From the recording Rivertown
If She Goes
In the summer of 2002 three people died: my favorite neighbor, my girlfriend’s father, and Dave Carter. All this loss got channeled into the original version of this song, which I recorded with The Bulldozers under the title Remember Me. After my mother died in 2020 I recorded this a capella version and changed the title to If She Goes. I think that’s the way I’ll perform it from now on.
I’ve sung various versions of it at wakes and other occasions where there was a large change in someone’s life, or in the life of a community.
A few years after I finished it and had been regularly performing it, I also noticed that this is actually an Easter song. Which is somewhat strange for someone who grew up Evangelical and barely celebrated Easter or Christmas. But, like Easter and Christmas, it’s got some pagan imagery in there too so it’s pretty ecumenical.
This isn’t an unusual occurrence, you finish a song and much later realize that there’s a lot more going on in there. I really get a kick out of this ‘Hey, I just work here’ aspect of songwriting. I think my best work is the stuff that flows through with few, or none of my fingerprints on it at all. When I read a line back and I know that’s not me speaking; it’s something that’s speaking through me and I’m trying my damnedest not to get in the way.
Lyrics
If She Goes
If she goes, if she goes
She’ll look up all the folks she knows
As stars spin circles, round her janglin’ bones
She won’t cry, she won’t grieve
When she shakes off this feeble scene
She’ll go dance in the falling snow
If she goes, if she goes
If she leaves, if she leaves
She’ll jump into that endless stream
Let the spring-time breeze sing her name inside our dreams
She loved you like a clinging vine
Which reached for the sun and then bloomed at night
Tendrils stretching evergreen
If she leaves, if she leaves
Like a birdsong after midnight
Like the prayers of a seed
A tiny voice that glides on moonlight
Whispers, remember me
Remember me
In my best moments
Remember me
And if you cry
Remember me
Embrace the sadness
Remember me and try to smile
When she rise, when she rise
She’ll be the wind that’s in your eyes
At the moment when the moon begins to hide
Behind the clouds, or in the trees
You can hear her whisper in the summer breeze
Deer will run and the crow will cry
When she rise, when she rise
When she comes back, when she comes back
She’ll kiss your cheek, she’ll hang her hat
We’ll raise some Cain, then cover up our tracks
We’ll dance all night, tell some lies
Sing songs in the kitchen ‘til we get it right
‘Til blowing leaves fill up our tracks
When she comes back, when she comes back