William Grant Still - "Bayou Home" arr. Alexa Still, Hana Beloglavec and Liz Ames

Sometimes referred to as the “Dean of Afro-American Composers,” William Grant Still was a prolific Black American composer who broke barriers in many ways throughout his career. He was the first black man to conduct an orchestra in the deep South – the New Orleans Symphony, which is now known as the Louisiana Philharmonic Orchestra, a group I have subbed with many times during my time in Louisiana. Still was a composition student of George Whitefield Chadwick and Edgar Varèse and he was the first Black man to have his opera produced by the New York City Opera and the first to have a symphony performed by a major American Orchestra. William Grant Still also had a connection with the Harlem Renaissance – befriending poets such as Langston Hughes, Alain Locke, and Countee Cullen. Bayou Home is one of the songs arranged by Alexa Still, flutist and professor at Oberlin Conservatory, for trombone and piano. The text for “Bayou Home” was written by Verna Arvey, Still’s wife.

Lyrics:

A haunting tune dwells in my heart
Song of the marsh, a world apart
My memory holds this melody
It takes the place of reality

When I embark for distant shores
It stays my tears; my soul restores
This song alone lives with me yet
It's in my veins; I can't forget

I'm leavin' my home on the bayou
I'm paddlin' the stream to the gulf
Gonna go with the tide and put life aside
Gonna answer a call from afar

I'm lookin' my last at the oak trees
I'm seein' no more fields of cane
Gonna miss the old folks with their homely jokes
And pray that I'll see them again

May the good Lord look down on earth
And keep my treasures safe for me
May my homeland stay just the same
When I travel back 'cross the sea

I'm leavin' my home on the bayou
I'm saying goodbye to my Jean
Gonna send her a charm to keep her from harm
Gonna see her face in my dream

Got a new world to mold
A future to hold
'Cause my bayou home waits for me

Filmed by Overneath Creative
Recorded by Paul Schaedig and Western Sound Studios
Produced by Steve Wolfinbarger
Bayou Home, Summit Records
Funding provided by State of Louisiana Board of Regents ATLAS grant