This song is so astonishingly beautiful and powerful. It stops me dead in my tracks every time. Dar is such a gifted story teller. Easily gives me pangs of nostalgia for experiences that were never even mine to begin with.
This song is so beautiful and raw... I have a question, though... Is this a story about a relationship ending, or of a certain chapter in said relationship closing? I've always thought that when she sings "My new lover made me keys to the house, and when we got home, well, we just started chopping wood, 'cuz you never know how next year will be..." that her "new lover" was the same person who confessed "I still love you". A year has passed, and they are back together, chopping wood, preparing for the winter, but she confesses to the audience that "You never know how next year will be..."
+Transcubadam BKYLN I always thought that this song is about an old couple. I think the woman has Alzheimer's. I have a friend whose Grandma had Alzheimer's and she didn't recognize her husband anymore. He was a stranger to her. That's what the lyrics you wrote above remind me of. "My new lover"--- it is the same person because she doesn't remember him as her husband. My favorite lyric is "February was so long that it lasted into March..."
Having had this song on repeat through the last years of high school, the End of The Summer, and the first years of college, I choose to go with the "new lover" being a different person. To me, a new lover who needs to make housekeys for her is definitely not the original lover. My interpretation ignores the keys freezing halfway down in the ice, and allows for those keys - and that chapter of her life - to simply sink to the bottom and nestle deeply and comfortably into the soft silt of the past, like any other (reasonable) relationship ending. But there certainly is room for interpretation.
@@danielwurzbacher9056 I also saw it as a new lover. I got the sense that she doesn't feel for this lover like she did for the original one, that she's just sort of moving through the stages of the relationship without feeling. Like the new lover is more into Dar than Dar is to the lover.
I always thought the "new lover" part was a sign of being older and wiser--they chopped more than enough wood or stocked up more than enough goodness in their hearts because she's learned now--she's "lost to February" before and doesn't want to lose another lover to heart freeze.
I’ve witnessed her three times. I live in Mudville, Texas and feel blessed for the opportunity.
One of the saddest, most beautiful songs ever written. Thanks for posting it.
This song is so astonishingly beautiful and powerful. It stops me dead in my tracks every time. Dar is such a gifted story teller. Easily gives me pangs of nostalgia for experiences that were never even mine to begin with.
Beautiful, reminds of someone I loved very much ❤️
Dar rules!
Exquisitely beautiful
Nancy: "I sure wish you'd come play Texas, specifically San Antonio" 💖
This song is so beautiful and raw... I have a question, though... Is this a story about a relationship ending, or of a certain chapter in said relationship closing? I've always thought that when she sings "My new lover made me keys to the house, and when we got home, well, we just started chopping wood, 'cuz you never know how next year will be..." that her "new lover" was the same person who confessed "I still love you". A year has passed, and they are back together, chopping wood, preparing for the winter, but she confesses to the audience that "You never know how next year will be..."
+Transcubadam BKYLN
I always thought that this song is about an old couple. I think the woman has Alzheimer's.
I have a friend whose Grandma had Alzheimer's and she didn't recognize her husband anymore. He was a stranger to her.
That's what the lyrics you wrote above remind me of. "My new lover"--- it is the same person because she doesn't remember him as her husband.
My favorite lyric is "February was so long that it lasted into March..."
Having had this song on repeat through the last years of high school, the End of The Summer, and the first years of college, I choose to go with the "new lover" being a different person. To me, a new lover who needs to make housekeys for her is definitely not the original lover. My interpretation ignores the keys freezing halfway down in the ice, and allows for those keys - and that chapter of her life - to simply sink to the bottom and nestle deeply and comfortably into the soft silt of the past, like any other (reasonable) relationship ending. But there certainly is room for interpretation.
@@danielwurzbacher9056 I also saw it as a new lover. I got the sense that she doesn't feel for this lover like she did for the original one, that she's just sort of moving through the stages of the relationship without feeling. Like the new lover is more into Dar than Dar is to the lover.
I always thought the "new lover" part was a sign of being older and wiser--they chopped more than enough wood or stocked up more than enough goodness in their hearts because she's learned now--she's "lost to February" before and doesn't want to lose another lover to heart freeze.
@@jilln880 Interesting take!