Blown Away
Blown Away
Back in 1973, I formed a string band with five other women, New Harmony Sisterhood Band. We were a part of the beginning of the 70’s Women’s Music scene, played and toured together for 6 years, made a record, And Ain’t I a Woman (which is now in the Smithsonian Folklife Collection) and contributed our voice to the herstory of the Second Wave of the Women’s Movement. Marcia Deihl was one of my New Harmony bandmates and our friendship continued through the decades after the band came to an end. Thoroughly unpretentious, Marcia was a remarkable character, and her tragic accidental death is deeply mourned.
She was a good woman
Kind to pets and neighbors
Generous with favors
And getting on in her years
Always ready with a word of good cheer
Witty and feisty
Stood up to the mean and mighty
A rebel with a cause
She wasn’t in it for the applause
No not the applause
Now we gather together to sing her praise
From radio and podium we hear her name
All the love and attention
Would have just blown her away
Blown her away,
Blown her away
Full of spunk and vigor
Her mind quick upon the trigger
Fighting the good fight
And a lion tamer of fears
A lioness among peers
She sang the peoples’ song
Step by step in freedoms ’throng
And when clouds dimmed her view
Her faith always carried her through
Faith carried her through
She was the queen of her bicycles
Gave them names and titles
Rode all over town
With her long gray hair streaming round
Her head like a crown
Then on the first warm day
High upon her rolling throne
On her way back home
A simple cruel wind of fate
Blew her away, just blew her away