Newsletter Edition

Daddy Played for Angels   - July 6, 2010

Moms@Work Luncheon

Kelly Swanson - July 6, 2010

Kelly is Launching a New Show Just for Moms called Don't Make Me Pull This Car Over: A Hilarious and Inspiring Journey Through Motherhood. The show will be premiered at the annual Moms@Work Luncheon for Charlotte Parent Magazine on October 6, 2010, at the Charlotte Convention Center (Charlotte, NC). For tickets Charlotte Parent Moms@Work Luncheon

Daddy Played for Angels

Kelly Swanson - July 6, 2010

Watch Kelly Perform "Daddy Played for Angels"

Daddy was a simple man
Known by very few
Never traveled further than
His work required him to

Daddy's face was lined in wisdom
His eyes no stranger to life?s toil
Like his feet his mood was calloused
His nails stained by the soil

Like his shoes, his needs were simple
He was the sort who blended in
He'd been born from generations
Of hard working honest men

The good book was all he read
Saw things in black and white
Was a man of strong convictions
Didn't need you to tell him he was right

Daddy was slow to anger
Kept his emotions buried deep
Always took the back row
And rarely felt the need to speak

Didn't have time for useless dreaming
Lived in the hear and how
He was as stubborn and unrelenting
As the sweat upon his brow

Each night he'd head out to the barn
Without a word he'd slip away
We didn't ask where he was going
And daddy'd never say

But one night I followed him
Before I reached the barn's warm light
I heard the notes so rich and sweet
Drifting out into the night

It was a sight I'd never seen
From this hard and calloused man
My daddy sitting all alone
With a fiddle in his hand

The notes were pure and they were perfect
He was a master of his art
But Daddy sat and simply played
The music of his heart

He never knew I saw him
I kept his secret safe
But some nights I'd slip out to the barn
Back to my old hiding place

And I'd listen to my Daddy play
While the world was all asleep
The only ones close enough to hear
Were the cattle and the sheep

I often found it sad
That the world would never know
The beautiful music Daddy played
With a fiddle and a bow

He lived each day the same
As the rising of the sun
And at night he played his heart out
For an audience of one

Daddy passed away one night
Just as quiet as he lived
The folks they came around the house
With their respects to give

And one by one they told me
Of all the good my daddy'd done
All the lives he touched, the hands he gave,
Always there when called upon

They said he made up in character
What he may have lacked in charm
Now his sweet music's just a memory shared
By me and that old barn

Funny how his life has come down to,
A tombstone far away
This old fiddle and this bow
With no more song to play

Another name forgotten
Another joins the soil he walked
The only thing that lingers
Is the lesson his life taught

Success don't come in what you own
Not the clothes upon your back
Not where you've been or what you've seen,
You're not measured by what you lack

It's what you do with what you've got
In the place you've come to be
It's what you do for others
When there?s no one round to see

Over time as I grew older
It became quite clear to me
That Daddy wasn't the simple man
I'd made him out to be

He just didn't live for men's applause
Wasn't center stage he craved
He simply lived his life believing
You get back what you gave

As I go out into this world
All the faces that I see
Sometimes in the back row I see his
Gently reminding me

Just because you stand up front
Don't make you better than the rest
It's what you do when no one's looking
When your faith's put to the test
You don't need applause from men
For when all is said and done
What you do for many's not half as much
As what you'll do for one

Behind the ones who stand out front
Are countless others we don't see
Whose music's just as beautiful
Whose notes are just as sweet

Just because your name ain't in lights
Don?t mean that you weren't seen
Because your audience was empty
Don't mean no one heard you sing

You have gone unnoticed
And no one knew your name
But your deed, your act of sacrifice
Was not done in vain

Cause I believe that one day
When we reach that distant shore
We'll see this line of people
That we've never seen before

And these will be the people
Of which we all will boast
Turns out the ones we knew the least
Will be the ones we praise the most

Perhaps in my daddy's life
Is a lesson meant for me
That the lower down I go, one day
The higher up I'll be

Sometimes late at night
When all the world's asleep
I can hear my Daddy play for angels
For the cattle and some sheep