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1. |
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The Shearer & the Darby Ram
I was rounding up my flock when
Father called and said I should make my way to town
Was a job there for a shearer
And our money every year was short supplied
I made my way down the briar lined path
And I went cold when a shadow did cast
Darkened the sky and it darkened the land
There before me stood the giant Darby ram
Back so tall that eagles nested
Some attested wool was as deep as oceans wide
Took me 7 months to shear him
And when finished found that my family’s fortune turned
Wool of the ram filled the bags by the thousand
Money we made for to buy a new plough and
Riches abound and my family was able
Ever more to have a full table
I am rounding up my flock and
Father calls and says, dinner’s ready come sit down
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2. |
I Called You Up
03:29
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I Called You Up
I called you up, four times or so
and now you’re free, but wait
the other line you have to go
It used to be, there on the stairs
you’d fix my hair, cause I was
younger then you had to care
‘Cause I am all grown and you’ve got your life
outside my own, and at 25
if I don’t hear from you for a while
I’ll find a way to unbind
‘cause I’m no longer a child,
I’ll see, you’re apart from me
and wait by the phone for a while
When I bring up, that guy at work
who keeps me down, your voice gets
high and light with few remarks
I look out of, this window glass
to dying grass, I wish you’d
comfort me, but I’ll let this pass
‘Cause I am all grown and you’ve got your life
outside my own, and at 25
if I don’t hear from you for a while
I’ll find a way to unbind
‘cause I’m no longer a child,
I’ll see, you’re apart from me
and wait by the phone for a while
‘Cause I am all grown and you’ve got your life
outside my own, and at 25
if I don’t hear from you for a while
I’ll find a way to unbind
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3. |
Stranger in the Barn
03:47
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Stranger in the Barn
Beginning with daylight
Stars as I open my eyes
Turn blue from a soft white
And my room feels cold and dry
I walk from the house to
The barn that sits down by the brook
Find a hole to peer through
See a jacket there on a hook
I fault, I freeze
There’s a person in front of me
On hay, he sleeps
I’ve got to go, tell someone here
A man’s bedding down by the sheep
I run to the yard where
Within the thick of the brush
My parents at work there
And I beg them both to hush
Tell them of the barn where
I went to tend to a lamb
Just before I entered
Saw a total stranger, a man
Their faces red
From the words I had just said
What should we do
Light up a match, pick up a stone?
Get him before he gets you
We’ve chosen our new plan
Quietly tip to the barn
We confront the strange man
And we welcome him to our farm
We hand him some
Bread and butter and spiced rum
He was just strange
But now we know
He’s just someone
Making his way to the grange
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4. |
The Lonely Stallion
04:53
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The Lonely Stallion
Dawn of the day and I find myself alone
I have been here since the dusk
Amongst the stones and the sky and nothing else
Save for some brambles and brush
I used to be with others like me
Dawn of the day and I find myself alone
I’ll perish here without much
Just yesterday, the sun in middle sky
Heat and the dust made me blind
So I laid down neath a tree and fell asleep
But I awoke to find
Oh I stood to see no one else there but me…
In this canyon I’m good as dead
Round I run in frantic strides
‘Neath the banyan I laid my head
Left behind when the sun made me blind
I am so tired, then I hear a sudden sound
Horse and a woman astride
I run to them, and follow as I can
Just then behind then beside
I turned to see someone else there like me
We walk for miles and I am not alone
I’m back where I want to be
In this canyon was good as dead
Now together I could cry
Please don’t leave me, stay forever
We could be, a group just us three
But then ahead, a fence across the land
They just go on through the gate
I call to them, but I just have to stand
They travel off as I wait
And now it’s just me, canyon walls all I see
In this canyon I’m good as dead
Round I run in frantic strides
Neath the banyan I laid my head
Left behind when the sun made me blind
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5. |
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The Shrew, The Dove & The Raccoon
She hasn’t heard what someone had to say
About the thing that would happen today
Yes she would fall from the nest there on high
And what am I, what am I, what am I, what am I
Can I fly, can I fly, can I fly, can I fly
Oh I’m a dove
Under the earth oh a family did live
But the rains came and then drove them above
Opening up to the wind and the chill
They did cry. they did cry, they did cry,
Down from high, down from high, down from high, a bird above
Into the world and away from
Places we know so that we can become
More than the sum of our parts, just repeating each day
I felt that I was completed
And wasn’t aware that I was just a kid
I had to grow, jump from the comfort of home
They hadn’t known that outside of the fence
Worlds there existed of consequence
Oh they climbed and scratched but the wood was so tall
Why can’t I, why can’t I, why can’t I, why can’t I
Reach the sky, reach the sky, reach the sky, over and down
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6. |
Melodies
03:05
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Melodies
I saw on your dresser,
A record, I’m lesser
It’s music, that you praise
Become that, I’ll amaze
Carving away I thought
Carving away each knot
Oh carving away at myself will end this
This feeling I’m no one
A drop in the ocean
My pathway to others
Is paved out in records
Carving away I thought
Carving away each knot
So I’ll have a friend and I will feel tended
In front of this mirror
A singer, a shearer
I muster, not fiction
Incomplete depiction
Carving away I thought
Carving away each knot
Oh my lonely ways will be gone and ended
Melodies are ringing in my ear and I can feel the pressure
Find a certain one and I’ll be in a record on your dresser
Carving away I thought
carving away each knot
Oh my lonely days will be left as a kid
I see now, in your eyes
Connection, you’ve surmised
It’s not what I wanted
I’m farther, and vaunted
Carving away I thought
Carving away each knot
A new lonely way is what I created
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7. |
Where Did It Begin
03:59
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Where Did it Begin
Sitting alone on the porch I think
About the things we washed down the sink
When this all began
Some would say it was Marianne
And she was a great-great-grandmother to
The father and uncle I barely knew
And she was known
To raise her voice inside her home
But she had a difficult father too
Came over to her house and he told her “you
Do nothing right and you know it’s true”
In this house where no one wins
Where did it begin?
