“I’ve Waited as Long as I Can” is a Hylo Brown song. Brown was born Frank Brown in River, Kentucky, in 1922 and made records for Capitol from 1954. He recorded this song on 16 August 1958 at the Bradley Film and Recording Studio in Nashville, with Ken Nelson producing. His band, the Timberliners, backed him: Jim Smoak on banjo, Red Rector on mandolin, Clarence “Tater” Tate on fiddle and “Flap Jack” Phillips on bass, with the Jordanaires added on vocals. The side was not issued until May 1960, when it came out as the B-side of “Just Any Old Love” (Capitol 4380), one of Brown’s last Capitol singles before he moved to Starday.
The lyric is a plea that turns into a farewell. The singer has waited and stayed true, and tells her she has had time to make up her mind. He asked again last night for her love, and he has done all he can do and said all he can say. In the last verse he says goodbye: she has made it plain that he can’t win, and every verse comes back to the title line.
The song came back into circulation in the 1990s. Tony Rice made it the opening track of Tony Rice Plays and Sings Bluegrass (Rounder, 1993). He sang lead, with Bill Emerson (banjo) and Jimmy Gaudreau (mandolin) singing the harmony parts, Jerry Douglas on dobro and Mark Schatz on bass. IIIrd Tyme Out recorded it for Grandpa’s Mandolin. Under the title “Say You Love Me,” the song also found a place in Irish music. Sharon Shannon recorded it with the singer Dessie O’Halloran on The Diamond Mountain Sessions (2000), and O’Halloran recorded it again under both titles on The Pound Road (2001).
