> Les Barker & the Mrs Ackroyd Band > Songs and Poems > The Turn of the Road
> June Tabor > Songs > The Turn of the Road

The Turn of the Road

[words Les Barker, music trad.]

Les Barker wrote The Turn of the Road to the traditional Irish tune Casadh an tSúgáin “that demanded words”. It was published in his books The Borzoi’s Back in Town and The Mrs Ackroyd Occasional Table Book.

June Tabor sang The Turn of the Road in 1994 on her Cooking Vinyl album Against the Streams.

Artisan sang The Turn of the Road on Les Barker’s 2001 album Airs of the Dog.

Sylvia Barnes sang The Turn of the Road in 2007 on her Greentrax album The Colour of Amber. She noted:

In common with many I suspect, I knew Lee Barker only as a master of comic verse.I was surprised and delighted to learn this beautiful, sensitive song also came from his pen. I learned it from the singing of the late Eithne Ni Uallachain.

Lyrics

June Tabor sings The Turn of the Road

Will you walk with me beyond the road’s turning,
Where day takes the valley that leads into night?
Love, will you walk with me all through my journey,
Or only till the light?

Believe me, I need you; don’t think of leaving.
This evening, your love lights the way to the dawn.
Don’t leave me here now, you’ve got me believing,
Tomorrow I’ll wake newborn.

If you will love me as I love you,
Who cares how dark the night may appear?
If you will love me as I love you,
Then I will know no fear.

The signs on the road are just there to mislead you.
At times I’ve misread them, though I was so wise.
The turn of the road, my love, that’s where I need you,
Tears always blind my eyes.

(Repeat first verse.)

Love, will you hold me through all my life’s evenings?
Love, will you take the road right to the end?
I’ve never had someone I can believe in,
Forever, my lover, my friend?

Acknowledgements

Poem copied from The Borzoi’s Back in Town with adaptions to the singing of June Tabor by Reinhard Zierke.