The Long Black Veil

TB and piano

The Long Black Veil is a country ballad written in 1959 by songwriters Danny Dill (1924-2008) and “The Den Mother of Music Row,” Marijohn Wilkin (1920-2006).  It’s been covered by a plethora of artists from Johnny Cash to Mick Jagger (accompanied by The Chieftains), but arguably the most well-known version was recorded by country music legend Lefty Frizzell.  It was selected by the Library of Congress in 2019 for preservation in the National Recording Registry for its cultural, historical, and aesthetic significance.  Frizzell’s version moves at the shuffling clip-clop of a horse’s hooves—as is the style of his genre—but I wanted to turn it into something that soars a bit more; something that frames the faceless, mourning woman standing in a bracing wind.

The Long Black Veil was premiered on October 5, 2019 by the Gonzaga University Glee Club (to whom it is dedicated).

The Text

Words & Music by Marijohn Wilkin (1920-2006) and Danny Dill (1924-2008)

Ten years ago, on a cold dark night,
Someone was killed, beneath the town hall light.
There were few at the scene, but they all agreed
That the slayer who ran, looked a lot like me.

The judge said, “Son, what is your alibi?
“If you were somewhere else, then you don’t have to die.”
I spoke not a word, though it meant my life.
For I’d been in the arms of my best friend’s wife.

She walks these hills in a long, black veil.
She visits my grave when the night winds wail.
Nobody knows.  Nobody sees.
Nobody knows but me.

Now the scaffold is high and eternity draws near.
She stood in the crowd and shed not a tear.
But late at night, when the cold wind blows,
In a long black veil, she cries over my bones.

She walks these hills in a long, black veil.
She visits my grave when the night winds wail.
Nobody knows.  Nobody sees.
Nobody knows but me.

Nobody knows. Nobody sees.
Nobody knows but me.