Get all 10 Anne Lister releases available on Bandcamp and save 35%.
Includes unlimited streaming via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality downloads of Root, Seed, Thorn and Flower, A Twist in the Story, The Quiet People, Waiting for the Hero, Singing on the Wind, Prometheus, No Signposts., A Flame in Avalon, and 2 more.
1. |
New Year's Day
03:35
|
|||
|
Last night I dreamed I came home again
Last night I dreamed I walked by the sea
And you were walking by my side
For you were always home for me.
And in my dream I heard a song
Which seemed to come from inside my heart
And all the things I'd never said
Were echoed in the bass line part.
If I'd had a knife I'd have learnt to cut
If I'd had an axe I'd have learnt to kill
If I'd had poison I'd have made an end
Of all those things that could hurt me still.
But I'd no knife, and I'd no axe
I hadn't any sort of blade
And all pain and all the dreams
Are withered now and start to fade.
And if a song could go through the air
I would give it feathered wings
I'd send it high up in the air
And teach your cold heart how to sing
And I wish you what you've never had
I wish you all you stole from me
And now I've found more than I'd lost
This song is soaring high and free.
Last night I dreamed I came home again
Last night I dreamed you were by my side
And oh the aching in my heart
When I think how I wept and cried.
And waking now I'll sing the song
That seemed to come from inside my heart
And all the things I'd never said
Will echo through from every part.
|
||||
2. |
||||
|
Love comes on the cold wind and in the darkest night
Creeps unexpectedly, avoids thought and sight
Love comes with a rescue boat, with no sails or oars
Coming to find you through locked windows and doors.
Love brings you to danger, takes you from a safer place
Leads you wandering homeless into blame or disgrace
Love puts bonds upon you, made of silken chain
Leaves you in a golden cage, you're not free again.
Love gives your soul its music, and teaches you to sing
Gives the world its colour, but gives the bee its sting
Sweet as shadows, dark as honey, true as moonlight, blue as steel
Vanishes like fairy gold, feels twice as real.
Love comes on the cold wind, acting as your friend
Using smoke and mirrors to hide the story's end
Love stands before you smiling, invites you to play
There's no one in this wide world who can turn away.
|
||||
3. |
Oisìn
04:02
|
|||
|
Manannan's white horses ride wild and ride high
The day was like this when we said goodbye
He left with a fine song of joy in his heart
And it's been so long now since we've been apart.
She came like a princess with long golden hair
With stories of plenty and love over there
He'd eyes for no one but her once they met
He left us without a word of regret.
And is his life good now, and is his life sweet
Soft grass or fine tapestries under his feet
Coins in his pocket, and peace in his soul
In a land where nothing decays or grows old?
Here we've sunshine and showers and roses with thorns
And darkness before the first light of dawn
Time alters and changes, it can't stay the same
Nothing eases the hurt when I think of his name.
Could there be a world where the sun always shines
No one suffers or worries or thinks of the time
Does he think about us or remember the day
When Manannan's white horses rode high in the bay?
And if he came back now, what would he see?
An old pile of stones where his home used to be
His old childhood friends now old women and men
Nothing the same for him as it was then.
The storm clouds are lifting, the sunshine breaks through
I'm wondering what I would say or would do
If he came back to us now and asked us to come
East of the moon, and west of the sun?
|
||||
4. |
Singing on the Wind
03:58
|
|||
|
I could write this down in fancy words, but I prefer them plain
As I watch the sunlight disappear into the clouds and rain
As I watch the mountains dance with me, and the pathway spirals down
And I leave the high clean places for the dirty streets of town.
I could write this song on paper, but I prefer the wind
Write the words on leaves or stones or sticks, it's all the same to sing
But the land that loves to listen to an old tale told out loud
Are the rocks and trees and standing stones beneath winds and passing clouds.
The land knows the finest stories once you teach yourself to hear
The tale comes singing on the wind if you unblock your ears
You can't hear it in the city, you can't hear it through the din
Though the town too has its history and its own sad song to sing.
You know they're cutting down the forest, they're digging up the land
The ones who've blocked their hearing and who've failed to understand
If you cut away the tap root the strongest tree will die
You'll lose the songs and stories, you won't need to wonder why.
So come walking down the old roads, come stepping on the grass
Come and listen to the heather, come and listen to your past
You won't need your machinery, it comes singing on the wind
And you'll find in every hedgerow there's another tale to sing.
|
||||
5. |
The Hag of Beara
03:00
|
|||
|
Looking out across the ocean, says the Hag of Beara
All I see is constant motion, says the Hag of Beara
People come and people go - what they're seeking I don't know
All I know is the winds still blow across the folds of Beara.
The ships that came here from the west, sings the Hag of Beara
From the islands of the blesse, sings the Hag of Beara
Brought the heroes, brought their tales, brought their music in their wind-filled sails
Brought their battles in the winter gales, to the folds of Beara.
