Here I Stand: Elders’ Wisdom, Children’s Song Revisited
“I never would have dreamed that I would have ever seen a day like today. To see our young people go back and make a sketch out of what I said here the other day. I’m so glad that God has saw fit for our young people, black and white, to dream of a better way in the world today. I’m just happy. I could cry.” – Mr. Lewis Martin Jr,
Throughout the 1990’s I traveled through rural Alabama writing songs with youth in honor of the elders of their small towns. The songs honored farmers, moonshiners, sharecroppers, river boat ferry captains, textile workers, migrants, quilt-makers, grocery store owners, and midwives.
These works were released on Smithsonian Folkways in 1996 in a collection of field recordings entitled Here I Stand: Elders’ Wisdom, Children’s Song. Now thirty-years later, Auburn University has invited me to return to Alabama to record a dozen more of these songs and elder narrations in the week of October 19th. This new collection will be released on vinyl record and digital platforms worldwide in 2027. In the words of elder Lewis Martin Jr. from Camp Hill, Alabama, “I’m just happy. I could cry.”
Every town has stories worthy to tell
Just like that river, that’s bound to swell
Up from the valley filled with tears
Rising up, rising up year after year
Held in storage for so long, when released
When release it brings a song
Pictures of leaving, coming home
Back to the place where I belong
It’s the same old story
It’s the same old song
Moments of glory
We carry on
Excerpt from Moments of Glory by Larry Long