According to Edith Berbert, she wrote the 1943 hit song, “Silver Dew On The Bluegrass Tonight,” because she thought her life was about over! Edith stated, “I thought my husband was going to have to go into the Army during the Second World War. I was feeling down and out over the thought of him leaving.  I just thought it was the end of my life so I wrote the song.”

“But he didn’t have to go after all, but I kept the song. I showed the song to a music publisher and he liked it but he told me that women songwriters didn’t get too far when it came to getting songs recorded.  He suggested that I change my name from Edith Berbert to ‘Ed Burt,’ so we did.”

“Bob Wills was the first to record the song, and after the war the music publisher changed some of the lyrics to make it a more general song but I think the original lyrics were much prettier.”

“Bob Wills’ recording of “Silver Dew On The Bluegrass Tonight” entered the country charts November 17th, 1945 and made it to number one where it stuck for three weeks.  It was Wills’ 8th charted song and was on the charts for 14 weeks.

Doug Davis
Country Music Classics