Bones and Feathers
Emily Portman: voice, David Newey: guitar, Christi Andropolis: viola
1 There’s a woman down the back street
She leaves a trail of feathers
She’s carrying a suitcase
Ivory and Leather
She’s rummaging the dustbins
She’s looking but not finding
2 I see her at the bus stop
She holds her leather suitcase
Her eyes are like two streetlights
Flickering in her furrowed face
She mutters and she murmurs
There’s a rattling, a rasping
She might be singing something
But it’s lost in traffic roaring
3 She’s weaving up the high street
Against a tide of faces
They’re looking but not seeing
People going places
She’s searching for something
She’s looking but not finding
4 I walk home through the back streets
As night turns into morning
There’s a little fire
To the eastward burning
I turn around a corner
There’s a ratting, a rasping
She’s underneath a streetlight
Singing whilst she’s working
5 Her suitcase is wide open
It’s spilling out its treasure
Yellow bones are glowing
Ivory in leather
She’s looking and she’s finding
She’s knitting them together
6 And the dawn is breaking
The ragged bones are mending
They’re growing flesh and feathers
They’re breathing and they’re stirring
They’re stirring and they’re waking
7 They’re rising and they’re singing
They fly into the morning
The streetlights are buzzing
And the sky is full of ringing
The woman in the back street
Has vanished with her suitcase
And all the birds are singing
All the birds are singing
All the birds are singing….
Tongue-tied
Emily Portman: voice, Rachel Newton: harp, Rachel McShane: cello, Lucy Farrell: voice.
Tongue-tied, I am bound
To weave my words with thistle down
Sickle moon on the moor
Turns thistledown silver and fingers raw
I dye a thistle thread
Red for my mother’s tongue
Mother’s words made scavenging birds
A wish for a daughter, not 7 sons
Rash words, a shower of stones
Drove seven princes from their thrones
Mother’s words, the seed of me
Now I’m tongue-bound, tongue-bound ‘til they are free
I dye a thistle thread
Green for the woods where I make my bed
Where the ravens sing, the ravens sing
‘Free us of our weary wings’
They sing ‘weave and spin, weave and spin
7 shirts for Raven kings
Bite your tongue, swallow your tears
Tongue-bound, stitch-tongue for seven years’
I dye a thistle thread
White for the tears I will not shed
Pale fingers, worn red-raw
Red for the tongue I move no more
Tongue-tied, I am bound
To weave my words with thistle down
Sickle Moon on the moor
Turns thistledown silver and fingers raw
Fine Silica
Emily: voice, Gabriel Waite: cello
Little grain in my throat
Made of fine silica
Splits into a thousand seeds
They glow white and whiter
My mouth is full of ocean pearls
Made of fine silica
I’ll give them to a little girl
Who grows white and whiter
I could swallow them down
They would glow from the inside
I could swallow them down
Hardened tears never cried
But I will string them round your throat
Peals from fine silica
Each pearl a breath, a shining note
So you’ll breathe underwater
Put a pearl in your mouth
Dive underwater
Your breath will turn to shining beads
They’ll glow amongst the waterweeds
They’ll split into a thousand seeds
Finest of treasure
I could swallow them down
They’d glow from the inside
I could swallow them down
Hardened tears never cried…
But I will string them round your throat
Peals from fine silica
Each pearl a breath, a shining note
Breathe underwater
Grey Stone
Lucy Farrell: Lead vocals, Rachel Newton: Harp and voice, Emily: voice
I find the pools and the hidden places
I ‘m not scared of the sea faces
Being my mothers daughter
I choose a smooth grey skimming stone
Watch it vanish into the foam
Then dive into the water
My mother says she’s far from home
How she sighs how she cries
She longs to be a skimming stone
And vanish in the water
How she’d dip and dive away
Into the green and silver grey
Her eyes are on the water
When the moon is dark she slips away
How she sighs how she cries
She sings to the blue and silver grey
Ripples on the water
She walks down to the coal black sand
Seals appear and kiss her hand
Her eyes are made of water
‘Oh Mother, mother look what I found
Soft and silky, silver grey
Oh Mother, mother look what I found
A present from your daughter’
She took the skin and slipped inside
How she sighed how she cried
Then dived into the water
Ionn da ionn do
Ionn da od-dar da (x2)
Ionn–dan dao (x3)
Od-ar da
I find the pools and the hidden places
I see her in the salt sea faces
I choose a smooth grey skimming stone
Watch it vanish into the foam
My eyes are made of water
Mossy Coat
Emily: voice & concertina, Hinny Pawsey: fiddle, David Newey: Guitar
How d’you like my new mossy coat?
