The Heart of a Song

 

I have really begun to pay attention to Bluegrass and Bluegrass style music.  There is something in the sadness of the tunes that I am so drawn towards.  I have a couple (three actually) that have really touched me and so since I am so down that today is Monday....and raining I thought I would share some music with you.  Just call this Music Monday....of The Heart of a Song.  I may do this on a regular basis.  Who knows.

 

The first is by The Band Perry and called Better Dig Two.  The songwriters are TREVOR JOSEPH ROSEN, SHANE L MCANALLY, BRANDY LYNN CLARK.  The song is quite haunting.

 

Better Dig Two

I told you on the day we wed
I was gonna love you till I’s dead
Made you wait till our weddin’ night
That’s the first and the last time I’ll wear white
*huff*
So if the ties that bind ever do come loose
Tie ‘em in a knot like a hangman’s noose.
‘Cause I’ll go to heaven or I’ll go to hell
Before I see you with someone elseChorus
Put me in the ground
And put me six foot down
And let the stone say
Here lies the girl whose only crutch was loving one man just a little too much
If you go before I do,
I’m gonna tell the grave digger that he better dig two!

Well it won’t be whiskey
It won’t be meth
It will be your name on my last breath
If the voice of death ever do us part
The coroner will call it a broken heart

Chorus
So put me in the ground
Put me six foot down
And let the stone say
Here lies the girl whose only crutch was loving one man a little too much
If you go before I do
I’m gonna tell the grave digger that he better dig two
Dig two

I took your name when I took those vows
I meant ‘em back then and I mean ‘em right now
Oh right now
If the ties that bind ever do come loose
If forever ever ends for you
If that ring gets a little too tight
Might as well read me my last rightsAnd let the stone say
Here lies the girl whose only crutch was loving one man just a little too much
If you go before I do
Gonna tell the grave digger that he better dig
Hey!
There'll be a stone right next to mine
We’ll be together till the end of time
Don’t you go before I do
Gonna tell the grave digger that he better dig two

I told you on the day we wed
I was gonna love you till I’s dead.

 

Since we are on favorites one of my other favorites is Jacob's Dream by Allison Krauss

 

In the spring of 1856, with the snow still on the ground
Two little boys were lost in the mountains, above the town
The father went out hunting, the boys had stayed behind
While mother tended to her chores, they wandered from her side

The two had gone to follow him and lost their way instead
By dusk the boys had not been found and fear had turned to dread
Two-hundred men had gathered there to comb the mountain side
The fires were built on the highest peak in hopes they'd see the light

Oh, mommy and daddy why can't you hear our cries
The day is almost over, soon it will be night
We're so cold and hungry and our feet are tired and sore
We promise not to stray again from our cabin door

Now Jacob Dibert woke one night from a strange and eerie dream
He saw a path between two hills near a dark and swollen stream
He told his wife he saw the boys huddled close beside a log
For two more nights the dream returned this vision sent from GodOh, mommy and daddy why can't you hear our cries
The day is almost over, soon it will be night
We're so cold and hungry and our feet are tired and sore
We promise not to stray again from our cabin door

A thousand men had searched in vain the west side of Bob's creek
But Jacob's wife knew of this place and said to travel east
With a guide to take him there, Jacob came upon the scene
And found the boys cold and still beneath the old birch tree

Oh, mommy and daddy, look past the tears you cry
We're both up in Heaven now, God is by our side
As you lay us down to rest, in the presence of the Lord
Know that we will meet you, here at Heaven's door

Oh, mommy and daddy, look past the tears you cry
We're both up in Heaven now, God is by our side
And as you lay us down to rest, in the presence of the Lord
Know that we will meet you, here at Heaven's door

 

 

Heart of the Wood by Jody and Rory is one that reminds me of my granddaddy.  I feel as if when Amanda and I are singing it....we are singing about him....and I love it.

 

I think what made granddaddy great is that he didn't work all day
I'd love the time we spent and I'd go everywhere he went
We'd end up on some old deer trail
And I'd listen hard as he would spin his tales

We were in a field of stumps he said I got a new one for you hon
These trees once stood tall and I'm the man that made them fall
I cut 'em up, sanded them down
And you wouldn't believe what I found

past the bark and all the scars
Our home was in the heart of those old trees
God bless who sowed those seeds
A hundred years and they just grew
And only heaven knew what they'd be, to our family
All that time to become what they should
you know Our home was in the heart of the wood

He smiled, said there's my favorite one, pointed at a cherry stump
He said I couldn't afford the one at Sears so the good lord planted one right here
He carved out what he saw within and he gave it to my dad when he turned ten

Past the bark and all the scars
There was a guitar in the heart of that old tree
All from just one seed
A hundred years and it just grew
And only heaven knew just what it'd be
And how that tree could sing
All the time to become what it should
There were songs in the heart of the wood

He said we can mark a tree to keep from getting lost
and it'll always point our way home like that old rugged cross

A hundred years and it just grew and only heaven knew what it'd be
And who'd hang on that tree it held the Son of God like it should
But I know it broke the heart of the wood

i think what made granddaddy great was that he didn't work all day
I'd love the time we spent
I'd go everywhere that old man went

