Halley Came to Jackson - Mary Chapin Carpenter cover

Late one night when the wind was still

Daddy brought the baby to the window sill

To see a bit of heaven shoot across the sky

The one and only time daddy saw it fly.

It came from the east just as bright as a torch

The neighbours had a party on their porch

Daddy rocked the baby, mother said amen

When Halley came to visit in 1910.

Now, back then Jackson was a real small town

And it's not every night a comet comes around

It was almost eighty years since its last time through

So I bet your mother would have said amen too.

As its tail stretched out like a stardust streak

The papers wrote about it every day for a week

You wondered where it's going and where it's been

When Halley came to Jackson in 1910.

Now daddy told the baby sleeping in his arms

To dream a little dream of a comet's charms

And he made a little wish as she slept so sound

In 1986 that wish came 'round.

It came from the east just as bright as a torch

She saw it in the sky from her daddy's porch

As heavenly sent as it was back then

When Halley came to Jackson in 1910.

And late one night when the wind was still.

      Beautiful harmonies! This song is about the writer Eudora Welty who saw Halley's Comet in Jackson Mississippi twice.  Mary Chapin Carpenter tells a nice story during her concerts about how Miss Welty invited her to her house and how she played the song for her.