One Man Mormon Blues Band: Music

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I wrote this song at Girls Camp. (Girls Camp is a week long camping adventure for teenage LDS girls for those of you who aren't LDS.) For several years I went to Girls Camp and hosted a music tent where the girls could stop by during free time and learn to play traditional instruments like the guitar, mandolin, dulcimer, or banjo. (Well, we actually banned the banjo after the first year. When someone was practicing the banjo, no one else could hear a thing; for miles around!)

Anyway, Girls Camp was new experience for this old scouter and I was very touched by the spirituality in the camp. I thought about the difficulties for everyone in getting there, about the spiritual experiences the girls had along with the fun (not to mention learning the song "Dead Skink in the Middle of the Road"). And then one night I was reading the scriptures in my cabin and I read the story of Jacob and his wrestle with and angel and the ladder to Heaven. The mountain as ladder and the wrestle for spirituality sort of just all came together.

And she dreamed, behold a ladder set against the sky,
With angels busy climbing and descending, both far and nigh.
See there, in the distance, the hills where I must go.
On a far, dusty highway; on a road I do not know.

CHORUS
And she dreams,
Jacob’s ladder does she dream.
And Prays the angels promise
On her posterity.

And behold the Lord God of Abraham stood in the air above,
And said, “I am Christ, your Savior. I am the God of Love.”
Up there they say it’s quiet, just the whispering of the trees.
Just the rustling of the grass, as you fall on your knees.

The land on which thou liest, I will give it unto thee.
And as many as the dust of the earth will be thy eternal seed.
And between me and the mountain there are 13 crows.
And 13 hills before me, to the place where I want to go.

And behold I am with thee always, in this and every space.
And she awoke and said surely, God is in this place.
The crows croak and dart, confusing before my face.
But here on Ragged Mountain, surely, God is in this place.