Dogwood Winter

3. DOGWOOD WINTER

Dock Boggs has long been one of my favorite obscure-yet-influential figures from the shadows of American vernacular music. He was a complete original. It was from the spirit of Boggs’s dark country blues that this ballad emerged, with some regional touches like the White Rocks of Lee County, Virginia, and Daniel Boone’s trek across the Wilderness Road. Steve and I are both students of the Appalachian region’s history, and we hope this tune strikes a resonant chord with like-minded folks. Ron Stewart plays the meanest banjo solos on this song, tuned down to open E, out of the G position (as is the guitar lead), for those taking notes. (A side note from Steve) - In my opinion, Tim sings this style of song better than anyone. This one’s in his “wheel house” and he flat killed it!

My father heard an ax one day across the valley wide and deep
He woke me from my bed, it was a warm and peaceful sleep
Saying we must leave my son, I’ve heard there still is room
In the land of milk and honey where the dogwood blossoms bloom

We loaded up our wagons, every cow and every hen
Down the new cut road where Captain Boone led his gallant men
Past the Gap beyond the White Rocks by the pale and waxing moon
To the land of milk and honey where the dogwood blossoms bloom

We built our cabin in the springtime and there came a bitter chill
till the frost took all our corn and the land was deathly still
We planted by the signs but winter came too soon
To the land of milk and honey where the dogwood blossoms bloom

My mother bade me go up in the hollow to fetch a load of wood
When I returned, an awful site it froze me where I stood
Flames reaching up to heaven, our cabin they consumed
There In the land of milk and honey where the dogwood blossoms bloom

In the valley of the mourning dove, a low and haunting sound
There I laid my dearest father in the dark and frozen ground
Near the precious one who raised me from the womb
In the land of milk and honey where the dogwood blossoms bloom

Fare the well my friends, now I must quickly pack my things and go
For my time spent in this valley I have naught to show
Someday Lord, I pray this road may take me soon
far from the land of milk and honey where the dogwood blossoms bloom