I’m here on the porch ‘cause I walked away
From someone yelling on mother’s day
I had to go
That’s the single thing I know
And I think about our life as we grew
Back in the school where her friends were few
And are to blame
For the voices raised in pain
And who do we blame and who lit the fuel?
Marianne or the kids in school
All I know is I can’t be in
In this house where no one wins
Where did it begin?
And who can we blame and who lit the fuel?
Me or her in these vesting rules
And all I know is I can’t be in
In this house where no one wins
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8. |
Essay Man
03:08
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Essay Man
Just the two, a kitchen afternoon
He points out to her--see the small moon
And from their drive, that started 5 am
She’s so tired and starts pulling at her hem
She feels bored and so she opens up
Pages of outrage to fill her cup
And she can’t stop the reading though she’s tried
Because it makes her feel alive
And she can read a million words a day
All about her man, scroll down the page
There are lines of comments, she dismays
Can’t believe the things these people say
mmmmm
@caitlinb and@soccerfanman write
Words that make her shout, flip on a light
There inside her head she shifts to think
Something’s wrong with the man that stands at the sink
There in that kitchen
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9. |
Streaming Family
02:53
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Streaming Family
Hang up the telephone
And I’m alone
Open a silver screen
Upon my phone
Click on a box with a stream that I like
The mother just talks, and a brother named mike
I know where it goes, cause I’ve seen it before
One thousand times, now I won’t be alone anymore
I come home from work again and I’m alone
But I know I’m better off living on my own
Twenty by ten
Here on the eighth floor
I don’t cook my meals
They come right to my door
And if I feel that I want someone around
There on my screen, oh I stream in the family sound
Wake in the middle night
And there’s no one in my sight
But there sits in my palm
Turn on, a family to keep me calm
Come home from work again
And I’m alone
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10. |
The Window Shade
03:28
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The Window Shade
The shade
Cuts the light from my eyes
And I look now at you ‘cross the table
Your look to your hands then the cloth
red paisley and plate of sable
We speak whether we should remain
In this house on a hill where the wind sounds
Each day, and it rattles the doors
And it ruffles and raises the dry ground
I’ve tried to leave several times now before
Once with you, once alone, wasn’t able
But now, we are thinking again
Can’t be borne on our shoulders, unable
And yet, how about how the light
Comes each evening there through the window
We’ll miss how new grass rises up
Each November through dry ground, as the wind blows
Reasons to leave are the fires that rage
No one visits to sit at this table
Seasons reprieve when the fog covers ground
How do we keep our inner lives stable?
The shade
Cuts the light from my eyes
And I look now at you ‘cross the table
Mmmmm
I’ve tried to leave several times now before
Once with you, once alone, wasn’t able
But now, we are thinking again
Can’t be borne on our shoulders, unable
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11. |
The Golden Palomino
02:23
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The Golden Palomino
I stepped outside my door
Worried about the lightnin’ today
Walked down to the barn and stacked my arms full of hay as I do
In the evening time
Out there in the field I saw the four
Some were wild some were tame
The horses and the cows I came to feed
Color of aspartame, in the mane of a horse that was there
So I dropped the feed
Barreling on
The cow did run to me
And then I tried to go
But it was too quick
And I saw then a flash
Of gold and white and it…
I stood still and I stared with widened eyes
At the horse that was there
He had just come between the cow and I
With his aspartame hair
Palomino, all golden to me
mmmm…
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12. |
Coyote in the Road
02:57
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Coyote in the Road
(human)
Coming home one day when I did find
Was there then out of sight
By me it crossed the road then b-lined
Was there then out of sight
It ran as if running out of time
Was there then out of sight
As if it had committed earthly crimes
Was there than out in front of my car
And it looked in my eyes I went still
Went on into the night
(coyote)
All treasures that I find can’t find me
It was just before night
It must have fallen out of a tree
It was just before night
The skunk had found its end before me
It had turned out the lights
So I ran to the road and tried to flee
Was there then out in front of a car
And she looked in my eyes
I went still
Went on into the night
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13. |
The Ohio
04:20
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ISMAY California
ISMAY is a Folk/Americana music project driven by California-based singer/songwriter Avery Hellman. Their debut album Songs Of Sonoma Mountain was released in 2020 and named one of the 10 best Albums in the Bay Area. Growing up backstage at their grandfather’s Hardly Strictly Bluegrass Festival, ISMAY was inspired early on by artists such as Emmylou Harris, Gillian Welch, and Hazel Dickens. ... more
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