Get Flash to see this player.
Description
One day a month or so ago I came up with the tune and wasn't sure what to do with it. As it had a very traditional English feel to it I sent it to Rebsie thinking she might have the lyrics to an old folk ballad knocking around which might be in search of a musical home. Instead (within a few hours) she came up with these beautiful lyrics.
The arrangement is deliberately stark (just Rebsie's golden vocals and my fiddle). Neither of us felt that it needed anything more.
Anyways, it's about bloody time we did a collab as we've been discussing doing one for at least a year.
© 2006 Martyn Kember-Smith/Rebsie Fairholm
The arrangement is deliberately stark (just Rebsie's golden vocals and my fiddle). Neither of us felt that it needed anything more.
Anyways, it's about bloody time we did a collab as we've been discussing doing one for at least a year.
© 2006 Martyn Kember-Smith/Rebsie Fairholm
Leave a Comment
You must be registered and logged-in to comment.
Lyrics
Well the pear blossom's over
It melts in the ground
And the boughs full of fruit, love
Are burdening down
There's no more remaining
Of the blessing of May
Or the breath of the land
On a long summer's day
I touch you with water
I seal you with fire
And the wind blows the ashes
And trembles the wire
I bury you swiftly
At the water's side
Place you under a stone, love
By the winnowing tide
Here's a health to the seeds
And wherever they're blown
For the path that we came by
Is all overgrown
The wind from the sea
Brings the leaves round your door
I'll always be there, love
A ghost on your shore
It melts in the ground
And the boughs full of fruit, love
Are burdening down
There's no more remaining
Of the blessing of May
Or the breath of the land
On a long summer's day
I touch you with water
I seal you with fire
And the wind blows the ashes
And trembles the wire
I bury you swiftly
At the water's side
Place you under a stone, love
By the winnowing tide
Here's a health to the seeds
And wherever they're blown
For the path that we came by
Is all overgrown
The wind from the sea
Brings the leaves round your door
I'll always be there, love
A ghost on your shore
Ed Hannifin
Sounds like it belongs in a weathered songbook next to 'John Barleycorn', or recovered, by luck, in an old field recording...
Scholars can now argue about the meaning of the lyrics and the collision of pagan and Christian influences...
Lovely, lonely tone on the fiddle. Recalls Garnet Rogers' version of 'Carrickfergus'...
Ed