This is my offering to add to the "marry in haste, repent at leisure" category of folk song!
It was my Dad's favourite, so this is for him, wherever he is.
lyrics
Oh I knew when, when I first loved you,
That the price I'd pay was having to let you go.
I never stalled you, when duty called you,
I'd kiss you warm enough to keep you through the cold.
And you never were, one for farewells love,
So I'd wake those days to find myself alone
All those times not one goodbye love,
All you'd leave behind you were your footsteps in the snow.
And my Mother warned, never love a soldier,
All he'll do is leave you for some early foreign grave;
Even if he lives love, he'll live only for the gun,
you'll have lost you love to the wars either way.
Oh your son he is nearly fourteen,
And, by god, he looks like you when you were a lad...
And he's growing, he's not a boy but he,
Oh he'll need a father to teach him how to be a man.
And your daughter, you've barely seen her
And yet still she asks about you all the time.
And you may as well have been a stranger,
But you're that stranger in her prayers every night.
As a man you, you're just an echo.
As insubstantial as your brief letters home...
And as a father, you're just a shadow
You're little more to us than footsteps in the snow.
credits
from Rise Aurora,
released December 1, 2016
Words & music by Rosie Hodgson.
Arranged by Rowan Piggott.
Rosie is a folk singer/songwriter from Midhurst, West Sussex. Having grown up surrounded by traditional music, her voice
possesses a naturalness and maturity, bringing "a ruby-richness to lyrics new and old". (Folk Radio UK)
Rosie is currently touring with her trio, The Wilderness Yet....more
supported by 14 fans who also own “Footsteps In The Snow”
Rosie's voice is so pure and sweet, yet so rich and full of character. And when the three of them sing together (as on "Old Brock"), it's really magical. Their special music is certainly What Holds The World Together for me. John Fisher
Adapting their calculated standards into a raw, live setting, the radical UK folk duo rework six highlights from their spellbindincatalogue. Bandcamp New & Notable Dec 7, 2022