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Gentle On My Mind​/​Down By The Salley Gardens

from Sonic Spaces: American Tunes by Stephen Riddell

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An experiment in panning, delays, and parallel tracks, this combines John Hartford's song Gentle On My Mind with the Irish Traditional song Down By The Salley Gardens

lyrics

Gentle On My Mind:

It's knowing that your door is always open
And your path is free to walk
That makes me tend to leave my sleeping bag
Rolled up and stashed behind your couch

And it's knowing I'm not shackled
By forgotten words and bonds
And the ink stains that have dried upon some lines

That keeps you in the back-roads
By the rivers of my memory
That keeps you ever
Gentle on my mind

It's not clinging to the rocks and ivy
Planted on their columns now that binds me
Or something that somebody said
Because they thought we fit together walking

It's knowing that the world will not be cursing or forgiving
When I walk along some rail-road track and find
That your still there on the back-roads, by the rivers of my memory
And for hours your just gentle on my mind

Oh the wheatfields, and the clotheslines
And the junkyards, and the highways
Come between us

Or some other woman crying to her mother
Cause she turned and I was gone

Oh I still might run in silence
Tears of joy might stain my face
And the summer sun might burn me till I'm blind
But not to where I cannot see you walking on the backroads
By the rivers flowing gentle on my mind

I pull my cup of soup from a gurgling, cracking, cauldron in some train yard
My beard a roughening coal pile, and a dirty hat pulled low across my face

Through cupped hands, round the tin can, I pretend I hold you to my breast and find
That you're still there on the backroads, by the rivers of my memory, ever smiling
Ever gentle on my mind

Down By The Salley Gardens:

Down by the salley gardens
my love and I did meet;
She passed the salley gardens
with little snow-white feet.
She bid me take love easy,
as the leaves grow on the tree;
But I, being young and foolish,
with her would not agree.

In a field by the river
my love and I did stand,
And on my leaning shoulder
she laid her snow-white hand.
She bid me take life easy,
as the grass grows on the weirs;
But I was young and foolish,
and now am full of tears.

credits

from Sonic Spaces: American Tunes, released January 24, 2019

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Riddell Productions Wellington, New Zealand

Riddell Productions was founded in 2014 by Stephen & Amanda Riddell.

Stephen is a folk singer-songwriter and sound engineer who plays piano, guitar and harmonica.

Amanda is a virtuosa guitarist and composer who enjoys playing show music from the golden age of Broadway. ... more

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