They built their circles of standing stones, sighs the Hag of Beara
They built their careful turf-roofed homes, sighs the Hag of Beara
All you see now are empty shells, which once were places they loved well
The wind blows where they used to dwell, among the folds of Beara.
And you stand there looking out to see, cries the Hag of Beara
You see the land but can you see me, cries the Hag of Beara
You place a coin upon my stone, then leave me here to watch alone
The sea birds and the white tipped foam that laps the shores of Beara.
And do you think you know it all? says the Hag of Beara
Do you imagine your world won't fall? says the Hag of Beara
I am the one who shapes the land, who holds all time within her hand
Your life is just a grain of sand upon the strand of Beara.
|
||||
6. |
Changing Tides
04:01
|
|||
|
Across the fields she lost her way
The earth below her, the sky above
Who knows what took her on that day
They say they talked to her, but not enough.
It was a simple life, a simple place
The earth below her ...
None of the trouble of the city race
They say they talked ...
And it is easy, coming from outside, to say she had such a perfect life
No one hears the sound of changing tides.
Maybe she walked across a fairy mound
The earth ..
And there was music, a magic sound
They say ....
Or maybe silence is all she heard
The earth ...
No more singing winds or flying birds
They say ...
And me I sit here and drink it in
The earth ...
Fields showing the first green of spring
They say ...
Did she want what I would leave behind
The earth ...
Did she want city lights and frantic times
They say ...
The land of happiness is always over there
The earth ...
There's never worries and never care
They say ...
Sometimes storm winds will hide it all
The earth below us, the sky above
And we hear other siren calls
They say they talked to her, but not enough.
|
||||
7. |
The Hunter's Fox
02:55
|
|||
|
I will set my fox to run, said the Hunter
Through the byways and alleys of your tow
I will set my fox to run and with my quiver and my gun
I will ride to the hunting with my hounds.
I will set my hawk to fly, said the Hunter
Through the airways and skyways that you breathe
I will set my hawk to fly above your busy city skies
To remind you not to forget me.
Through the concrete and the glass you never hear me as I pass
Through the tarmac and the clay you never see me on my way
In the cities and the towns you think you've knocked my homeland down
But when the wind is blowing high you'll hear my hounds across the sky.
For you'll never fence me in, said the Hunter
You'll never fence me out or cut me down
You may think that you have won but with my quiver and my gun
I will ride to the hunting with my hounds.
In the city runs my fox, says the Hunter
My cormorant is fishing in your Thames
And my sparrowhawk will roam above your fancy city homes
And the grass will push back the concrete cage.
|
||||
8. |
The Well Beneath the Sea
03:20
|
|||
|
What drink will you bring me, she said to her love
From the well beneath the sea?
Will it be healing my own broken heart
Or will it take you far from me?
Nine hazel trees grow there, she said to her love
And drop their fruit in the stream
It's the water of wisdom, the water of life
The water of music and dreams.
We could have been happy, she said to her love
If you could have let the past rest
If you could have loved me for all that I am
And not torn the soul from my breast.
So I had to leave you, she said to her love
And take the long pathway back home
And each time I thought of you on the way back
My heart bled for you alone.
I've brought you the water, he said to his love
I worked hard to bring it to you
It took all of my courage, it took all my strength
My love for you stayed deep and true.
But now when you drink it, he said to his love
It brings back more than you've lost
It'll heal all your heartbreak and heal all your grief
Are you sure that it's worth the cost?
She picked up the water in her trembling hand
And drank it down, steady and slow
He turned from her bedside and then walked away
And the tears fell as she watched him go.
|
||||
9. |
The Devil in the Garden
04:33
|
|||
|
I met the devil in the garden, every time I went outside
Met the devil in the garden, think I'll stay indoors (x 2)
And he said "Aren't you lucky? Look at all I've given you!"
He said "Why aren't you happy with all that you have there?
Look at your husband, look at your child, look at the sunshine, the sky is blue!
All of the lonely, all of the poor, they would be grateful if they were you."
And he said "To be a wife and mother is to justify your destiny."
He said "Wives and mothers are the future of the world.
Look at your husband and his career - he needs a steady base on which to build
And as your child grows with love behind him you'll feel content then, you'll feel fulfilled."
And he said "Look at your knitting - look at your sewing!
Look at those jams you've made, the bread you've baked!
You're a creator, you are a poet, you are an artist, you are a wife.
Why should you worry about your silly dreams, why should you feel it's been a wasted life?"
And now each morning my husband wonders why I stay
Beneath the covers, not wanting to see the light
Hiding from shadows, afraid of the open space, keeping my hands full, closing down
Keeping the Devil out, running from choices, talking through silences, not turning round.
|
||||
10. |
Where Breakers Form
04:07
|
|||
|
There is a point that's out to sea, where breakers form
Where the water swells and builds to crash upon the shore
It may be just a tiny rock or bank of sand
But all the calmness of the sea now crashes into land.
