My Best Move Ever

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Posted by Jim Yates on Friday, July 14, 2017

Today is Maggie's and my 33rd wedding anniversary. Best move I ever made!

The first time we ever performed as a duo, before we were married, we did a three song set at an open mic at the folk club Folk At The Forum in Cobourg's Victoria Hall. The songs were You Are My Flower (Carter Family), Big Enough For Two (Lyn & Jay Unger) and When You And I Were Young (Johnson/Butterfield)

They say I am feeble with age, Maggie,
I step not as sprightly as then,
My face is a well written page, Maggie,
And time alone wields the pen.

They say we are aged and grey, Maggie,
As spray by the white breakers flung,
But to me you're as fair as you were, Maggie,
When you and I were young.

It seems a little more convincing when we sing it today.

2 comments on “My Best Move Ever”

Texasbanjo Says:
Saturday, July 15, 2017 @4:30:15 AM

That's one of my favorite songs to sing and pick.

Congratulations on your anniversary.

Jim Yates Says:
Saturday, July 15, 2017 @4:55:34 AM

Thanks Sherry,
When You And I Were Young Maggie was written as a poem in 1864 by George Johnson, a school teacher from Mount Hope, Ontario for his wife, Maggie Johnson. Unfortunately she never got to hear it performed as a song, since she died of consumption before J. A. Butterfield put the words of the poem to music. The Johnsons never got to grow old together.
There was a historical plaque in front of the house where he lived, but the current owners of the house asked that it be removed, since people were stopping to take photos and they found it annoying. It is now housed in a nearby municipal building.
Maggie and I have done this as a guitar/banjo duet since 1981, but Al Kirby and I recorded it as a banjo duet on our CD, Sittin' In The Kitchen. Our buddy, the late Zeke Mazurek played a fiddle break.
banjohangout.org/myhangout/med...archived=

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