• Skip to primary navigation
  • Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar

Mark Shepard Sings

A Life In Song: 4 Decades of Original Music

  • About
    • Bio
    • Mark Shepard Photos
    • Testimonials
  • Song Index
  • Full Albums
    • The Key To Your Cage (Full Album)
    • Spark and Flame CD
    • Purest Form of Trance CD
    • Visions and Voices CD
    • Home Across The Sea CD
    • The Fire Before the Flame CD
    • Ocean of Dreams CD
    • Eyes On The Horizon CD
    • Thirsty for the Sky CD
  • Songs
  • Contact

September 1, 2010 · Life In Song 1970's, Seasonal Songs, Snow Songs, songs about the weather, Winter songs

January And The Summer Folks-Song 014

“Life In Song” #14: “January And The Summer Folks” was inspired by a blizzard we had that kept us home bound for a few days. The first part of the song is descriptive of what I was seeing out my window in the snowstorm. Then the second part is remembering summer as in a day dream…then we come back to the reality of Winter but with the hopeful observation that Spring will eventually come… I recorded two version of this, one that uses a pick and strumming and the other which uses a softer finger picking style. Let me know which one you prefer! If I find any older recordings of this song they will be in the Back Stage Pass Members area as bonuses.

PLEASE! Use headphones or decent speakers to listen to this instead of your tinny little computer speakers. It’s recorded in crystal clear digital sound and the headphones really make a difference!
Video:

Audio:
Strum Version –

Finger Picking Version –

To get a downloadable mp3 file for your personal use Get Your Back Stage Pass! (it’s free for a limited time) and you get unlimited downloads of the entire Life in Song Project.

Lyrics:

January and the Summer Folks | Song #14 | January 1978

January comes to my town once a year
Visits for a while and then
kicks on out of here
Leaving ice on the telephone wires
And a blanket of snow on the dormant backyard sapphires
Of the swimming pools…
The summer jewels

The streetlights through my window
Look like ghosts veiled in snow
Haunting the cars that struggle through
The drifts of the road below
And the wind sounds like an interstate
It threatens to take my home away
And a friend or relative, asks me to play
A summer song
A “right where they belong song”

So I create…

Kids playing tag outside the screen door
They laugh a little now and they laugh a little more
The grass is green in the yard and
There’s plenty to eat from the garden
Sing a summer song for the summer folks
Sit into the night on the porch telling jokes
Sing a summer song for the summer folks
Sit into the night on the porch telling jokes

Watching the moon and the stars for hours
Or sitting inside during thunder showers
Singing of blue skies and ice cream cones
Bare feet on sun warmed stones
Sing a summer song for the summer folks
Sit into the night on the porch telling jokes
Sing a summer song for the summer folks
Sit into the night on the porch telling jokes

But no matter what song you sing
You must have patience in the end
Cause sooner or later Spring will push
Winter round the bend…

January comes to my town once a year…


Tuning DADGAD


Creative Commons License
“January And The Summer Folks” by Mark Shepard is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 United States License
.
Get Your Back Stage Pass!
(it’s free for a limited time) and you get unlimited downloads of the entire Life in Song Project

Filed Under: Life In Song 1970's, Seasonal Songs, Snow Songs, songs about the weather, Winter songs

Previous Post: « Mamas Boy-Song 013
Next Post: Street People-Song 015 »

Primary Sidebar

A Life in Song Newsletter

Hey! Every time I record a new song I send a short email to let you know. If you want to be on the list sign up below...

Mark Shepard’s CDs

Like me on facebook

Some reviews & testimonials

Brilliant!

Brilliant! I LOVE seeing the words to all these beloved songs, thanks!

Mary F.

Total awesomeness!!!

‘Let’s Run’ is MY FAVORITE so far.. I LOVE THIS ONE.. great job.. total awesomeness!!! I thank Jana Stanfield for introducing me to your gifts. I am grateful.

Merril

Enjoying your songs so much…

Hello Mark. I am enjoying your songs so much! I’d love to see you play live somewhere.

Marianne

Your song was just perfect to start my day…

Mark, your song ‘Freedom (It’s Been  Long Road)’ was just perfect to start my day. I LOVE IT!  Thank you, Thank you.  Blessings to you and much gratitude for your musical gift.

Judy

They love (your song) and ask to listen to it, ALWAYS.

My name is Cecile. I teach kindergarten at OMSD. I had the pleasure of using your song Together We Can Change The World to help my students make a difference in this wonderful world! They love it and ask to listen to it, ALWAYS.

Cecile Arvizo

For me these songs are transformational lessons in self-love…

Dear Mark, THANK YOU for sending *Spark & Flame*!!!! This CD certainly is a compilation of Conscious Love Songs! As I listen I am transported to memory after memory past, present and future, fulfilled and unfulfilled. I was flooded with many different emotions. I cried, laughed, held my breath and also breathed deep heart-centered breaths of connection to the Divine. I feel joy, grief, sadness, compassion, love, awe, freedom, kindness, gratitude and appreciation. For me these songs are transformational lessons in self-love, releasing, acceptance for what was, what is and who I am. Knowing that I am enough and that I am Divinely Loved.

J

Never fails to move me…

Your incredible music never fails to move me. Thank you, Mark.

Paula

Love your lyrics!

Love your music! Love your lyrics!

Robin Bridgeford

Your lyrics embody everything we hold sacred…

Your lyrics embody everything we hold sacred and dear as a faith community.

Gina Sullivan, Sisters of the Congregation of St. Joseph

Love the “Key To Your Cage” album…

Love the “Key To Your Cage” album. I hear so many different influences and styles woven throughout the songs, really keeps it interesting from start to finish!

Dan Z

Been singing the chorus since the first day I heard it…

I sh*t you not when I say I’ve been singing the chorus to Honest Rock since the first day I heard it. I sing this every single day. Many times a day. Seriously. It’s like a mantra to me. It soothes me:-)

Gene Moore

You have put a grown man in tears…

Mark, this song and message really hit home for me today. You have put a grown man in tears. Thank You for what you do. Sometimes I think you sound kind of cheesy, and then others, I think you are a genius, and I’m beginning to realize that you actually care about helping people. So hard to “get out of your own way” sometimes…thanks for the reminder.

Jeremy

Just awesome…

Your music is taking over my life and it’s awesome!

Eric

I Love listening to all your songs…

Mark, you really are an amazing songwriter! I Love listening to all your songs and sitting in the creative aura they create!

Cheri

You write some great songs!

Hi Mark, You write some great songs! I really enjoyed listening to all of them on Spark and Flame. Thank you for all that you do. Keep up the good work! All the best.

Susan

I loved the song and listened to it 3 times….

Hi Mark, I just had to tell you this. I emailed my 3 granddaughters the song you wrote who are sisters with the youngest being 11 years old, has cerebral palsy and is very smart, is able to talk, very funny, uses a computer, is able to write, now is learning to play drums, emails me ‘Thanks. I do.’ I loved the song and listened to it 3 times.

Gail Russ

Song Search

Contact, Like, Follow, Donate

  • facebook
  • youtube
  • twitter
  • soundcloud
  • mail

Copyright © 2025 · Mark Shepard Sings
Powered by Success Marketing · Log in