Oh Nuts Now What!

Oh Nuts Now What!

Suzanne Marsh

“What do you mean you, no one has the rendition of Bury Not On the Lone Prairie? I need that

music for Cowboy Sunday service!” How could this have happened? I needed it now, not three weeks from now. The choir needed to practice it, the required accompanist needed the music, and it was already printed in the bulletin; there was no way I would be able to remove it from the bulletin, since our church secretary was going on maternity leave. I began searching the web; some of those were as useless as a hole in my head. I wanted free music, but that did not work out well either. The free music is not free; it costs three dollars and ninety-nine cents. I continued to look, I found music for the banjo, then I continued to look and found music for the violin; not very helpful either. I found a simple piano version only to discover it was the key of “C” with a high “G” that no one in the choir could hit. I am very thankful that our accompanist is a very gifted musician; she transposed the music to “D” one sharp.

Murphy decided to pay a visit, and I required the words for the “Cowboy Prayer” since a choir member was going to read that part while the choir hummed Bury Me Not On the Lone Prairie. I had no idea how complicated things could become with one miserable song. The lady who helps me could not trace the music, which was not a good thing, apparently. Murphy then decided it was time to cause havoc. I was already an unhappy camper since I required the music as soon as possible, but I still needed that music.

Web-friendly is a misnomer, especially when I went to listen to the song: I had no idea there were so many different versions of a simple melody. I went to YouTube and found versions by Sam Shackleton, William Elliot Whitemore, both of whom I had never heard of. There was also Roy Rogers and Burl Ives, who used the banjo accompaniment. I also discovered that even Tex Ritter did a version. I began looking for the Johnny Cash rendition; that was the one I wanted badly. There is something about that Cowboy Prayer that raises the bar, so to speak.

I found the music, then discovered my printer had run out of ink; oh nuts, what next? Apparently, Murphy was not finished with his fiendish work: the first store I went to was out of black ink! I drove to another store, and they had the ink I needed. I hurried back home, had my husband put in the ink cartridge in the printer. The printer had an error, I was having a hissy fit, and the deadline for Cowboy Sunday was fast approaching.

Much to my horror, I now had a larger problem. I also required the music for Will the Circle Be Unbroken, the computer did not understand the difference between Will and Can. I was becoming more agitated by the moment. I looked under Johnny Cash for the music, zip, zilch, nada, nothing. I began to mumble, that is not a good thing. My husband looked at me as if I were a ‘dragon lady’ and would be producing fire from my nostrils shortly. I do believe I came close that day; something is unnerving about looking for sheet music and not being able to locate it on the web. Web-friendly does not necessitate that it is friendly. I could not understand why I was having this issue. I had pulled music before, and it was always there.

Back to U Tube, that seemed to be the most practical solution, or so I thought. I found Will the Circle be Unbroken by several artists, including Vince Gill, and Alan Jackson, I liked that arrangement. I went back to Free Music, but it wasn’t listed. I wondered how a huge country-western tune could be such a pain.

It is an understatement to say how foolish I felt when I went to the Carter Family on U Tube; there it was listed under Can the Circle be Unbroken. Back to the free music that wasn’t free. This one was five dollars and ninety-nine cents. I was making progress of some sort. This was also written in the key of “C” but was low enough for us to sing. I sat down at the piano and played it, something I don’t do enough.

Cowboy Sunday arrived with a loud clap of thunder; it would not dare to rain as we left for church. We started with Bringing in the Sheaves, that is always a good standby; it is an older hymn and was sung by most churches in the late 1800s. I then remember that I had to have the sheet music printed out and several enlarged copies. Once again, Murphy stepped up. No one was in the church office, and I needed someone to make copies for me. The copier was a new one, and I had no idea what button to press to even start the darn thing. I found someone who had a key, now I needed someone to use the printer. One of the choir members knew how to use the printer to a certain extent. He put the copy in upside down, and it came out widthwise. We had to start over; time was running out, and I had to get back to choir practice. I left him there while I went to check on the choir. That was the biggest mistake to date! He printed everything, but instead of length, he did width. He had no idea how to correct the problem. That meant that all the music he printed off was way too big for our notebooks.

The organ began to play, and I said a quick prayer that we would get through this with no mistakes. The organist began the prelude Can the Circle be Unbroken, then I’ll Fly Away. We sounded great, the postlude Happy Trails is always fun.

I hope I never find myself with a deadline that close again. I put the music together in less than five days.