Long ago I lived in Dublin. I could not begin to buy a ticket home. Christmas Eve, My flatmate and I went to a concert at the Tailor's Guild Hall. Of course we missed the last bus. My friend went to her mom's and I started the long walk home. I was so homesick. Suddenly, it began to snow. Midnight and all of the bells of Dublin began to ring. Magic
No matter how many times I try, I cannot sing this song from start to finish without crying as I try to sing....but they are wonderful tears of gratitude that Stan's words can be so sad but so beautiful at the same time.....then I put my guitar across my lap and just think.
Nobody can sing this song like Stan even after all the years I've listened to it I still break down into tears when I listen to it. It has a strange beauty to it.
One of my great regrets in life is that I never saw Stan perform live. I am a confirmed folkie, and as a Canadian, he was the greatest of them all. So sorry. So sad.
He used to come to Minneapolis to play, and I lived across the street from the Extempore Cafe and never went to see him. So I share the regret. I have seen the McCalmans folk group from Scotland perform the song, however. they do it also very well. Charlie McGuire from Minneapolis wrote a relevant song called "Play us a tune, play us a song..." It is on a CD. Christmas may not be included, but it is about people in a nursing home at least.
He was a giant hit at the Kerrville Folk Festival here in Texas. That festival has launched some greats like Ruthie Foster and Slaid Cleaves. He was traveling back to Canada from Texas after a wildly adoring audience at the festival, but died in a car crash somewhere along the way. We all loved him. I even have a framed print of The Nightingale on my wall after hearing him sing about it. God, to lose such a talent. All I can say is that he got known enough to have recorded these songs. He'll live forever through his music.
@@pointsettaqueen I understand that Stan Rogers died when a plane caught on fire after landing and he was unable to escape, although some made it out to safety.
@@michaelnosbisch4119 he came to the Kerrville Folk Festival, and blew everyone away. Driving back to Canada, he died in a car crash. I don't know if others in his group made it or not. I just know that his music was so extraordinary and fresh, that the sad news was all over Austin. I was even announced on University of Texas Saturday" Folkways" (a weekly Saturday radio show) And his memories live on. I shared "First Christmas" through messenger, with a friend at Christmas and he replied, "Didn't he write that song about restoring a old ship?" And of course, the answer was "yes!" and I shared "The Merry Ellen Carter" back to him. So he still has admirers in the Central Texas Area. Oh, and I saw Judy Collins recently, and she says there's a festival in Stan's name. She was at the the festival, was amazed at how many remembered him. She sang "The Northwest Passage"! And said how impressed she was with his music. I even have a lithograph print of the sailing ship, "The Nightingale". I'll play his tunes till I die.
This song hit me hard in 1982 when I moved to Ottawa from the east coast and spent a lonely Christmas and my first away from my home in the Annapolis Valley. That fall I was fortunate enough to see Stan live and the next spring he was gone. The song cuts through me and with a daughter who may not get home this Christmas due to COVID-19 Although I am sharing a Christmas playlist I won’t put this on it for fear of how much it would upset her.
I first heard it through Folkways radio on the University of Texas music station. Tears running down my face. I'm glad he experienced some adoration and fame before he was gone.
This is a really touching song. There are so many people who are cut off from their family and childhood sheltering and alone in the world. Old people whose family members have died and younger relatives do not have an interest in them. There are a couple of other songs that relate to this theme. Charlie McGuire from Minneapolis recorded a song called, I think, PLay us a song, about old people in an old age home. And of course U. Utah Philips wrote Hello in There. The McCallmans did a very good cover of First Christmas, as well. This is one of my favorite songs in this genre.
Stan Rogers is a Canadian icon who was in touch with rural Canadian life. Still photographs crossed his memory and the memory of his elders and family.. he always held them dear. That's what defines him.
This is seriously depressing music, but performed so well and with so much feeling that it draws me to listen to it again and again. There's no happy ending, and the heartache seems so much more real than that sung about by many another singer in many another song, but it's absolutely true to itself. A real gem.
Daamn I’ve just found this song in the Christmas playlist from iTunes and it made me cryyy. It’s just gonna be my really first Christmas away from home :((((
I had spent a lot of Christmases working out of the Country, and others working so someone else could be with their family... So when he released this song, I had to get it.... Still resonates today...
