This month's tab offering is a 2-part arrangement of the poignant Civil War era song "Lorena".  The lyrics were penned by Henry D. Webster in reaction to an unrequited love.   His poem originally used the woman's name "Bertha", and then was changed to "Lenore", which he had borrowed from Edgar Allen Poe's poem "The Raven".  Henry Webster met Joseph P. Webster (no relation) while they were both residing in Chicago, and the words were paired with a melody he was working on at the time.  The heroine's name was changed to "Lorena" to provide the right meter for the melody.  It became widely popular during the Civil War, and seemed to be especially favored by the Confederacy, becoming associated with the Southern cause.  Confederate commanders eventually banned it from being sung or played in camp, because soldiers hearing it became so homesick that they lost their effectiveness as a fighting force. 

Joseph Webster composed over 1000 songs, including the popular gospel hymn "In The Sweet By and By", and another song he titled "I'll Twine Mid the Ringlets", which eventually became "Wildwood Flower". "Lorena" remains his most well-known work.  Artists who have recorded it include Johnny Cash, John Hartford, JP and Annadeene Fraley, and Jay Ungar.  Find a playing partner, and enjoy this duet arrangement.

Cheers,

--Tull

Here are the complete set of lyrics to "Lorena":

The years creep slowly by, Lorena
The snow is on the grass again
The sun's low down the sky, Lorena
The frost gleams where the flowers have been
But the heart throbs on as warmly now
As when the summer days were nigh
Oh, the sun can never dip so low
A-down affection's cloudless sky.

A hundred months have passed, Lorena
Since last I held that hand in mine
And felt the pulse beat fast, Lorena
Though mine beat faster far than thine
A hundred months...'twas flowery May
When up the hilly slope we climbed
To watch the dying of the day
And hear the distant church bells chime.

We loved each other then, Lorena
More than we ever dared to tell
And what we might have been, Lorena
Had but our loving prospered well
But then, 'tis past, the years have gone
I'll not call up their shadowy forms
I'll say to them, "Lost years, sleep on
Sleep on, nor heed life's pelting storms."

The story of the past, Lorena
Alas! I care not to repeat
The hopes that could not last, Lorena
They lived, but only lived to cheat
I would not cause e'en one regret
To rankle in your bosom now
"For if we try we may forget"
Were words of thine long years ago.

Yes, these were words of thine, Lorena
They are within my memory yet
They touched some tender chords, Lorena
Which thrill and tremble with regret
'Twas not the woman's heart which spoke
Thy heart was always true to me
A duty stern and piercing broke
The tie which linked my soul with thee.

It matters little now, Lorena
The past is in the eternal past
Our hearts will soon lie low, Lorena
Life's tide is ebbing out so fast
There is a future, oh, thank God!
Of life this is so small a part
'Tis dust to dust beneath the sod
But there, up there, 'tis heart to heart.