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Little Bessie

from Carve That Possum by Tom, Brad & Alice

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about

Traditional unaccompanied song. Alice first heard this song from Hazel Dickens, then her father, H.N. Dickens. Always a favorite.

lyrics

Hug me closer, closer mother
Put your arms around me tight
For I’m cold and tired mother
And I feel so strange tonight.

Something hurts me here dear mother
Like a stone upon my breast
And I wonder, wonder mother
Why it is I cannot rest.

All day long while you were working
As I lay upon my bed
I was trying to be patient
And think of what you said.

How the king, our blessed Jesus
Loves his lambs to watch and keep
How I wish he’d take me mother
In his arms that I might sleep.

Just before the lamps were lighted
Just before the children came
In the room so still and quiet
I heard someone call my name.

All at once a window opened
On a field of lambs and sheep
Some were at the brook a-drinking
Some were laying fast asleep.

In a moment I was looking
On a world so bright and fair
It was filled with little children
And they seemed so happy there.

They were singing oh so sweetly
Sweetest songs I ever heard
They were singing sweeter mother
Than our little yellow bird.

All at once a window opened
Upon one so bright and fair
That I knew it must be Jesus
When he said my child come here.

Come up here my little Bessie
Come up here and live with me
Where little children never suffer
In the long eternity.

Then the mother pressed her closer
To her own dear burdened breast
On the heart so near its breaking
Lay the heart so near its rest.

At the solemn hour of midnight
In the dark and silent deep
Laying on her mother’s bosom
Little Bessie fell asleep.

credits

from Carve That Possum, released January 1, 2005
Alice-vocal

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about

Alice Gerrard image

Alice Gerrard Durham, North Carolina

A singer and songwriter, Alice’s recordings with Hazel Dickens during the 1960s and ’70s influenced a generation of women musicians from Laurie Lewis to the Judds. Nominated for a Grammy in 2015, she was inducted into the International Bluegrass Music Assoc. Hall of Fame in 2017. A documentary film about Alice, "You Gave Me a Song" premiered at the Full Frame Independent Film Festival in 2019. ... more

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