Summer Evening

Picked up this CD Friday night at the Lucy Kaplansky concert. Going Driftless, an artist's tribute to Greg Brown.

Then yesterday I hung out at the MFA. I'm not a big fan of the MFA, but there are certain things and places there where I go...my secret place.

Anyway, the new section has all those Winslow Homer's hanging, and this is a pretty famous one. Boys in a Pasture. I know this one. I lived this one. I know that hard ground those boys are lying on, ground baked by the hot Midwestern sun. I know the scratch and itch the stubble is putting against their skin, and the moistness that's on their skin from the humidity, but if they sit real still and quiet, as still and quiet as rabbits, there will be enough of a breeze that will keep them cool. And the things they'll talk about, they'll never talk about ever again anywhere or anytime in their lives.

Say this deal's about over, and I guess that's true,
Town used to have twelve stores, now we got two.
Big boys movin' in, small farmers movin' on.
The way may be goin', but the life ain't gone.

On a summer evenin' when the corn's head-high,
And there's more lightnin' bugs than stars in the sky.
Ah, you get the feelin' things may be alright,
On a summer evenin' before the dark of night.

Walked down by the river where my good fields are,
It's a dusty old road, but there ain't many cars.
Think about my wife, my daughter and my son,
If the good Lord's still lookin', the Lord's will be done.

But on a summer evenin' when the corn's head-high,
And there's more lightnin' bugs than stars in the sky.
Ah, you get the feelin' things may be alright,
On a summer evenin' before the dark of night.

Mmm, on a summer evenin' when the corn's head-high,
And there's more lightnin' bugs than stars in the sky.
Ah you get the feelin' things may be alright,
On a summer evenin' before the dark of night.
On a summer evenin' before the dark of night.