MOG

After Mike the Knife’s fine 3/28/08 post about story songs (http://mog.com/Mike_the_Knife/blog_post/152749#comments) had its parade come and go, two other story songs eventually came to mind that you might enjoy. The first song, “I Don’t Believe You’ve Met My Baby,” had originally jumped out at me from the speakers as I was listening to dobro player Jerry Douglas’s then-new 1992 mostly-instrumental album Slide Rule, and it introduced me to guest singer Alison Krauss’s unforgettable voice.

Her voice can get soft, so reading the lyrics might help you enjoy them.

I Don’t Believe You’ve Met My Baby

Last night, my dear, the rain was falling. I went to bed, so sad and blue. Then I had a dream of you.

I dreamed I was strolling in the evening Underneath the harvest moon. I was thinking about you.

Then we met out in the moonlight. The stars were shining in your eyes, But another was there too.

“I don’t believe you’ve met my baby.” You looked at her, you looked at me. I wondered who you were talking to.

I shook the hand of your stranger, But I was shaking more inside. I was still wondering who.

Your arm was resting on her shoulder. You smiled at her, she smiled at you. Her eyes were filled with victory.

She said, "My brother wants to marry," And then my heart was filled with ease, I knew that you would marry me.

The dream slowly becomes more and more ominous, in order for the last verse of this performance to be able to flood me with bliss every time. Autrey Inman wrote the song, and I think the Louvin Brothers first recorded it, followed later by the duo Porter Wagoner & Dolly Parton. It’s a rare non-blues traditional-type song that has six-bar verses and not 4-, 8-, 16- or 32-bar lengths. Later Krauss included this track on her best-selling 1995 CD Now That I’ve Found You: A Collection.

An earlier song with certain narrative similarities is "A Tragic Romance," written and recorded in the late forties or early fifties on the King label by one of my favorite country singers of that era, Grandpa Jones.

I prefer his regular self, singing love ballads with his guitar, than his white-moustached old-timey banjo persona, singing old folk and novelty songs.

Here are the lyrics:

The Tragic Romance

Nestled in the heart of the Tennessee hills, Midst peaceful pines, midst the rocks and the rills, Stands my old homestead of long, long ago. It brings back fond memories of one I loved so.

I courted a maiden so sweet and so fair With heavenly eyes and with chestnut brown hair. She told me she loved me and said she’d be mine, But I went away leaving her there behind.

I’ll tell you the reason why I left her there To roam this old world with its sorrow and care. I saw her one night in the arms of a man, Hugging and kissing as two lovers can.

I went to my home with a heart full of woe. I packed my belongings, determined to go. For many long years this old world I did roam With thoughts of my sweetheart, my darling, my own.

While dining one day in a little country town, A stranger walked in and he chanced to sit down. While talking of loved ones, I happen to find That his sister was that old sweetheart of mine.

When he heard my story, to me he then said, The one you left there has a long time been dead. She waited so long for the day that you’d return, But why you had left her she never did learn.

Now I am the man whom you saw that fatal night Wrapped in the arms of my sister so tight. She loved you so dearly, but you broke her heart, For stranger from her evermore you must part.