This day a year ago, he was rolling in the snow With a younger brother in his father's yard Christmas break, a time for touching home, The heart of all he'd known And leaving was so hard Three thousand miles away, Now he's working Christmas Day Making double time for the minding of the store Well he always said, he'd make it on his own He's spending Christmas Eve alone First Christmas away from home She's standing by the train station, Pan-handling for change Four more dollars buys a decent meal and a room Looks like the Sally Ann place after all, In a crowded sleeping hall That echoes like a tomb But it's warm and clean and free, And there are worse places to be At least it means no beating from her Dad And if she cries because it's Christmas Day She hopes that it won't show First Christmas away from home In the apartment stands a tree, And it looks so small and bare Not like it was meant to be, Golden angel on the top It's not that same old silver star, You wanted for your own First Christmas away from home In the morning, they get prayers, Then it's crafts and tea downstairs Then another meal back in his little room Hoping maybe that "the boys" Will think to phone before the day is gone Well, it's best they do it soon When the "old girl" passed away, He fell apart more every day Each had always kept the other pretty well But the kids all said the nursing home was best Cause he couldn't live alone First Christmas away from home In the common room they've got the biggest tree And it's huge and cold and lifeless Not like it ought to be, And the lit-up flashing Santa Claus on top It's not that same old silver star, You once made for your own First Christmas away from home
This song breaks my heart - but I love it. Many have had parents in this situation. But, we have four kids. One is musically talented and has the wanderlust. She had a Celtic band here that was the house band in a local pub. She went to Vancouver for a couple years and formed a band and did well. Then she came home and decided on Halifax. She didn't care for her life there, but by the time Christmas came, we didn't have the money to fly her home. On Christmas Day she called, alone!
As all East Coasters know from time to time work takes us from home.......a home that we only know......soft......warm..... and the smell of moms turkey and dressing fills the house........aaaaaa a feeling I will never forget.......and everytime I experience it .... it always brings me back to when I was a kid with the snow banks up to the eves of the house. I tell ya bys being away from all a that stuff is pretty hard for a fella to swallow.
Stan is and will always be a treasure. Wonderful to hear this. And, given the covid issues over the past couple of years, even more poignant and heart wrenching. Thank you Stan.
I got back home for Christmas for the first time in twenty-five years last year. It was a great blessing for all. Prayers for all who didn't make it back. One day we will all make it back home where He "... shall wipe away all tears from their eyes; and there shall be no more death, neither sorrow, nor crying,"
That's where my memories of listening to Stan are, too. Mom would play it as we drove to my brothers' hockey games, or to my own activities. I often associate his voice with a dark truck box and a highway at night.
This song reminds me of "The Streets of London" Ralph McTell...both are genius songs, full of sorrow, full of thought, full of transformation. I'd be honored to sing it at Stanfest and I'm sorry Garnet doesn't sing it...he would sound beautiful singing it...
Staring down both barrels of what looks like it's going to be my first away from home. This song resonates deeply and tears the heart strings right out. I know I'll be listening to it on the 25th - also my birthday.....
enterobsidian, I'm sorry if this is rough too read. Try and stick it out to the end. As far as I can figure you are born the same day (and year) as my step-daughter. She'd be turning 28 this year... I'll never forget or first Christmas after she died (at 6 1/2). I wish you the amazing life full of love and joy that I wished for her and wish for my younger two sons, who are also December babies. They've made the month a happy time for us again.
Long ago I lived in Dublin. I could not begin to buy a ticket home. Christmas Eve, My flatmate and I went to a concert at the Tailor's Guild Hall. Of course
we missed the last bus. My friend went to her mom's and I started the long walk home. I was so homesick. Suddenly, it began to snow. Midnight and all of the bells of Dublin began to ring. Magic
Stan Rogers: One of the best songwriters of the 20th century, no exaggeration!
No matter how many times I try, I cannot sing this song from start to finish without crying as I try to sing....but they are wonderful tears of gratitude that Stan's words can be so sad but so beautiful at the same time.....then I put my guitar across my lap and just think.
Nobody can sing this song like Stan even after all the years I've listened to it I still break down into tears when I listen to it. It has a strange beauty to it.
Still my favorite singer after 50 years of folk music. He got under the skin of all the characters he wrote about.
Powerful man with a powerful voice who passed way too early in his thirties as a hero.
One of my great regrets in life is that I never saw Stan perform live. I am a confirmed folkie, and as a Canadian, he was the greatest of them all. So sorry. So sad.
He used to come to Minneapolis to play, and I lived across the street from the Extempore Cafe and never went to see him. So I share the regret. I have seen the McCalmans folk group from Scotland perform the song, however. they do it also very well. Charlie McGuire from Minneapolis wrote a relevant song called "Play us a tune, play us a song..." It is on a CD. Christmas may not be included, but it is about people in a nursing home at least.
Truly a treasure that he graced us with his music before he left us
He was a giant hit at the Kerrville Folk Festival here in Texas. That festival has launched some greats like Ruthie Foster and Slaid Cleaves. He was traveling back to Canada from Texas after a wildly adoring audience at the festival, but died in a car crash somewhere along the way. We all loved him. I even have a framed print of The Nightingale on my wall after hearing him sing about it. God, to lose such a talent. All I can say is that he got known enough to have recorded these songs. He'll live forever through his music.
