Steve Gillette: Influential Folk Singer And Songwriter

Have you heard of Steve Gillette? If you were alive in the 1960s and liked folk music, there’s a chance the name rings a bell. Gillette never reached the top of the charts, but he’s a very talented singer/songwriter. Many of his songs have been performed by artists you have heard of, including John Denver, Gordon Lightfoot, Ian and Sylvia, Nanci Griffith, and Linda Ronstadt.

“The Bells in the Evening” appears on Gillette’s debut album, released in 1967. The album, simply titled “Steve Gillette,” stands as one of Steve’s finest recordings. “The Bells” is a bittersweet (actually sweet-bitter) song of love blossoming in the spring and fading away in the fall. I find the melody and lyrics deeply moving. Perhaps you will, too. The song is also replete with imagery. When you listen, what images come to your mind?

I’ve revisited “The Bells of the Evening,” adding a new background track by Giovanni Egusquista. Here’s my cover.

How to Remember a Love Song

Speaker A: Down by the brook that runs through the dell. Listen to the ring of the evening bell. Standing in the shadow of the great gold hills Hear the times, remember them well.

Speaker B: Walking together in the fields Love spring

Speaker A: When the sound of her laughter set the bells to ring.

Speaker B: Fair beauty shone in the sun on the dell Set the flowers spinning,

Speaker A: Spinning like a.

Speaker B: Young Mary is growing in the glen by the score, each one sweeter than the one before the path that we traveled over. Don't hear the ringing of the bell and evening anym.

Speaker A: The springtime love turns to memory like the green turns to gold on cottonwood trees down the path that we traveled o'.

Speaker B: Er.

Speaker A: Don't hear the ringing of the bells

Speaker B: in the evening anymore. Down by the roof that runs through the dell. Listen to the ringing of the evening bell. Standing in the shadow of the green gold hills Hear,

Speaker A: Remember them well.