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As a college student, I went to a concert given by blues singer/guitarist Rory Block at neighbouring Bryn Mawr. I was utterly transfixed by her muscular guitar style – quite a contrast with the delicate plucking favoured by all the other female guitarists I knew – and I can remember just about every song she did in her set. This was one of them.

The lyrics I’m singing are partly remembered (no doubt erroneously) from Block’s performance, with a couple of lines that I think I made up because I couldn’t recall the ones Block sang. Both her version and mine differ fairly substantially from the original, which was written by Josiah Kelley Alwood (1828-1909). In an article that appeared in the Christian Conservator in 1896, Alwood wrote:

It was a balmy night in August 1879, when, returning from a debate in Spring Hill, Ohio, to my home in Morenci, Michigan, about one o’clock a. m., I saw a beautiful rainbow, north by north-west, against a dense black nimbus cloud. The sky was all perfectly clear, except this dark cloud which covered about 40 degrees of the horizon and extended about half way to the zenith. The moon was in the southeast. The phenomenon was entirely new to me, and very lovely. I had traveled seven miles from the scene of mental toil, my nerves were refreshed by the balmy air and the lovely sight. Old Morpheus was playing his sweetest lullaby. Another mile of travel, a few moments of time, a fellow of my size was ensconced in sweet home and wrapped in sweet sleep: a first-class know-nothing till rosy-sweet morning was wide over the fields.

To awake and look abroad and remember the night, was to be filled with sweet melody. A while at the organ brought forth a piece of music, now known as “The Unclouded Day.” A day and a half was bestowed on the melody and four stanzas.

In the spring of 1883, I permitted Prof. J. F. Kinsey to use it. He did so without cost in at least four different books, accrediting words and melody to J. K. Alwood, properly.

In the autumn of 1893 I learned with displeasure and pity that Mr. Kinsey had put the piece on a sheet, with his own name as author of the melody, and had secured a copy-right of the whole to himself. Later I learned that “The Unclouded Day” with Kinsey as the author of the melody, was in several books, as “The Life Line,” and others. This was unpleasant to me, as it was known to many near and far that I claimed the authorship of the words and melody.

Here are Alwood’s lyrics as given by his son, O.G. Alwood, in a 1924 article in the Christian Conservator:

O, they tell me of a home far beyond the skies.
O, they tell me of a home far away;
O, they tell me of a home where no storm-clouds rise,
O, they tell me of an unclouded day.

O, they tell me of a home where my friends have gone,
O, they tell me of that land far away;
Where the tree of life in eternal bloom,
Sheds its fragrance through the unclouded day.

O, they tell me of the King in His beauty there,
And they tell me that mine eyes shall behold,
Where He sits on the throne that is whiter than snow,
In the city that is made of gold.

O, they tell me that he smiles on His children there,
And His smile drives their sorrows all away;
And they tell me that no tears ever come again,
In that lovely land of unclouded day.

Chorus:
O, the land of cloudless day,
O, the land of the unclouded day;
O, they tell me of a home where no storm-clouds rise.
O, they tell me of an unclouded day.

Clearly, the song has undergone quite a few permutations over the years, but I’ve given full credit to Alwood anyway, seeing as he evidently felt so strongly about it!

lyrics

Oh they tell me of a land far beyond the skies
Oh they tell me of a home far away
Oh they tell me of a land where no storm clouds rise
Oh they tell me of an uncloudy day

Oh they tell me there’s no sickness or danger there
Oh they tell me of that home far away
Oh they tell me that He smiles on His children there
In the city that is made of gold

Oh they tell me of a land of eternal sun
Oh they tell me of a home far away
Oh they tell me of a land where my friends have gone
To the city that is made of gold

credits

from I Won​’​t Go Home ’Til Morning, released October 28, 2008
Words & Music by J. K. Alwood
Sarah – vocals, guitar
Gerry O’Beirne – tiple
Trevor Hutchinson – electric bass
Liam Bradley – percussion

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Sarah McQuaid Penzance, UK

“One of the most instantly recognisable voices in current music … Shades of Joni Mitchell in a jam with Karen Carpenter and Lana Del Rey.” —Neil March, Trust The Doc

“Captivating, unorthodox songwriting … layered satin vocals ... enthralling, harrowing arrangements … a gateway into a true innovator’s soul.” —PopMatters

See sarahmcquaid.com/about for more info.
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