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Wintergrace

[ Roud - ; Jean Ritchie]

Jean Ritchie sang her own song Wintergrace on her 1987 album Kentucky Christmas Old and New. This track was included in 2006 on the Free Reed anthology Midwinter where Nigel Schofield noted:

This track comes from Jean Ritchie’s classic collection of midwinter songs from her family repertoire. In selecting songs for the set, she chose pieces that reflected the range of what Christmas meant to the Ritchie family in the mountains of Hazard County. These ranged from songs of devotion and worship to meditations on the season to ancient mystical ballads. What surprised her, though, was the fact that there was no song to reflect one key aspect of the season—its brief respite from the arduous daily life of mountain living—both a Holy Day and a holiday.

Because she wanted to include this important element, she wrote one of her finest original songs, Wintergrace. Jean was keen that its sentiments be reflected on this set, and we thank her for permission to include the song.

Eliza Carthy and Jon Boden sang Wintergrace in 2023 on their Hudson album Glad Christmas Comes. Eliza Carthy noted:

Mam suggested this when we were first trying out some Christmas material in 2021. It was new to us both—a haunting, glistening gem written by Jean Ritchie. Jean and Mam first met each other at the American bicentennial celebrations in 1976 to which they were both invited and exchanged bonnets—Jean from a Pilgrim aunt, and Mam from a Staithes fisherwoman. It was the last song she suggested I sing before she died.

Lyrics

Eliza Carthy and Jon Boden sing Wintergrace

This is the time so well we love
The time of all the year
When winter calls with chilling breath
For fireside and good cheer

A time for man and beast to stand
And feel the season turn
To watch the stars for secret signs
And God’s true lessons learn

For the time when the corn is all into the barn
The old cow’s breath’s a frosty winde
And the morn along the fallow field
Doth silver shine

And when the morning’s radiant star
Shines over hill and plain
We know and knew that little babe
Is born to us again

And man and beast and bird and tree
Each one in his own place
We bow our hearts and thank our God
For winter rest and grace

For the time when the corn is all into the barn
The old cow’s breath’s a frosty winde
And the morn along the fallow field
Doth silver shine