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The Bird My Brethren (+ bonus track)

by Blanche Ellis

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    THE BIRD MY BRETHREN

    6 tunes (as on Spotify) + 7th track → SEED BY SEED 🌱
    (this last track is for supporters on Patreon or Bandcamp as a thank you. Thank you :)


    So, here, the album comes with:

    - BONUS SONG - a womens' generational ballad

    - DOWNLOAD of all tunes in higher quality than streaming platforms

    - LINER NOTES with lyrics and artwork for each song

    All made with love, I'm so very glad to share this with you.

    .
    ... more
    Purchasable with gift card

      £5 GBP  or more

     

1.
LYRICS: Oh the mountain my saviour The bird my brethren I am coming out to play When the air is fresh And the earth is fresh Just after the nighttime rain I’m going to spread my wings over the city I’m going to rise and fly In the arms of the wind who Holds me close, then lets me go I’m going to spread my wings over the city I’m going to rise above All the people and the places Where they live and learn and love When the sun is up But not yet overhead I’m going to rise and fly And when I see that little bird With his feathered breast And his fork tail I tell him - Brother, wait for me You know I am coming your way And when I see that heron fly So long and elegant against the sky I tell her - Sister, wait for me I I’m coming with you this time I’m coming with you this time I’m coming with you this time And when my wings get weary And it turns to night And my arms fall tired at my sides I’m going to lay down In the dark of night And tomorrow And tomorrow And tomorrow And tomorrow Oh well the sun will rise and I will Fly
2.
HOME 06:02
LYRICS: Home is the hand into which we curl our fist Home the body against which ours perfectly fits Home the way the heartbeat synchronises And how the centre of our gravity gently shifts to become Mutual, something between two bodies who accompany one another through This world I want you near and far I want you wherever you are I want you in silence I want you in sound I want you when you’re high I want you when you’re down I want to play, seriously At this game that we are playing Of being you, and being me And now they’re holding at the gate, the plane is late It’s only two pm but it feels like seven which is great For these few hours of flight will be what I take for night And what I take for my sleep Look at that poor babe in arms, already wailing No idea of what awaits him No idea of time nor space, but at least Pressed to his mothers breast, in a darkened place All circumstances are the same Surely this is what we know This is what me mean by, home and safe And do we not learn this first Do we not learn this first? That home is the hand into which we curl our fist Home the body against which ours perfectly fits Home the way the heartbeat synchronises Home the way our centre of gravity gently shifts to become Mutual, something between two Bodies who accompany one another through This world With wet stone and salt water Penitence and paint With breaths first drawn on foreign soil I have built this house of clay These restless feet, they never set well into concrete The faster they run, the less they feel The running tears the roots to pieces To settle them took many years To calm that gate, hush that hurry Turn escape into homecoming Find out how and where I want to be And when I go it will be gone These are not lands carved by generations This is a tender garden and it needs tending If I’m to ever feel that I’m not only renting You see I have no soil of my own I have no soil of my own I have no soil of my own I have no soil of my own No native land, no mother tongue Self exile is in my bones Exile itself a thing I own I worked hard to make a home And learn to share what I had made my own Now you go half the world away To the kind of place that I escaped How can I choose between Your beating heart and a life slow-crafted I’d hung my ambitions from the rafters Said, I’m done with all that pushing, fighting, shoving I want a life of quiet loving I want you, near and far I want you, wherever you are I want you in silence I want you in sound I want you when I’m high I want you when I’m down I want you with my coffee I want you with my tea I want you when we’re dancing And quiet with a book in the evening reading I want you when I’m worried I want you when I’m free I want you when times are tough And when they’re easy and in-between I want to play, seriously At the idea that home might be Where our bodies meet
3.
Rest 02:20
LYRICS: Lover, remind me how to rest As if there were nothing needed doing As if there were nowhere else Only a bed, balanced on time As on a wave crest, only just born And as yet, unaware of endings Still as a feather on a calm day falling Let your pulse in an arm laid across Remind me of the pace the body daily begs Let your breath in a body laid beside Remind me how to loose my mind Mind sweeper, sweep for me So I may find a clean path between the sheets Mind sweeper, sweep for me So I may find a clean path between the sheets And there, lay awhile, only breathing Still as a feather on a calm day falling Lover, remind me how to rest As if there were nothing needed doing As if there were nowhere else Only a bed, balanced on time As on a wave crest, only just born And as yet, unaware of endings Still as a feather on a calm day falling
4.
LYRICS: Are you thinking of anything Are you dancing with one foot raised Feeling how you moves through space Or are you waiting…. for it to come down? And are you walking with yourself Thinking of someone else Are you listening to the trees? And the traffic and the people And the traffic and the people And the birds you feel the breeze now Maybe the rain is going to come down But you racing from here to there And did you ever get there yet? You know I do from time to time I jump I run I ride I push until I’m blind Until the white noise I’ve been walking in Falls away like waxen wings Stripped naked to my tender skin And all that silence And then I go dancing with one foot raised in the air Feel how I move through space I am there Body and mind awake, I let the music take me And for now I am not looking down You want to fly, you must let go the ground But that’s alright, you know you cannot measure How it feels to fly, even if every feather Once raised on the weather Will have to come down So I go dancing with one foot raised Feeling how I move through space I go walking with myself Thinking of nothing else Just listening to the trees And the traffic and the people And the birds I feel the breeze now Maybe the rain is going to come down Oh I can feel it
5.
LYRICS: There's an uneven tile on the floor under my desk Perfectly set for to rock my heel against And I Will take the music where I find it And there's a stranger here saying something to me I am distracted by the colour rising in her cheek And I Will take the beauty where I find it And the way you fight for life On a single, soul-sick day Is more beautiful to me Than the whole Love-and-Light Brigade And I like the broken bits the best So don't tell me you're not good enough Don't tell me it's too dark in here Without the darkness I don't know love There's an uneven tile on the floor under my desk Perfectly set for to rock my heel against And I Will take the music where I find it And there's a stranger here saying something to me I am distracted by the colour rising in her cheek And I Will take the beauty where I find it And I Will take the beauty where I find it
6.
Alone Awhile 03:46
LYRICS: I think it’s time to be alone for a while Unhitch the halter from my unsteady mind Take a slow wander to soothe the sting in my spine Yes, I reckon it’s time to be alone for a while I think I’ll go to the countryside Take myself a long walk and watch the bird fly Leave the scrape and the scream of the city behind Yes, I reckon it’s time to be alone for a while I think I’ll go to where the clocks don’t chime Listen to leaves underfoot as the glades pass by From the crackle of beech to the silence of pine Yes, I reckon it’s time to be alone for a while When I feel all caught up in a close cage of time Can’t measure my life by the pace of my stride Want to break or to bruise but don’t know what to fight Well I, I, well I reckon it’s time to be alone for a while I’d like to go where I can watch the sea sigh It’s colours up into the wide wing of the sky And the treasures of the smooth shell-shingle-shore Whisper sweet nothings of chaos and order To fingers that tingle and taste of brine Yes, I reckon it’s time to be alone for a while

