The Fiddle and the Rose
Words and Music by Tom May


A springtime recollection of a folksinger's simpler, unhurried youth.


Verse 1
It was the sound of a fiddle, in the old front room
A basket full of roses that had just come into bloom
She was a flower, barely seventeen
With a gentle lovers touch as her fingers danced across the strings

She played the verse of an old song
I can’t recall the name
But I remember her dark eyes blazing as she played it for me again
I was a traveler, only passing through
I was on my way to Idaho, when I found that rose, and you

Chorus
Just a fiddle and a rose picked from the prairie
In a parlor where the music played til late into the night
I lingered at the doorway, til it was finally time to go
And hoped that I would see again, the fiddle and the rose

Verse 2
It was early springtime, a few years had passed
When I happened to get back to that little prairie town at last
I found her old house, but it looked so bare
Then I heard the sound of a fiddle, in the fragrant April air

She was glad to see me, but a bit surprised
Then we took a walk together beneath clear Dakota skies
Days and weeks passed, to a lovers tune
And I told her that I could stay until the roses were in bloom

Chorus
Just a fiddle and a rose picked from the prairie
In a parlor where the music played til late into the night
I lingered at the doorway, til it was finally time to go
And hoped that I would see again, the fiddle and the rose

Bridge
Fields of wild clover by the river
Running full with newly melted snow
The sound of a robin’s singing as I met her
Now that seems so very many songs ago

Verse 3
But it seems there’s music in the springtime air
Whenever I see a rose in bloom, it always takes me there
To the roads that I traveled, and that I left behind
To the flower of my youth, and the fiddle tunes so fine

Chorus
Just a fiddle and a rose picked from the prairie
In a parlor where the music played til late into the night
I lingered at the doorway, til it was finally time to go
And hoped that I would see again, the fiddle and the rose

©1993 Blue Vignette Publishing, ASCAP