1. |
The Bird My Brethren
02:28
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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
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2. |
HOME
06:02
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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
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3. |
Rest
02:20
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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
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4. |
One Foot Raised
03:10
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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
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5. |
Where I Find It
02:00
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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
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6. |
Alone Awhile
03:46
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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
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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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