Music Monday and the Lost Children of the Alleghenies

I was watching a PBS special one night and it featured Allison Kraus. I love the sound of her voice and was fascinated by the song she was singing about two little boys called Jacob's Dream. After the show was over I went online to see about the lyrics of the song. It was definitely one that Still Magnolias would be perfect for. What I found in my search was that the song was actually a true story and a very sad one. It began on the morning of April 24, 1856, in a real place called Spruce Hollow. Samuel Cox went hunting and his small sons, Joseph, 5, and George, 6, decided to stay at home with their mom and play..when Cox returned to the little log cabin he had built he was empty-handed from his hunt. As they sat down for dinner, their dog, “Sport,” was barking and Mr. Cox immediately trudged out with his gun. Before Cox left he told his wife, “Sport” had a squirrel treed, and he would go get the squirrel for meat for his family. After hunting for about an hour and a half he returned by a route that was different route from the one he had taken when he left the cabin. "On entering the clearing where his cabin stood, he was met by his wife. Susannah Cox was crying hysterically because the two boys were missing. Susannah frantically told her husband how she had repeatedly called them and then searched the area. She was sure that something had happened to them. The woods in the area had many fast-flowing streams that two small boys could easily drown in.
Samuel Cox immediately began searching for his sons. Again and again he desperately called their names and listened intently after his echo for the small voices of the boys’. The only thing poor Mr. Cox heard was the birds high in the trees and the rustling of leaves by the wind through the forest. Finally, Samuel went to his neighbors who lived a farther up the valley to ask their aid in the search.
Within hours, over 150 people were searching the Blue Knob area for the young boys. They searched until nearly daybreak, rested briefly and renewed their search at the crack of dawn. Nearly ten days went by and almost 1,000 people were trudging through the woods in every direction to aid in the search for the boys. Some came from as far as 50 miles away. By now the entire area was completely involved with the thoughts of what extreme misfortune the Cox family was experiencing. Rumors flew wildly as neighbors told stories to one another. They had drowned…they were killed by a man-eating beast seen prowling the forest…the parents had murdered them. Several neighbors went as far as to tear up the floor of the Cox cabin to relieve those acquisitions. It was then, at the height of all the rumors, that a young farmer named, Jacob Dibert, had a terrible nightmare. In his nightmare, Mr. Dibert was part of the search parties looking for the Cox boys. He became separated from the other men. He could not recognize the part of the forest he was in, but he came to a fallen tree. Near the tree lay a dead deer. Stepping over the deer, Mr. Dibert followed a deer trail and soon found a small boy’s shoe just beyond where he found the shoe there was a beech tree lying across a stream. He went across the stream, up a steep ridge and into a ravine. There, by the roots of a large birch tree, were the missing boys, dead from exposure. Jacob told his wife about the dream, but they said nothing to anyone else. The next night he dreamed the same dream over again. So, they decided to tell Mrs. Dibert’s brother, Harrison Whysong, who lived in Pavia and was well acquainted with the area in which the boys had disappeared. At first Whysong was skeptical of the dream, but he said nothing. He knew where there was just such a ridge, brook; but he regarded it as a wild goose chase unfortunately. To ease his sister’s mind he took Jacob to the edge of the forest, and they began their search on May 8, 1856." The boys had now been missing for two week. "Five minutes later as Dibert traced his steps in his dream they stepped upon a fallen tree and there laid a dead deer. Beyond the deer, some eight yards away, a child’s shoe was laying upon a mound of earth. Both men began to run. They crossed a brook on a fallen Beech tree just like the one in Dibert’s dream. As they crossed the brook the scrambled up the steep ridge. Dibert spotted a giant Beech tree with a shattered top, too astounded to speak, he could only point. Just like in his dreams, at the roots of the Beech tree they found the bodies of George and Joseph Cox, dead from exposure just like in the dream. The bodies of the boys were returned to the Cox home, and the church and school bells tolled- farther and farther from Pavia, to Bedford, to Altoona- telling that the boys were found. Questions were raised throughout the counties as to where, how, and by whom were the boys found. Some said Whysong, others said Dibert, and some said they both were heroic. In 1906, the people of Pavia contributed funds to erect a public monument at the spot where they brothers were found. The monument is still there today- standing as a memorial to the nightmare of the young farmer, Jacob Dibert." Nearly a hundred years later, "early in July of 2002, the Cox monument was vandalized. The monument was overturned and the fence surrounding the monument had been pushed in. Workers from Culp Monumental Works of Schellsburg moved the Lost Children of the Alleghenies monument back into place. The workers included C. Robert Daugherty, Richard Sparks, Philip Fletcher, and Jim Miller. C.B. Culp, founder of the family company in 1899, made the original chiseled marble stone in 1906." Life was hard in the early twentieth century and death was common, especially among the young. How sad for young mother, Susannah Cox and her husband Samuel. What an awesome story. The greatest thing about stories is that they are everywhere....what story is there from your town or state that stands out like this one. Was there a song about it? That is why today...I am making this a music Monday. Oral tradition at its finest! Enjoy the song. Happy Monday to Everyone!