Sometimes I pay attention to other types of music

Sometimes I pay attention to other types of music. Hard to believe?

Anyway, something pointed me to a piece by Emmylou Harris: Prayer in Open D (a cowgirl's prayer). I mentioned it in class the other day and got mostly blank faces.

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The text of the piece is nice, the music better. She has the ability to put real emotion into the way she sings so many of the words. Great nuance . . . and the use of the cello at the end is just incredible . . .

There's a valley of sorrow in my soul
Where every night I hear the thunder roll
Like the sound of a distant gun
Over all the damage I have done
And the shadows filling up this land
Are the ones I built with my own hand
There is no comfort from the cold
Of this valley of sorrow in my soul

There's a river of darkness in my blood
And through every vein I feel the flood
I can find no bridge for me to cross
No way to bring back what is lost
Into the night it soon will sweep
Down where all my grievances I keep
But it won't wash away the years
Or one single hard and bitter tear

And the rock of ages I have known
Is a weariness down in the bone
I use to ride it like a rolling stone
Now just carry it alone

There's a highway risin' from my dreams
Deep in the heart I know it gleams
For I have seen it stretching wide
Clear across to the other side
Beyond the river and the flood
And the valley where for so long I've stood
With the rock of ages in my bones
Someday I know it will lead me home