Recorded during the Garden of Song sessions in 2018, left off the album due to some tambourine bleed from a separate take (amongst other misgivings).

The Garden Of Song sessino

Mend - Unreleased cassette demo

GET THE EP HERE:
https://benjaminlongman.bandcamp.com/album/the-ghost-months-vol-2

Credits:

Written by Benjamin Longman
Produced by Mike Malyan and Benjamin Longman
Mixed by Mike Malyan
Mastered by Darius Timmer @ Tiny Tiger Studios
https://www.facebook.com/tinytigerstudios/?fref=ts

Artwork by Bruno Querci
http://www.bruno-querci.com

Benjamin Longman - vocals, acoustic/electric/slide guitars, mandolin, banjo
Mike Malyan - drums, percussion, keys
Martha Paton - backing vocals
Samuel Rowe - string arrangement, cello
Izzy Jones - violin, viola

Lyrics:

Steady is the riverbed
Staying like the song inside my head
Taking on a different name
Never for a moment off its game
Steady is the riverbed
Reliable as Erik's known as red
Pistons on an iron beam
Running through on steam
Steady is the riverbed
Steady is the riverbed

Steady is the timber too
Steady are my hands, though they are few
I'll build a steady bridge from me to you

Steady is the ocean blue
Sticking like the stone inside my shoe
Chequered squares and empty boats
Keeping all our loyalties afloat
Steady is the riverbed
Plenty as the books I've never read
Blotted ink on parchment page
Never seems to age
Steady is the riverbed
Steady is the riverbed

Steady is the timber too
Steady are my hands though they are few
I'll build a steady bridge from me to you

Steady is the ocean blue
Steadily it pulls me back to you

Ⓒ Benjamin Longman 2016

Steady

The time has come, the walrus said, to beat around the bush
If you haven't got the hang of it, I'll offer you this push
It starts with gleeful insincerity
Develops into apathy,
And now you can be just like me

You see it never was enough to just be good at what you do
If it doesn't make you money, 'cause you need to do that too
But now here I am up on the stage
Singing from within the cage
And who's the one that gets my wage?

So what is my attachment to a world that doesn't care
Where we're packaged up and labelled by the way we style our hair?
Why can we not be more generous,
Encouraging and courteous?
Or does that seem superfluous?

Why don't you hold onto your money, put it to a better use
And clean up all this mess you made and we can call it truce
You know you should've seen it coming, right?
It did not happen overnight
But you let it get to fight or flight
I hope you know which choice is right

Right now we're living in the golden age of instant stimulation
But the way things are now won't withstand another generation
If the world is at your fingertip
And someone's fingertip did slip
The captain goes down with the ship

Captain Goes Down with the Ship

March 17th 2016.

Full session including interview available here at approximately the 2hr mark:
http://cjsw.com/program/charmers-almanac/episode/20160317/

Charmer's Almanac, March 17th 2016, CJSW 90.9

Reckoner (Radiohead) - Live on CJSW

‘The Garden of Song’ is comprised of five musical adaptations of poems found in a 1911 anthology of the same name, and three additional original songs thrown in for good measure. Marrying the luscious poetic imagery of turn-of-the-century Romanticism with sonic textures heavily inspired by the British folk revival movement of the 60s and 70s, ‘The Garden of Song’ seeks to explore how these century-old words sung in a classic style can still hold such contemporary relevance.

All instruments: Benjamin Longman 
Recording/Mixing/Mastering: Benjamin Longman 

Cover art photography: Benjamin Longman 
Cover art graphic design: Fran Motta 

Writing credits: 

1|| Music by Benjamin Longman, words by Hamilton Aidé 
2|| Music by Benjamin Longman, words by B.C. Stephenson 
3|| Music by Benjamin Longman, words by Gunby Hadath 
4|| Music by Benjamin Longman, words by Harold Simpson 
5|| Music by Benjamin Longman, words by Harold Boulton 
6|| Music & Words by Benjamin Longman & Jesse Shire 


For FF and AVW.

'The Garden of Song'

Time's Garden

Was It You Who Loved Too Little?

Grew A Rosebud

Let Me Dream Again

Remember Or Forget

Musician, singer, songwriter and photographer from London, now based in Calgary, AB.

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