Story Behind The Song

While walking in a forest of beeches in North Carolina some years ago, I came upon the ruins of a family homestead. The sizes of trees growing within the foundations of what was once a farmhouse suggested that the last members of the family had left at least half a century earlier. This observation was consistent with the dates on the most recent tombstones surrounding the patriarch in the small fenced cemetery just north of the foundations. Another patriarch had lived south of the foundations. Its descendants were still alive, but aging: A perfect circle of mature trees which had grown up around the drip line of a now-long-gone shade tree planted by the inhabitants of the farmhouse. The family name on the gravestones is a name that?s also in my family tree. Perhaps they were my ancestors. Perhaps they knew of the tune, Beech Spring. Perhaps they wrote it. If the testimonies on their tombs are true, we?ll sing it together some day.

Song Description

Many texts have been set to this tune. It reminds me of an abandoned homestead I stumbled upon in a North Carolina hardwood forest in early spring.

Playlist Creator	Playlist Name	Date Added
S.R.Mallon	Mellosphere	6/19/2008
S.R.Mallon	Hymn Settings	6/19/2008