There's A Storm a Comin' for This Orphan

I've been indulging in a little pop culture catching up lately. I only have a few weeks to finish JK Rowling's "The Order of the Phoenix," the fifth book in the series about a young wizard named Harry Potter. The next movie comes out July 13, and I want to be ready for battle with -- oh, sorry, he who shall not be named....

Despite the temptation to diss this story and its films, I've been enchanted by all of them. And, I suppose it helps that I've had a crush on most of the men in the cast -- Gary Oldman, Ralph Fiennes, Alan Rickman -- for much of my adult life. For the record, none of my family -- my late mother, my children, any of my friends or extended family -- have fallen prey to the Fictitious Satan or taken to bewitching people with spells we learned in the books. Look, if you're afraid of imagination in a children's book, you have really big problems.

If you're Harry, you have bigger problems.

What does Harry have to do with Bluegrass? Well naturally, he's an underdog. And, he's an orphan. And, nobody understands him. And, he's got all this unspeakable power that he's still discovering.

That seems pretty bluegrass to me, I'd say.

Harry's story somehow reminds me of Julie and Buddy Miller and their rough-around-the-edges attitude that I love, so much. A while back, Julie recorded a song co-written with Patti Griffin called Orphan Train.

If you've read the books or seen the movies, you know that Harry and his friends must ride a secret train to get to Hogwarts, the school in which most of Harry's story is set. Harry drifts between Hogwarts, where he feels utterly at home, and 4 Privet Drive, where he resides in misery with his "muggle" (nonmagic) Aunt's family. He's drifting, an orphan, looking for his emotional home.

Aren't we all?

Buddy and Julie don't have their version of this tune (featured on Julie's Broken Things recording) out there, so I'm sharing Lee Ann Womack, in a pretty decent version that attempts to capture the driven nature of the song.

Orphan Train
Come all you broken hearted, come and lay your burden down
Come kings and queens, come royalty surrender up your crown
Come empty-handed come with nothing of your own to claim
Come naked, poor, come like a child to ride the orphan train

Come ride, ride on the orphan train
Put your ear to the track, you can hear your name
Come ride, ride on the orphan train
It'll take you all the way home

The way is narrow, it is steep that brings you to the door
But love awaits there to embrace your heart forevermore
Come you abandoned, you forsaken
Friendless and alone, come refugees left homesick for
Some place you've never known

Here princes, paupers, criminals and saints are all the same
No more or less than God's beloved child aboard this train

Come ride, ride on the orphan train
Put your ear to the track, you can hear your name
Come ride, ride on the orphan train
It'll take you all the way home

The way is narrow, it is steep that brings you to the door
But love awaits there to embrace your heart forevermore

Come ride, ride on the orphan train
Put your ear to the track, you can hear your name
Come ride, ride on the orphan train
It'll take you all the way home

It'll take you all the way home
It's gonna take you all the way home