"Sister Rosetta Goes Before Us"
Strange things are happening everyday
I hear the music up above my head
Though the sight of my heart has left me again
I hear music up above
Secrets are written in the sky
Looks like I've lost the love I've never found
Though the sound of hope has left me again
I hear music up above
Standing in my broken heart all night long
Darkness held me like a friend when love wore off
Looking for the Lamb that's hidden in the Cross
The finder's lost
I know I loved you too much
I'll go alone to get through
I hear Rosetta singing in the night
Echos of light that shines like stars after they're gone
And tonight she's my guide as I go on alone
With the music up above
Using allusion to biblical symbols, metaphor, and personification,
Sister Rosetta Goes Before Us brings a haunting feel and an aura of twilight to the listener. Referring to Christ as "the Lamb that's hidden in the Cross", Phillips immerses the audience in the quiet reverence reserved for holy grounds, adding to the intrigue of the song. This mystery is made to creep upon the listener by the metaphor of the pained singer's journey through darkness, guided by "the music from above". Finally, the personification of Darkness as an comforting stranger who embraces the troubled soul adds eeriness to the gloomy scene. It is as if the listener can feel the Sun setting and the last echoes of light fall upon him, And now that the analytical part of the response is over, we can get to the meat of the song. Sung by Alison Krauss in a chilling tone, with slow, rhythmic musical accompaniments that further set a mood of a slow descent into the night. The song espouses the virtues of verse more than most songs not with its delivery of a specific tale or story, but with its artistic evocation of a faint memory, a nearly forgotten moment on the edge of the mind's boundaries. It plays sweetly but with a lingering sense of emptiness. And ultimately the song leaves the listener grasping out for its notes and voices that seem to end abruptly, as if the passage of time had quickened.
