Close to Heaven

Bob Nolan
Original copyright: December 10, 1936

Long, long ago I learned to love the rolling hills and open plains.
To me it’s heaven.
There, if the sun is shinin’ down or if the dark clouds send the rain,
It’s still like heaven.

Refrain:
Here comes the prairie sun. It’s morning!
I wake and give the world this warnin’,
I’m mighty glad that I was born in
A land that’s close to heaven.
All through the day the plains I’m roamin’.
My heart has nowhere to be homin’.
I make my camp at twilight’s gloamin’
And there I’m close to heaven.

There where the moonbeams spread a blanket o’er the ground,
I make a bed and lay this weary body down
And let sweet dreams come to console me,
The tender arms of nature ‘fold me
Against her heart to ever hold me and keep me close to heaven.

This typically light-hearted little Nolan song was never used in a film and never commercially recorded but it was a favorite of the Sons of the Pioneers. They used it on stage and included it in the Orthacoustic Symphonies of the Sage radio transcriptions. The Lobo Rangers included it in their Bob Nolan album The Song Poems of Bob Nolan. The song was registered for copyright on December 10, 1936 and the sheet music was first printed in Songs of the Prairie Folio No. 3, ©1937 by Cross & Winge, Inc.

The song was registered for copyright on December 10, 1936 and the sheet music was first printed in Songs of the Prairie Folio No. 3, ©1937 by American Music, Inc.

Close to Heaven (American Music, Inc.)

SONS OF THE PIONEERS TRANSCRIPTION RECORDINGS

Orthacoustic "Symphonies of the Sage" (064093)
Teleways Radio Productions transcription No. 162 (c. 1947-48)
Lucky U Ranch radio shows (courtesy of Larry Hopper)
- Transcription disc TR-288/289 (March 19, 1952)
- Transcription disc TR-561/562 (November 13, 1952)