In 2002, a group of like-minded musicians released a CD, “The Executioner’s Last Songs,” to raise money in opposition to the death penalty. They called themselves the “Pine Valley Cosmonauts.”
The CD is a collection of 18 old classics about vengeance, murder, and retribution. The idea was to use gallows humor to protest the cruelty and futility of state executions.
The songs are a mixture of familiar and obscure folk and country tunes. All are good, but to me, the standout is “Sing Me Back Home” by Edith Frost.
Merle Haggard wrote this simple and poignant country ballad in 1968. When others have performed it — Grateful Dead and Gram Parsons both played it regularly — it varies only slightly from Haggard’s original.
Frost also stays true to the original. But her strong, clear voice makes her version, dare I say it, the best yet.
The Pine Valley Cosmonauts released two more “Executioner’s Last Songs” CDs, but Volume 1 is the best. And the best of Volume 1 is this terrific tune by Edith Frost.
Sing Me Back Home
By The Pine Valley Cosmonauts, Featuring Edith Frost, 2002
Written by Merle Haggard
The warden led a prisoner down the hallway to his doom.
And I stood up to say goodbye like all the rest.
And I heard him tell the warden, just before he reached my cell,
“Let my guitar-playin’ friend do my request.”
“Let him sing me back home
With a song I used to hear.
Make my old memories come alive.
And take me away, and turn back the years.
Sing me back home before I die.”
I recall last Sunday morning, a choir from off the streets
Came in to sing a few old gospel songs.
And I heard him tell the singers, “There’s a song my Mama sang.
Can I hear it once before you move along?”
“Won’t you sing me back home
With a song I used to hear?
Make my old memories come alive.
Take me away, and turn back the years.
Sing me back home before I die.
Won’t you sing me back home before I die?”
Singer/songwriter Edith Frost.
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