folkVOTE Featured Song and Video November 1

“America the Beautiful (2020 Version)” by Jesse Palidofsky, Claire Lynch, and Lea Gilmore

In this stunning new version of the patriotic favorite, award-winning Bluegrass singer Claire Lynch teams up with award-winning Blues/Gospel singer singer Lea Gilmore in a song written for this moment. The timely updated lyrics by Azalea City Recordings artist Jesse Palidofsky and John Morris celebrate the rich contributions of immigrants and working people. In the spirit of Woody’s “This Land Is Your Land”, the three new verses uplift our spirits as they invoke the original promise of the patriot dream, while also inviting us to look squarely at the very real challenges we face as a nation, and as citizens of a larger world in crisis.

New lyrics: Jesse Palidofsky/John Morris 1/15/15
New lyrics to the original song by Katharine Lee Bates

O beautiful for spacious skies,
For amber waves of grain,
For purple mountain’s majesties
Above thy fruited plain!
America! America!
God shed much grace on thee
So spread the love sent from above
From sea to shining sea!

O beautiful thy immigrants
Who hail from every land
Their hope and heart and diligence
Like gifts from God’s own hand
America! America!
Thy grace shall yet remain
To greet the poor who reach thy shore
With open arms again

O beautiful O Mother Earth
All nestle at your breast
Just as we sing with love and pride
So all nations are blessed
America! America!
Alone cannot abide
God give thee pause to mend thy flaws
With Truth thy only guide

O beautiful thy working folk
Built cities, tilled thy soil
Proud Africans in bloody chains
The wealth built from their toil
America, America, God shed much grace on thee
So spread the love sent from above/ From sea to shining sea
Ring sisterhood!/Ring brotherhood!/From sea to shining sea