(ie) Monroe' was Holcomb's main source for the song. The first stanza is his own.

--Stewie.

Subject: RE: Roscoe Holcomb lyrics
From: GUEST,Pinetop Slim
Date: 22 Feb 05 - 04:08 PM

I see this thread was started 6 years ago, but what the hey ... My guess is that Mr. Holcomb was citing "The Old Baptist Songbook" generically; the lyrics might have come from "The Sweet Songster," or one of the pamphlet books of lyrics that elders and deacons frequently self-publish for their churches or "sosations" (associations) in Holcomb's corner of Kentucky.