Rain during the past few days has brought refreshing temporary relief from our drought and also encouraged our rose bush to bloom once more…

It also reminded me for the first time in years of the song Roses After the Rain, written by my ex brother-in-law and recorded by country music singer Ricky Van Shelton.  I found my copy of the demo tape (literally a cassette tape) and wanted to record it on SoundCloud so I could upload it to this post.  The demo tape is by an unknown studio singer and is much nicer than the actual recorded version by Van Shelton.  However, none of the old cassette players in our house work anymore.  So here is the Van Shelton version in which, in my humble opinion, he massacred the melody and made the original almost unrecognizable. The lyrics,  which were written by my ex brother-in-law William Lavelle Burnette, remain the same (thank goodness).