A year and a day ago, I began this blog.  Strange, how I chose to begin to capture a year in music with a day branded with pain, with war, with endless debates on religion, faith and the tolerance thereof.

Because of my hiatus during vacation, I am here again, looking for a song for a day demanding sombre mood, but also reflection and growth.  I strongly urge everyone to listen – really listen – to this song, written by Crow in 8 minutes after returning from Bosnia in 1996.  It’s my favourite of her songs, forever haunting me, forever reminding me of what our world is, and what it could be.

I’ve wept for those who suffer long
But how I weep for those who’ve gone
Into rooms of grief and questioned wrong
But keep on killing
It’s in the soul to feel such things
But weak to watch without speaking
Oh what mercy sadness brings
If God be willing

There is a train that’s heading straight
To heaven’s gate, to heaven’s gate
And on the way, child and man,
And woman wait, watch and wait
For redemption day

Fire rages in the streets
And swallows everything it meets
It’s just an image often seen
On television
Come leaders, come you men of great
Let us hear you pontificate
Your many virtues laid to waste
And we aren’t listening

What do you have for us today
Throw us a bone but save the plate
On why we waited til so late
Was there no oil to excavate
No riches in trade for the fate
Of every person who died in hate
Throw us a bone, you men of great

There is a train that’s heading straight
To heaven’s gate, to heaven’s gate
And on the way, child and man,
And woman wait, watch and wait
For redemption day

It’s buried in the countryside
It’s exploding in the shells at night
It’s everywhere a baby cries
Freedom

Day 353:  Redemption Day – Sheryl Crow

Bonus:  Johnny Cash loved this song so much, of so many songs given to him while compiling for the American collections, that he also cut a version of it.