Take My Ashes To The River

(Jonathan Kingham & Mark Erelli)

She was the parson's only daughter

And a poor sharecropper's dream

Her voice as sweet as falling water

From the cool clear mountain stream

We came to share a love forbidden

A union cursed by family

To be forever unforgiven

When we swore eternity

We settled hard on twenty acres

Ploughed the fields and worked the land

But the fever came to take her

With its unforgiving hand

I tried to soothe her shaking body

But no peace could I provide

She said I hear the angles singing softly

I'm bound to cross that Great Divide

CHORUS

Take my ashes to the river

Where the water's cold and deep

Take my ashes to the river

Pray the Lord my soul to keep

One mournful morning in late November

Faithful to her last desire

I burned her body down to embers

Scooped the ashes from the fire

Down on the banks of the Blackstone River

For to drown her memory

As her spirit I delivered

I heard her calling out to me