The Touch of God's Hand
Bob Nolan
Original copyright: March 3, 1936
The prairie sun sends down its ray
To warm my heart through every day,
The starlight beam that guides my way
Is just the touch of God’s hand.
The scattered pearls of morning dew,
The rainbow mists on hills of blue,
The silver veil of moonbeams, too,
Is just the touch of God’s hand.
The desert breeze that brushed my hair,
The leaf that fell from who knows where,
The scent of wild flow’rs in the air
Is just the touch of God’s hand.
The wasteland call that fills the sky,
The hum of wild wings sailin’ by,
The warm earth bed on which I lie
Is just the touch of God’s hand.
The desert yields a water pool
Where wild things meet, their thirst to cool,
And I’m a carefree, happy fool,
I know the touch of God’s hand.
The rain that falls I love so dear,
And joy is mine just livin’ here,
I know He must be standin’ near,
I’ve felt the touch of God’s hand.
ABOUT THIS SONG
Bob said he wrote these verses in 1930 before the Sons of the Pioneers were formed; before he joined any group. (p. 6, Tumbleweed Topics Vol. 1 No. 10) It was not written for radio or a movie. Because it was not included in the 1934 Standard Radio Transcriptions, it leads us to believe that Bob had not yet written music for it. The song was registered for copyright on March 3, 1936. The Sons of the Pioneers recorded it for ARC in 1937.
"Bob Nolan had a strong spiritual side, and it expressed itself again and again in his portraits of the west as a holy place. Of the many spiritual cowboy songs he wrote, “The Mystery of His Way”, “Lord You Made the Cowboy Happy”, “He Walks with the Wild and the Lonely”, among others as great, “The Touch of God’s Hand” is as fine an expression of the cowboy finding God’s grace in the wild and woolly west as has been written. Legend has it that Nolan wrote it on cocktail napkins in a tavern – inspiration, any songwriter will tell you, is where you find it – but whether this is fact or folklore, this song remains one of the most beautiful and expressive of his canon."
"Legend has it that Nolan wrote it on cocktail napkins in a tavern - inspiration, any songwriter will tell you, is where you find it - but whether this is fact or folklore, this song remains one of the most beautiful and expressive of his canon." (Douglas Green, Stampede! Western Music's Late Golden Era, 1996)
It was also an exquisite portrait of the desert he loved, painted with words on the canvas of his heart. "After World War I, I came to the deserts of Arizona. The environmental change had a tremendous impact on me - from the backwoods of Canada to the deceptively barren deserts of Arizona. Actually, out there on that barren land there is more to see than in a forest, on a closer look. The desert is crowded with things to see, which inspired me to write "The Touch of God's Hand". (Bob Nolan to Edythe Jacobs, Sing Your Heart Out, Country Boy by Dorothy Horstman, 1973..
SHEET MUSIC
The sheet music was published in their third songbook, Songs of the Prairie Folio No. 3, 1937 by Cross & Winge Inc.
RECORDINGS
SONS OF THE PIONEERS TRANSCRIPTION RECORDINGS
Orthacoustic Symphonies of the Sage, transcription (059460)
Teleways Radio Productions transcriptions, Nos. 81 and 204
Lucky U Ranch radio shows (courtesy of Larry Hopper)
- Transcriptions disc TR-141/142 (December 12, 1951)
- Transcriptions disc TR-182/183 (January 9, 1952)
- Transcriptions disc TR-186/187 (January 10, 1952)
- Transcriptions disc TR-479/480 (January 18, 1952)
- Transcriptions disc TR-599/600 (December 11, 1952)
- Transcriptions disc TR-782/783 (April 16, 1953)
Smokey the Bear radio show, episode No. 2 (1956) and episode No. 2 (1958)