@@pointsettaqueen I understand that Stan Rogers died when a plane caught on fire after landing and he was unable to escape, although some made it out to safety.
@@michaelnosbisch4119 he came to the Kerrville Folk Festival, and blew everyone away. Driving back to Canada, he died in a car crash. I don't know if others in his group made it or not. I just know that his music was so extraordinary and fresh, that the sad news was all over Austin. I was even announced on University of Texas Saturday" Folkways" (a weekly Saturday radio show) And his memories live on. I shared "First Christmas" through messenger, with a friend at Christmas and he replied, "Didn't he write that song about restoring a old ship?" And of course, the answer was "yes!" and I shared "The Merry Ellen Carter" back to him. So he still has admirers in the Central Texas Area. Oh, and I saw Judy Collins recently, and she says there's a festival in Stan's name. She was at the the festival, was amazed at how many remembered him. She sang "The Northwest Passage"! And said how impressed she was with his music. I even have a lithograph print of the sailing ship, "The Nightingale". I'll play his tunes till I die.
This song hit me hard in 1982 when I moved to Ottawa from the east coast and spent a lonely Christmas and my first away from my home in the Annapolis Valley. That fall I was fortunate enough to see Stan live and the next spring he was gone. The song cuts through me and with a daughter who may not get home this Christmas due to COVID-19 Although I am sharing a Christmas playlist I won’t put this on it for fear of how much it would upset her.
I first heard it through Folkways radio on the University of Texas music station. Tears running down my face. I'm glad he experienced some adoration and fame before he was gone.
I sang this song for my mother. It made her cry., Little did I know it would be her last Christmas, she passed away the following year on Christmas.
This is a really touching song. There are so many people who are cut off from their family and childhood sheltering and alone in the world. Old people whose family members have died and younger relatives do not have an interest in them. There are a couple of other songs that relate to this theme. Charlie McGuire from Minneapolis recorded a song called, I think, PLay us a song, about old people in an old age home. And of course U. Utah Philips wrote Hello in There. The McCallmans did a very good cover of First Christmas, as well. This is one of my favorite songs in this genre.
God bless Stan. I miss him, and he died before I was born.
Me too.
Stan Rogers is a Canadian icon who was in touch with rural Canadian life. Still photographs crossed his memory and the memory of his elders and family.. he always held them dear. That's what defines him.
How can any human voice bear to sing such a sad song? I’m in pieces just listening to it!
This is seriously depressing music, but performed so well and with so much feeling that it draws me to listen to it again and again. There's no happy ending, and the heartache seems so much more real than that sung about by many another singer in many another song, but it's absolutely true to itself. A real gem.
Last Christmas was my first Christmas without my husband... he died before Thanksgiving. We were married for 38 years...
Rally sorry.
I am so sorry for your loss.
Still my favorite. May light perpetual shine upon you, Stan.
My father also introduced me to Stan Rogers. We had many hours in the car listening to Between the Breaks when I was a child. He was amazing....
Stan Rogers knew how to yank at your heartstrings. This and The Last Watch make me weep.
Wonderful... what a treasure.
I can’t listen to this this close to Christmas.
Daamn I’ve just found this song in the Christmas playlist from iTunes and it made me cryyy. It’s just gonna be my really first Christmas away from home :((((
I had spent a lot of Christmases working out of the Country, and others working so someone else could be with their family... So when he released this song, I had to get it.... Still resonates today...
this song makes me cry every time i hear it...
i listen to this every year
Same.
Christopher Murphy Dittp
WOW.This is LIFE in the form of MUSIC. What a song; can't help but reminisce hope and pray and shed a tear.
Happy and Blessed Holidays to everyone!
