Where The Silvery Colorado Wends Its Way - J. Aldrich Libbey
- el año pasado
The twilight softly gathered
Round my home among the hills
And all nature soon will settle away to rest
While I sit and sadly ponder
And my heart with longing fills
As I often think of one that I love best
We were wedded in the springtime
And our hearts they knew no pain
Fair nature seemed to smile on us that day
Now she sleeps beneath the lilacs
And she’ll ne’er come back again
Where the silver Colorado wends its way
There’s a sob on every breeze
And a sigh comes from the trees
And the mocking birds they sing a sadder way
For the flowers creep no more
Round my cheerless cabin door
Where the silver Colorado wends its way
The silver snow is gleaming
On your distant mountainside
Where often used to wander Nell and I
And the birds are singing gaily
In the valley far below
Where I long some day to lay me down and die
Then our lives were gay and happy
In the shadow of the hills
My heart beats fonder for her day by day
And I feel her presence near me
As I sit alone tonight
Where the silver Colorado wends its way
J. Aldrich Libbey (famous for "After The Ball") sings "Where The Silvery Colorado Wends Its Way" on Edison Gold Moulded Record 8020 (1902).
James Aldrich Libbey (29 February 1864 - 29 April 1925) is remembered by music historians for introducing on stage in early 1892 Charles K. Harris' composition "After the Ball."
In his autobiography After The Ball: Forty Years of Melody (New York: Frank-Maurice, Inc, 1926), Harris recalled persuading the baritone to introduce the new song in the show A Trip to Chinatown during an engagement at Milwaukee's Bijou Theater.
Harris, a newspaper correspondent at the time, had promised that Libbey would be given a write-up in the New York Dramatic News in return for interpolating the song into the show. Harris writes that Libbey "possessed the temperament of a grand-opera song bird and was allowed to sing anything he chose."
Libbey's photograph is on the cover of the sheet music, which sold well and helped established Tin Pan Alley by demonstrating to the business community that carefully marketed songs could be highly profitable. He never recorded the song, probably because it was no longer popular by the time he had his first session.
The song was genuinely popular in the 1890s but was not often recorded in that decade. An anonymous band recorded "After the Ball" for Berliner 139 around 1894, and only a few singers cut it.
The July 1899 issue of The Phonoscope notes that Libbey was making records for E.T. Paull Music Company, a newly established music publishing house and cylinder record studio. Paull was a composer of instrumental pieces, including "Napoleon's Last Charge" and "The Burning of Rome," and he set up his cylinder studio in New York City after moving from Richmond, Virginia.
Libbey made at least three cylinders for Columbia in the late 1890s: "Old Man's Story" (4802), "The Organ Gringer's Serenade" (4805), and "Molly's the Girl for Me" (4806).
Round my home among the hills
And all nature soon will settle away to rest
While I sit and sadly ponder
And my heart with longing fills
As I often think of one that I love best
We were wedded in the springtime
And our hearts they knew no pain
Fair nature seemed to smile on us that day
Now she sleeps beneath the lilacs
And she’ll ne’er come back again
Where the silver Colorado wends its way
There’s a sob on every breeze
And a sigh comes from the trees
And the mocking birds they sing a sadder way
For the flowers creep no more
Round my cheerless cabin door
Where the silver Colorado wends its way
The silver snow is gleaming
On your distant mountainside
Where often used to wander Nell and I
And the birds are singing gaily
In the valley far below
Where I long some day to lay me down and die
Then our lives were gay and happy
In the shadow of the hills
My heart beats fonder for her day by day
And I feel her presence near me
As I sit alone tonight
Where the silver Colorado wends its way
J. Aldrich Libbey (famous for "After The Ball") sings "Where The Silvery Colorado Wends Its Way" on Edison Gold Moulded Record 8020 (1902).
James Aldrich Libbey (29 February 1864 - 29 April 1925) is remembered by music historians for introducing on stage in early 1892 Charles K. Harris' composition "After the Ball."
In his autobiography After The Ball: Forty Years of Melody (New York: Frank-Maurice, Inc, 1926), Harris recalled persuading the baritone to introduce the new song in the show A Trip to Chinatown during an engagement at Milwaukee's Bijou Theater.
Harris, a newspaper correspondent at the time, had promised that Libbey would be given a write-up in the New York Dramatic News in return for interpolating the song into the show. Harris writes that Libbey "possessed the temperament of a grand-opera song bird and was allowed to sing anything he chose."
Libbey's photograph is on the cover of the sheet music, which sold well and helped established Tin Pan Alley by demonstrating to the business community that carefully marketed songs could be highly profitable. He never recorded the song, probably because it was no longer popular by the time he had his first session.
The song was genuinely popular in the 1890s but was not often recorded in that decade. An anonymous band recorded "After the Ball" for Berliner 139 around 1894, and only a few singers cut it.
The July 1899 issue of The Phonoscope notes that Libbey was making records for E.T. Paull Music Company, a newly established music publishing house and cylinder record studio. Paull was a composer of instrumental pieces, including "Napoleon's Last Charge" and "The Burning of Rome," and he set up his cylinder studio in New York City after moving from Richmond, Virginia.
Libbey made at least three cylinders for Columbia in the late 1890s: "Old Man's Story" (4802), "The Organ Gringer's Serenade" (4805), and "Molly's the Girl for Me" (4806).