Uploaded October 2013 | Updated September 2026, 32 minutes ago
kappadanielson.com Here is Jonathan Byrd's website for more music: jonathanbyrd.com
Hey everyone! Here is a song I learned from an American Folk songwriter named Jonathan Byrd. I had the pleasure of meeting Jonathan, along with fellow songwriter Sally Barris, at the Oak Grove Folk Music Festival in Staunton, Virginia. I stood in the crowd and listened and immediately loved this tune. All you fellow songafiles will love this one, too. Here is a link to a nice performance by Jonathan Byrd himself Enjoy.. youtube.com/watch?v=_YTR1Nk5PAU
I was an oak tree.
I took a thousand years to grow,
and I've seen kingdoms come and go.
I've seen the losers turn to lords and back again.
I held the rebels when they hung them from my limbs.
When men of fortune cast their futures on the sea,
that's when they came for me.
And I was a slave ship,
under the standard of the cross,
a hallelujah holocaust.
And half were dead before we reached the other shore,
and the captain never saw the coming storm
that swept around the cape and took us by surprise,
and only eight survived.
I was a camp fire, a pile of driftwood in the sand.
The only comfort in this land.
8 hungry sailors roasted acorns that they found,
and left me burning as they stumbled towards the sound
of a church bell ringing out above the ocean's wind,
and I was born again.
And I am an oak tree, out along the wild cape fear,
and there is talk of freedom here.
Where is the kingdom that was here before I came,
where have the people gone who only left their names.
A revolution's just a circle after all,
and every kingdom falls.
I am an oak tree, if it takes a thousand years to grow,
I'll see kingdoms come and go,
I'll see kingdoms come and go.
kappadanielson.com Here is Jonathan Byrd's website for more music: jonathanbyrd.com
Hey everyone! Here is a song I learned from an American Folk songwriter named Jonathan Byrd. I had the pleasure of meeting Jonathan, along with fellow songwriter Sally Barris, at the Oak Grove Folk Music Festival in Staunton, Virginia. I stood in the crowd and listened and immediately loved this tune. All you fellow songafiles will love this one, too. Here is a link to a nice performance by Jonathan Byrd himself Enjoy.. youtube.com/watch?v=_YTR1Nk5PAU
I was an oak tree.
I took a thousand years to grow,
and I've seen kingdoms come and go.
I've seen the losers turn to lords and back again.
I held the rebels when they hung them from my limbs.
When men of fortune cast their futures on the sea,
that's when they came for me.
And I was a slave ship,
under the standard of the cross,
a hallelujah holocaust.
And half were dead before we reached the other shore,
and the captain never saw the coming storm
that swept around the cape and took us by surprise,
and only eight survived.
I was a camp fire, a pile of driftwood in the sand.
The only comfort in this land.
8 hungry sailors roasted acorns that they found,
and left me burning as they stumbled towards the sound
of a church bell ringing out above the ocean's wind,
and I was born again.
And I am an oak tree, out along the wild cape fear,
and there is talk of freedom here.
Where is the kingdom that was here before I came,
where have the people gone who only left their names.
A revolution's just a circle after all,
and every kingdom falls.
I am an oak tree, if it takes a thousand years to grow,
I'll see kingdoms come and go,
I'll see kingdoms come and go.