This day a year ago, he was rolling in the snow
With a younger brother in his father's yard
Christmas break, a time for touching home,
The heart of all he'd known
And leaving was so hard
Three thousand miles away,
Now he's working Christmas Day
Making double time for the minding of the store
Well he always said, he'd make it on his own
He's spending Christmas Eve alone
First Christmas away from home
She's standing by the train station,
Pan-handling for change
Four more dollars buys a decent meal and a room
Looks like the Sally Ann place after all,
In a crowded sleeping hall
That echoes like a tomb
But it's warm and clean and free,
And there are worse places to be
At least it means no beating from her Dad
And if she cries because it's Christmas Day
She hopes that it won't show
First Christmas away from home
In the apartment stands a tree,
And it looks so small and bare
Not like it was meant to be,
Golden angel on the top
It's not that same old silver star,
You wanted for your own
First Christmas away from home
In the morning, they get prayers,
Then it's crafts and tea downstairs
Then another meal back in his little room
Hoping maybe that "the boys"
Will think to phone before the day is gone
Well, it's best they do it soon
When the "old girl" passed away,
He fell apart more every day
Each had always kept the other pretty well
But the kids all said the nursing home was best
Cause he couldn't live alone
First Christmas away from home
In the common room they've got the biggest tree
And it's huge and cold and lifeless
Not like it ought to be,
And the lit-up flashing Santa Claus on top
It's not that same old silver star,
You once made for your own
First Christmas away from home
This song breaks my heart - but I love it. Many have had parents in this situation. But, we have four kids. One is musically talented and has the wanderlust. She had a Celtic band here that was the house band in a local pub. She went to Vancouver for a couple years and formed a band and did well. Then she came home and decided on Halifax. She didn't care for her life there, but by the time Christmas came, we didn't have the money to fly her home. On Christmas Day she called, alone!
As all East Coasters know from time to time work takes us from home.......a home that we only know......soft......warm..... and the smell of moms turkey and dressing fills the house........aaaaaa a feeling I will never forget.......and everytime I experience it .... it always brings me back to when I was a kid with the snow banks up to the eves of the house. I tell ya bys being away from all a that stuff is pretty hard for a fella to swallow.
Shaun Macdonald up to the eves?!?! a Caper you must be
Stan is and will always be a treasure. Wonderful to hear this. And, given the covid issues over the past couple of years, even more poignant and heart wrenching. Thank you Stan.
I got back home for Christmas for the first time in twenty-five years last year. It was a great blessing for all. Prayers for all who didn't make it back. One day we will all make it back home where He "... shall wipe away all tears from their eyes; and there shall be no more death, neither sorrow, nor crying,"
Amen, amén.
Very few songs can bring me to tears... This one, and another of Stan's tunes, Lies, always do the trick.
This one always moves me to tears, too.
That's where my memories of listening to Stan are, too. Mom would play it as we drove to my brothers' hockey games, or to my own activities. I often associate his voice with a dark truck box and a highway at night.
as I sit here this night I wonder what the world missed by his passing I know I miss him and always will
i have been away for over 20 years for christmas and as u get older they dont get any easier..memories still linger on
This song reminds me of "The Streets of London" Ralph McTell...both are genius songs, full of sorrow, full of thought, full of transformation. I'd be honored to sing it at Stanfest and I'm sorry Garnet doesn't sing it...he would sound beautiful singing it...
Love this song. Makes me realize how damned lucky I am!!!
Absolutely beautiful. First heard this from Harvey Reid. Now I've got to find out more about Stan Rogers.
Heart breaking! I've always loved this. Stan was just so amazing! Thanks for posting!
Staring down both barrels of what looks like it's going to be my first away from home. This song resonates deeply and tears the heart strings right out. I know I'll be listening to it on the 25th - also my birthday.....
Are you ok now that you're almost 30? Hope so, bro.
enterobsidian, I'm sorry if this is rough too read. Try and stick it out to the end. As far as I can figure you are born the same day (and year) as my step-daughter. She'd be turning 28 this year... I'll never forget or first Christmas after she died (at 6 1/2). I wish you the amazing life full of love and joy that I wished for her and wish for my younger two sons, who are also December babies. They've made the month a happy time for us again.
Stan Rogers remains one of my favorite artists....such a deeply moving song
This is heart-wrenching ... unforgettable. Thanks so much for this posting!
Wonderful, truly wonderful. Rest in peace and god bless
This song always makes me weep, Stan was just an amazing songwriter
Rocket
I heard that Garnet Rogers (brother of Stan) refused to play this song after Stan passed because it was too sad.
+Donald Conley yes, there was a first christmas after cincinnatee
if that doesn't break your heart, nothing will.
@rearse it was my second. hasn't gotten easier, but i feel you. this song cuts to the core.
Profound.
For My friend Peter somewhere up Hennessy Street.
GREAT tunes ....any chance ye might be able to post "DARK EYED MOLLY " + "LIES"
Thanks for posting this one and 45 yrs. ....Avalon/Andrew
Love this, but wish you didn't advertise it as "Live," when it's clearly not.
Life is hard for most folks. Listen to the Kinks song "Father Christmas"
@spiffylemonz sounds like something harry chapin would sing!
The kids said the nursing home was best cause he couldn't live alone
@wdchrismon
same. genius.
@chrissept21 Try Meryn Cadell's "The Cat Carol" for another tune that'd be in the running for that title. :)
Sentimental drivel
wow who asked
@@NK73080 WHo has to?
@@thisone9 you do
@@NK73080 fool
@@thisone9 simpleton