I wrote the song Winter Skies for the North Dakota Centennial in 1989. I wrote it at Berklee College of Music and made a demo of it (that I still have) and later recorded a version with Tanya Walsh. Later still I arranged a choral version and it was performed many years later by the Grand Cities Children’s Choir in Grand Forks, North Dakota, which is the town I grew up in.
Here, then, is the original version, sung by Tanya Walsh:
Winter Skies
And here is the version performed by the Grand Cities Children’s Choir:
Winter Skies Choral Version
I hope copies of the sheet music that I will make feely available if anyone else would like to perform it.
Winter Skies
No sea to shining sea
Or purple mountain majesty
Grace North Dakotan plains
But spacious skies there are
Clean air and countless shining stars
And mile after mile of amber waves of grain
North Dakota harvest moon
Your autumn afternoons
Have put the shine in my eyes
North Dakota winter skies
It took ’til now to realize
That I love you and will ’til I die
Where simple people care
Words are true and fair is fair
and life and love are precious things
Through smiles that say hello
Through summer’s heat and winter’s snow
The voice of peace forever sings
North Dakota springtime rains
Can wash away all pain
Until sweetness overcomes the sour
North Dakota summer nights
You’ve put meaning in my life
In the weeds of the world
You’re a flower
North Dakota how I pray
That you will never change
You’re my heart
You’re my home
You’re my home
Written by Michael Koppelman
©1989 Tribe of Angels