Lonesome Scenes of Winter - Jesse & Friends @ Floyd Country Store 7/9/24

Earliest written version, 1904
Recorded on Sammy’s 1997 album Leading Roll
The lonesome scenes of winter
In the frost and wind and snow,
Dark clouds around are gatherin
And the chilly winds did blow
I went to see my own true love,
She seemed so dear to me.
I asked her for to marry,
She would not answer me.
As I stood there a’waitin’
Until the break of day
A’waitin’ for some answer,
My dear, what do you say?
---
John Leahy, 1958
As the lonesome scenes of winter in stormy winds do blow. Clouds around the center incline to frost and snow. You’re the girl I have chosen to be my only dear; You’re scornful heart is frozen and drifted far I fear
One night I went to see my love; she proved most scornfully. I asked her if she’d marry; she would not marry me. “The night is far spent, my love, it’s near the break of day. And I’m waiting for an answer; my dear what do you say?”
“I can but plainly tell you, I’ll lead a single life. I never thought it fitting that I should be your wife.
Now take a civil answer and answer for yourself provide. I have another sweetheart, and you I have laid aside.”
Now my mind is changing that old love for the new, this wide and lonesome valley I mean to ramble through. In search of someone handsome that might my fancy fill, this world is wide and lonesome; if she don’t, another will.