And when you gaze more closely in a candle flame
You'll find inside the greater brightness something dark remains.
As if to remind us that when there's no hint of dark
Even when the world is full of light we risk a broken heart.
And if you're wondering now what's this to do with me
You are the point where breakers form there in my inland sea.
And well I know on a millpond sea, when there's no swell
Something deep within me calls out for a warning bell.
Some kind of wish for danger, but with a safety net
Some kind of wish to push beyond all of the limits set.
You have no way of knowing what you do to me
Just as the rock or sandbank lie there in the sea
But I will build a lighthouse to remind me to take care
And in the wildest storms there'll be some kind of warning there.
|
||||
11. |
The Dragon's Own Song
01:46
|
|||
|
Do you ever see yourself as the dragon in the story of St George?
Spending the day in the usual sort of way
Suddenly find you've been challenged to a duel
And one of you must die?
Have you ever wondered why some of us are losers?
You walk right into the middle of some human fairy tale
You've no choice in the plot, the fighting grows too hot
And all you want to do is go back where you came from
But by mistake you step forward and get transfixed on a sword
And it's too late then.
It should be about good and evil, but I'm not convinced that's true
What's so good about a hero, what's so bad about a dragon
What's special about princesses and magic about virgins?
Who's to say they got it right? Somewhere there just might
Be a different scale of values.
So I'm thinking of writing a story where the opposite turns out true
The dragon gets the sword and beats up St George
The people dance and sing and make the dragon king
And that way all of us who generally fall down
Might some day some way wear the crown.
|
||||
12. |
The Disturber
03:35
|
|||
|
I thought I saw a rainbow when there was no sun
I thought I saw blue sky above the cloud
I thought it was over when it hadn't begun
I thought that you'd heard my thoughts out loud.
The land of sunshine lies across the waves
The road to happiness is hard to find
The heroes are sleeping in their underground caves
And the wind moves more slowly than a woman's mind.
I thought I heard bird song when storm winds blew
I thought I saw a silver tree among the rain
I thought I'd found answers no one else knew
I thought I'd found sweetness to avoid the pain.
I thought I saw a road made of tumbled stones
I thought I saw clear water mixed up with mud
I thought I could follow as the rooks fly home
I thought I'd won forgiveness with my heart's blood.
What's out there isn't what I think I see
The answers aren't what I think they are
Forgiveness isn't what you gave to me
And love disappears with the morning star.
|
||||
13. |
Forty Miles
03:41
|
|||
|
Forty miles of sadness, a line of desolation
All the world's madness, standing in a row
My father and mother, my sister and my brother
All the world's children now should weep with you.
There's no power or glory in a people's suffering
No front page story, no exclusive scoop
Fathers are crying, their children are dying
All the world's journalists now should scream for you.
No pitched battle in a war against starvation
A dying child's rattle, the ragged heap of grief
Your father's bank account and your sister's business lunch
All the world's economists now should work for you.
So fill your car with petrol and think about a holiday
Don't worry about the oil wells - we've rescued them each time
Your brother's future and your mother's pension book
All the world's planners are looking far ahead.
Forty miles of people - how many million heartbreaks
Don't change the channel - don't dare look away
One country's genocide, the whole world's suicide
Don't you think it's time we tried to find a better way?
|
||||
Anne Lister Wales, UK
Anne is best known for her song "Icarus", recorded and performed by a number of different singers, including Martin Simpson and Nic Jones. "Astrolabe" is her ninth solo album.
If you like Anne Lister, you may also like:
On Dark Horses
by Emma Ruth Rundle
With its smoldering arrangements and morbid lyrics, this intimate collection of goth-flavored folk songs makes for ideal autumn listening.
go to album
The latest from UK artist MF Tomlinson sets sharp lyrics amidst a backdrop of acoustic guitar, lush keys, and soft percussion.
go to album
Ship To Shore
by Richard Thompson
The legendary Richard Thompson's new solo album exemplifies his many musical paths, from pop and cabaret to jazz to traditional folk.
go to album
Spencer Cullum's Coin Collection 2
by Spencer Cullum's Coin Collection
A kaleidoscopic collection of folk, jazz, and pop from this Nashville musician topped with gentle, soothing vocal melodies.
go to album
The British folk artist returns with his latest album which is both intimate and sparse.
go to album
The Two Worlds
by Brigid Mae Power
The latest LP from Brigid Mae Power is gorgeous and ghostly, setting Power’s voice against soft brushes of guitar, piano, & shuffling drums.
go to album
Wintres Woma
by James Elkington
One of Chicago’s most versatile musicians breathes new life into beloved British folk traditions.
go to album
