One Man Mormon Blues Band: Music

• MP3 short clip, hi-fi play (broadband)
• MP3 short clip, lo-fi play (modem)

We were driving somewhere on a holiday weekend and the highway was crowded, the motels were full, rest stops overflowing and the news of accidents and murders was on the radio. It was then I thought about how it must have been on the road to Bethlehem. Some things don't change all that much.

The tune is an old-English folk song called "Silver Dagger". It is the story of a family's opposition to a child's marriage. Marriage, then as now, was a common theme in early ballads of the 1700's and 1800's. There are numerous versions of this song. Some end in murder, some in suicide and some in forlorn, eternal separation. My lyrics hint at a happy ending to Mary's difficult circumstance,

The highway is alive tonight
The fields are filled with campfire light
Tyranny and taxes are all for them
On the road to Bethlehem

Going somewhere no going back
Making their way in wagon tracks
Soldiers thieves family and friends
On the road to Bethlehem

Mary with child will be blessed
No home no job no peace no rest
Born to be by man condemned
On the road to Bethlehem

No room for them born outcast
Last shall be first first shall be last
God's most precious diadem
On the road to Bethlehem

The highway is alive tonight
The fields are filled with campfire light
Soldiers thieves family friends
On the road to Bethlehem