about

THE BIRD MY BRETHREN


After a decade of writing and performing I offer this first album, a tender record that threads its way between folk, acapella and blues in the eternal spirit of the ballad.

Originally named for the track HOME this album explores the nature of belonging, but the title morphed into The Bird My Brethren as the birds, somehow, have come to feel ever-more like family.

Acapella is a deep love of mine, from harmonies to the naked soul of a single voice laid out on a line. I love blues, Billie Holiday, Karen Dalton and all that Appalachian hollering. The record opens with a raw, pure-vocal tune that brings the music back to its origins, deep in the body itself.

Another love I have is lyricism, from growing up listening to Joni Mitchell, Dylan and Leonard Cohen. I care about the way one word carries meaning to the next. The lyrical currents of these songs wander lines along the meaning and the matter of ‘home’ and the deep physiological and biological needs that keep us connected to place, to one another, to nature and to the self.

I find that idiosyncratic melodies, rhythmic twists and turns, tease out the tensions and contradictions of experience. Listening to Devendra Banhart, Vashti Bunyan and Joanna Newsom I learned to love the unexpected, the dip and dive of words-as-sound, of melodies that slip sideways over the back-beat. So, I travel in any direction I need to, to reach into the thoughts and feelings that bind and unravel the essential and ever shifting concept, that we each hold in our imagination, of home.

Beneath the voice, harmonies and Spanish guitar is a subtle soundscape from field-recordings that I collect in daily life; rain storms, local church bells and birdsong from Granada. These ambient sounds give an intimacy and reality to the songs, keeping them connected to place and time, bringing a sense of belonging.

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All songs (minus one rogue, home-recording from 2013 - Alone Awhile) were done as live takes, recorded and produced with Diego Lara in the cosy Ape Soul Studios, Barcelona, 2022.

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credits

released January 28, 2023

THANKS:

To Diego Lara of Ape Soul Records for working with soul on all these tracks and demystifying the process by teaching me production tricks.

To all the musicians and friends, patrons and supporters who who keep the music moving in my mind, body and soul and, most importantly, in community.

To Jaime Benavides for getting this show on the road.

To my family.

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about

Blanche Ellis London, UK

A London born, Barcelona based, singer songwriter with a focus on poetry, a love of the melodic leaps of Joni Mitchell and the intimate, confessional words of Leonard Cohen. Leaning into the scratch of homemade recordings, the low-down blues of Karen Dalton, the easy darkness of Gillian Welch, the swing of Billie Holiday's ballads and the soft edges of sleepy Delta Blues. ... more

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