Joe Newberry sings a song for Mother's Day (if your mother's gone)

I've known Joe Newberry for more than twenty years. I've always thought he has about the most beautiful voice in North Carolina and I got to know him when he let me wheedle him into performing in my annual "Solstice Extravaganza." He was my go-to guy a monty ago when I had a crash, and helped me answer the question: "How do I know what, if anything, to care about any more?" Thanks for that, Joe...

Anyway, he's playing on Prairie Home Companion today with his old-time band Big Medicine, and he has a new cd out called Two Hands; on it he sings this song, "I Know Whose Tears," inspired by Rudyard Kipling's poem "Mother O' Mine" (he wrote some extra words). You should buy the cd, but here is a sample from YouTube, and the lyrics:

I Know Whose Tears
Joe Newberry

If I were hanged on the highest hill
I know whose love would soothe me still
If I were slain in a foreign land
I know whose touch would take my hand

Mother, my first companion, mother, my truest friend,
Mother, way up in heaven, we'll meet again

If I were killed in the battle's strife
I know whose cries would mourn my life
If I were drowned in the salty sea
I know whose tears would come down to me


Mother, my first companion, mother, my truest friend,
Mother, way up in heaven, we'll meet again

If I were dead in the cause of right
I know whose lamp would pierce the night
If I were damned both body and soul
I know whose prayer, sweet prayer would make me whole

Mother, my first companion, mother, my truest friend,
Mother, way up in heaven, we'll meet again

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