Chatter and Chitter – The Pressley Girls
If you’ve been reading the Blind Pig for a good long while you’ll remember the girls always made Pap a dvd with songs that he’d never heard them sing for Christmas. After Pap passed away the girls continued the tradition gifting Paul with the dvd.
They did four songs this year. I believe its the best set of songs they’ve ever done as their special Christmas dvd. I told Chitter the only thing that would make the songs any better is if I could watch Pap listen to them.
I’m sharing one of the songs with you today, “Will There be any Stars?” The girls learned the song from The Cox Family. Although I’ve heard several bluegrass folks do the song over the years, I didn’t realize how old it is till I did a little research.
The song was written by Eliza E. Hewitt in 1897. Hymnary.org shares this bio of Hewitt:
“Eliza Edmunds Hewitt was born in Philadelphia 28 June 1851. She was educated in the public schools and after graduation from high school became a teacher. However, she developed a spinal malady which cut short her career and made her a shut-in for many years. During her convalescence, she studied English literature. She felt a need to be useful to her church and began writing poems for the primary department. She went on to teach Sunday school, take an active part in the Philadelphia Elementary Union and become Superintendent of the primary department of Calvin Presbyterian Church.”
To see a very very long list of texts written by Hewitt you can visit this page.
I hope you enjoyed the song and I hope you have a wonderful Sunday.
Tipper
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They are doing our hearts good, Thank you
love the song.
Didn’t get a chance to comment yesterday as I was visiting friends in the hospital, but I did get to listen to the song and the girls did a beautiful job. I really like the picture of them in front of the mountains. I have heard of stars in your crown when someone was really doing good things but I had never heard the song. Thanks Chitter and Chatter for singing it.
Special music and beautiful girls.
Happy New Year
Oh, how beautiful! It was so nice to see and hear the girls doing this beautiful, old song. Thank you for sharing!
Beautiful song, beautiful girls….makes a grandmother so very proud!!
what beautiful girls…and a wonderful song
sending much love and ladybug hugs
happy new years
love
lynn
As always, the girls did a great job! I really enjoyed hearing it.
Great job! This brings to memory a little Church Humor, Just down the road from Needmore there were two churches which were just a few hundred yards from each other. The Maple Springs Baptist Church stood on top of the hill and the Maple Springs Methodist Church just north and slightly downhill. This allegedly happened in the days before air conditioning and on warm days both churches would have their windows raised and according to this tale you could listen to the service of your choice. The tale goes that the Baptist Congregation would be singing “Will there Be Any Stars in My Crown” and the Methodist Congregation would be singing “No Not One”.
Bill-that’s a good one 🙂
Love the song. The Pressley Girls are always in rotation at our house. It Ends in a Walk is a current favorite.
Always appreciate starting the day with a new, old favorite.
Beautiful! They’ve come such a long way, Tipper.
Allison Krauss, who sings with the Cox Family, has a version of this song that I really like- http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9qOkoE-723g. I don’t like her more than The Pressley Girls but I do like the tempo and the key she uses and think it would benefit them to try to capture that in their own version.
This is a hymn from my childhood and I heard the girls sing it on Katie’s Instagram a couple of weeks ago. When Mama was alive and I did something special for her, she’d say that’s another star in your crown. This was a wonderful post for this morning.
Happy New Year to all of you all. Thanks Tipper and Chatter and Chitter for the song.
I know where the idea of a crown comes from. But I’m hazy on the stars. I can’t expect to rates stars but I can be assured of not being disappointed regardless because it would require memory I am not sure I’ll have.
Beautiful! I have loved that hymn ever since I first heard it in the movie Stars in My Crown in 1950.
Nicely done, that is an Old Song, I’ve heard it all my life. I Pray Everyone has a Happy, Healthy, Prosperous New Year.
What a beautiful picture of those girls with that country background. A song tells the thoughts of the person writing, and Hewett had a lot of time to think about life during her convalescence in the 1800’s. That was a good use of time to not just sit and grieve one’s circumstances. She could not know that two lovely girls would sing one of her songs over a 100 years later. I do believe those young ladies get prettier and sound sweeter each time I hear them.
I really appreciate your blog being on so early, because the occasional insomniac can find it refreshing when they awaken too early. Happy New Year to all the Blind Pig family!