What’s In a Song

Free download; you get a pdf of the score and an mp3 of a recording of the arrangement.  Lucy Picco Simpson (1940 – 2008) was a gifted singer and a prodigious collector of old hymns. She invited the Amidons to sing on her Folk Legacy album “Sharon Mountain Harmony“. Lucy wrote this song after one of the many singing weekends she attended.  Lucy talking about writing the song.  * *

.  ** Peter transcribed the improvised harmonies from the performance of the song you hear in the accompanying recording, performed by Emily Miller, Jesse Milnes, and Peter & Mary Alice Amidon.

Lyrics

What’s in a Song
by Lucy Picco Simpson

What’s in a song that helps me to heal?
And why can a song allow me to feel?
Oh, I can’t explain the joy or the tears,
Though I’ve been a singer for years. 

There are times when the folks are having a ball,
And the drinks and the jokes could fill up a hall,
But give me a song, a chorus, or more
And that’s when I’m likely to soar.

Oh they say there is nothing like having a feast
To bring folks close together from north, south, west, east;
But give us a song when the feasting is done
And that’s when the many are one.

There’s a time and a place for sorrow and woe
When the pain and the tears are expected to flow,
But give me a song and voices close by
And that’s when I’m likely to cry

There’ve been times when my heart has wanted to weep
But the pain and the tears were buried too deep.
Then out of the blue in a roomful of song
The locked-inside feeling was gone.

There are places where pleasure is wrapped up and sold
And you purchase a moment with silver and gold;
But the pleasure of singing’s a blessing to me
‘Cause I know it by heart and it’s free

Oh, the times I remember and cherish so much
When we reach with our voices – it’s almost like touch,
And we pull in the circle and banish our fears
And we try to keep singing for years.