Made with my mother’s on hands
Knitted with night songs from her throat
Stitched with silver strands
She says ‘the world is wide love
Be careful what you wish for
For when you wear your new mossy coat
All you fancy will fly to your door,
How do you like my new silk dress?
Colour of birds in the air
I love to see the passers by
Turn their heads and stare
She says ‘watch for the magpies love
With a fleck of gold in their eyes
They’ll flock and flatter, they’ll charm and chatter
Then vanish to the sky’
How do you like my new velvet coat?
With it’s golden filigree
What use have I for a mossy old coat
Now I wear such finery?
She says ‘sure you look fancy love
But don’t cast your old coat away
For gold may glitter in the sun
But moss glows in the shade’
But I cast off my mossy old coat
And I throw it to the floor
And in a flash all my finery fades
And I’m back at my mother’s front door
She says ‘the word is wide my love
The glamourie addled your head
Come in sit for a while,
I’ll show you how to use needle & thread.
Hide
Emily: voice, David Newey: guitar
She had gold and she had grace
Hide woman hide
But she’s never learnt a lady’s place
She wont lay down her pride
She wouldn’t bear a child to him
Hide woman hide
For stretching of her lily-white skin
She wont lay down her pride
She could never hold her tongue
Hide woman hide
But scolded him like he was young
She wont lay down her pride
He has gone to the far far field
Hide woman hide
And with his knife made his old mare yield
‘That’ll lay down her pride’
He’s taken off his old mares skin
Hide woman hide
To wrap his own proud lady in
‘That’ll lay down her pride’
He said ‘I can’t thrash you for your proud kin
Hide woman hide
But I can thrash my old mares skin’
‘That’ll lay down your pride’
He put the salt-hide on her back
Hide woman hide
He beat her blue, he beat her black
‘That’ll lay down your pride’
He beat the salted leather hide
Woman hide
But bruised and broke his lady’s pride
‘Lie there, lie there ‘til you’re reformed
Hide woman hide
You should’ve been beaten the day you were born
That’d lay down your pride’
No breath lay in the salted hide
No beating heart was left inside
But as he left his wife alone
Life stirred beneath the broken bone
A beat has sounded from within
Hide woman hide
New scarlet marrow stretched the skin
And as the beat grew stronger still
Hide woman hide
Inside the hide there grew a will
You won’t lay down my pride
And with every new heart beat thud
Hide woman hide
Grew rosy flesh and ruby blood
You won’t lay down my pride
His heart jumped as he heard a sound
Hide woman hide
Hooves were thundering on the ground
You won’t lay down my pride
Golden hair and full of grace
Hide woman hide
Horses hide, a woman’s face
She said ‘I wont lay down my pride
‘I served a master all my life
Hide woman hide
Now you’ve beaten me like a wife
I won’t lay down my pride
Sticks and stones, sticks and stones
Hide woman hide
You’ll not quiet these broken bones
I won’t lay down my pride
Enough for me enough for me
Hide woman hide
To live at Large with Liberty’
I won’t lay down my pride.
Stick Stock
Emily: voice, Lucy Farrell: voice & viola, Rachel Newton: voice
My stepmother slew me
My dear father ate me
My little brother whom I love
Sits below I sing above
Stick Stock Stone Dead
My stepmother was beautiful
She stole my father’s heart away
She wanted him all for herself
Wanted me out of the way
My little brother he was born
With hair as black as the carrion crow
My hair grew gold as summer corn
And She grew bitter as the sloe
We played in the shade of the juniper tree
Like a raven and a dove
Stepmother’s heart twisted like bark
Until she had no room for love
‘Come here,. Come here my sweetie pies’
Night is nearing, better beware
But before you sleep, Susie Sweet
Let me comb your golden hair’
‘Your lovely locks are full of knots
They will break my ebony comb
Fetch father’s axe and a billet of wood
I’ll cut the knots the wind has blown’
That night my brother has a dream
A white bird crying scarlet tears
In the morning when he woke
His tender heart was full of fear
My stepmother baked tender pies
Neat meat pies with crusts of gold
Father ate up every bite
Brother let his pies grow cold
In the woods they found my bones
Buried them under the juniper tree
On my grave my brother weeps
Weeps until he cannot see.
And I will sing my little song
To soothe my brother’s tears away
To ring in my stepmother’s ears
Until she turns into the clay.
