“Cumberland Dawn”

Having grown up in the mountains in upper East Tennessee, I went off to college at Sewanee, The University of the South…which is perched on the edge of the Cumberland plateau, about four hours from where I was born. So?….I never really went or.left very far at all until I was at least 30 years old….and then I went very far, indeed, and for many years. College friends of mine have just purchased their retirement home
(it seems that we are, finally, that old)…..somewhere on the viewtops of Sewanee (which is, after all, 10,000 acres for 1,000 students). I looked at the photographs my longtime pal, Lynda Berry Weaver , has posted on Facebook, and I painted this today…..thinking, once again, that maybe I did, finally, wander too far during my high&prosperous years…That said?….It IS peaceful and lovely up there on the mountain…the only song for this is an austere and stunning song by Matraca Berg…..go to: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qXyw67KTvJg

“Fire on the asphalt L.A. freeway
Santa Anna windstorm come blow me away
‘Cause this rear view mirror could use some adjustment
Some other reflection, some other place

Oh Cumberland, I’m a faithful son
No matter where I go I hear you calling me
The Mississippi’s wide long, St. Paul to New Orleans
But my heart’s resting on your banks in Tennessee

Lazy ol’ river not a lick of ambition
Get to Kentucky then you roll on home
If you were a highway you wouldn’t go nowhere
And I wouldn’t be lost and all alone

There’s a stolen river in the San Fernando
Down in the valley in the shadow of greed
But I have a memory knee deep in salvation
That old muddy water that once washed me clean

Oh Cumberland, I’m a faithful son
No matter where I go I hear you calling me
The Mississippi’s wide long, St. Paul to New Orleans
But my heart’s resting on your banks in Tennessee
Oh Cumberland, oh Cumberland….