Mountain Starlight is essentially an ode to friendship, set in an idyllic mountain setting surrounded by family and friends beside a rustic campfire under a canopy of twinkling stars.  Writing songs has been a long and winding journey for me, as I’ve tried to do justice to the songs songs I wrote so many years ago.  As a songwriter, no single process along the way has been as difficult or as rewarding for me as have been my efforts to demo and record many of my own songs.  For years, all I could see were the mistakes and shortcomings in my recordings, and I’ve finally learned to embrace my lack of skills in this area as just another part of my journey, “Here we are all gathered around, Friends from out of town, On a cold winter’s night, With snow and mountain starlight…”

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I recorded my original song “Mountain Starlight” as a demo on Set 7 in 1996, and it speaks to friendship and belonging, set in an idyllic mountain setting under a canopy of stars, “Here we are all gathered around, Friends from out of town, On a cold winter’s night, With snow and mountain starlight…”  Enjoy! ♡ 🙂 Mark

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(Note: As with all of my early songs during which I worked with my friend Gordon Olvera, I’ve shared the copyright with him for trying to give voice to my songs.  Also, emailed versions of these songs lose their chord alignment and formatting, so refer to the original post and/or the scanned lyric sheet as your guide.)

Mountain Starlight

“Turn To Face The Music”, Collected Works Volume II, Copyright 1990, Gordon Olvera/Mark Jones, All Rights Reserved

Verse One:

      Am                Dm  G

The wind’s blowin’ cold tonight

      Am     G         F

The sun is setting low

              Am             Dm         G

There’s a fire burning warm and bright

           C   F             G

There’s no reason to go

         Am      Dm     G

Come on and gather around

Am         G        F

Everyone take a chair

          Am              Dm       G

Take a load off your feet for awhile

        C        F          G

We’ll have a drink of cheer

Chorus:

            Am     G           F

Here we are all gathered around

Am              G        F

Friends from out of town

        Am  F          C

On a cold winter’s night

        Am         G             F

With snow and mountain starlight

             C                G          F

With our friends on a winter’s night

                C   F          C

’round the fire burning bright

G Am            G             F                     C

On— into the night, the night, mountain starlight

Verse Two:

       Am      Dm   G

We  are the lucky ones

            Am         G           F

We can share our lives for awhile

        Am               Dm           G

Look around at the friends we have

        C        F          G

We’ll sit and talk for awhile

      Am        Dm       G

The time will come to go

           Am        G          F

And we may not be back again

          Am         Dm    G

So for now let’s enjoy ourselves

       C            F           G

And make this moment last