Little Longing
Emily: voice, Gabriel Waite: cello
Sleep a little while
My little longing
A lullaby to rock you
Safe from all harm
My bows are heavy laden
Laden with longing
Longing to rock you
Out of these arms
Sometimes you appear
As sawdust in sacking
I rock you in my arms
Until your features form
In the murk of the night
I can see you clearly
But your face, it fades
With the coming of the dawn
And when the sun
Has brought a bright morning
And my love he rocks me
Safe in his arms
I’m happy that you’re gone
My little longing
For a seed sown out of season
Will only do us harm
What woman am I?
I can hear them whisper
A plum without a stone
Empty honeycomb
But when the bow breaks
I’m awakened singing
‘Sleep my little longing
‘Til I find you a home’
Pretty Skin
Emily:voice, FinnMcnicholas: all instruments and arrangement.
Oh to gnaw at your pretty skin
For you are good enough to eat,
Soon you’ll join with the gossiping
And then with a winding sheet.
You may throw me to the flames
But in the embers my remains
My stooping frame, my withered bones
Will weigh you down like river stones.
You may try to bury me,
But even in the darkest woods
There will be nowhere, no good, no way
My bones will rise out of the clay.
And by the time you’re lost and alone,
My old bones could carry you home
They’ll whisper softly in your ear
You cannot make me disappear
You cannot make me disappear…
Sirens
Emily: voice & concertina, Rachel Newton: harp & voice, Lucy Farrell: voice, Christi Andropolis: viola.
A streetlight flickers
Broken glass turns to glittering diamonds
And the sirens down the street
Grow two clawed feet
Blue eyes flash
Dashing through the night,
They’re taking flight, I hear them wailing
I’m with them, sailing from the docks
I’m flung against their rocks and they sing
‘Come closer love, I’ll take you to a place
Where at night the cities glow with orange light
Where we have wheels instead of wings
We have no mouths but still we sing
We sing’
‘A streetlight flickers
Broken glass turns to glittering diamonds…
Two Sisters
Emily Portman: voice. Rachel Newton: voice & harp. Trad. Arr Emily & Rachel.
Two little sisters living in a bower
Oleanda yolling
The youngest was the fairest flower
Down by the waters rolling
A Noble knight came riding by
The two little sisters caught his eye
He courted the eldest with diamonds and rings
But the youngest he loved above all things
Sister oh sister come down to the broom
And we’ll hear the black birds changing their tune
She’s taken her sister gently by the hand
And led her down to the river strand
And when they came to the rivers brim
The eldest pushed her sister in
Sister oh sister lend to me your hand
And you’ll be the heir to my riches and land
Sister oh sister that will never be
Till salt and oatmeal grow both of a tree
Sister oh sister reach me but your glove
And you shall have my own true love
I will lend you neither hand nor glove
But I will have your own true love
For your cherry cheeks and your long yellow hair
Made me a maiden for evermore
Sometimes she sank sometimes she swam
Until she came to the millers dam
Miller and his daughter stood at the door
And watched her floating down by the shore
Father oh father draw your dam
For there’s either a mermaid or a milk-white swan
The miller he dragged her out on to the shore
And he stripped her of all she wore
He laid her body on the bank to dry
A minstrel he came riding by
He made a harp out of her breast-bone
Whose sound could melt a heart of stone
He took three looks from her long yellow hair
And with them strung the harp so rare
He took the harp to the kings high hall
And there was the court assembled all
He laid the harp upon a stone
And it began to play alone
The only tune the harp would play was
Oleanda yolling
The only tune that the harp would play was
Down by the waters rolling
It sang ‘yonder sits my love the king
How he’ll weep at my burying
Yonder sits my sister the queen
She drowned me in the cold cold stream.
Three Gold Hairs
Emily Portman: voice, Lucy Farrell: voice
A blind man stumbles through the woods
Gripping saplings to steady his step
He’s bent like a bow, he’s growing old
But still his hair is glowing gold
He’s ready to stop.
Ready to stop breathing
He slumps in a doorway, heaving.
She turns from the fire with eyes bright as diamonds
And soft, soft as the velvet night
Her hair is silver birch, silver moon
And she rocks him, rocks him in the little room
Singing
‘There there, there there’
She holds him in her arms in the rocking chair
‘There there, there there’
Softly she strokes his golden hair.
Before the dawn this old man is new born
From his head she plucks three shining strands
They flash in her hand
Then they fall to the floor
He smiles at her, radiant and young
Then he crawls out the door
To become the sun.