Julia's song for Week 23, #songaweek2021. Image is an updated version of the "pale blue dot" photo of Earth taken from Voyager 1 - https://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/pale-blue-dot-revisited. If you click on the "buy" link you can download the song for any amount including $0 at our Bandcamp page!

This old world well it’s not that bad
I guess I’m not afraid to stay till I know it’s time to go
Might put down roots, put up my feet
Lower the lights, enjoy the show
Or what I can of it cause there’s a lot that I can’t
Unspeakable horrors, untouchable hurts
Some people talk about hell, talk about hand baskets
First world problems and last-ditch efforts

It’s a bright beach ball alone in the ocean
Have the time of our lives right here right now
It’s a disco strobe in an empty room
And we’re on it doggone it till the house burns down
And we love it we love it
We might as well love it 	

You and me dear well we’re not all good
Still we’re brave enough to stay till we have to let go
We’re digging out of old ruts, breaking new ground
Making glacial progress at taking it slow
We were drafted to fight in this eternal war
But conscientiously, I object
So damn the torpedoes and melt down the guns
And kiss me tenderly when I stick out my neck

On this bright beach ball alone in the ocean
Have the time of our lives right here right now
It’s a disco strobe in an empty room
And we’re on it doggone it till the house burns down
And I love you I love you
I might as well love you

Might As Well Love It

Julia's song for week 6 of Song a Week 2016 (with a smidge of lyrical and a boatload of musical help from Nathan)

Video - https://youtu.be/-dsuEOPLIxY

All film and images are in the public domain, found at The Public Domain Review and New York Public Library's digital collections.

Lyrics:
You can take me out to play in the snow
I wouldn't tell you if I didn't want to go
I'd just plow on through

You can cook me up some pancakes
I wouldn't tell you if I already ate
I'd just wolf 'em down
cause I love you all the same, all the same

You can go with someone else on a date
and leave me home, lock me up in a crate
I will wait for you
cause I love you all the same, all the same

I heart you
whine bark woof

You can dress me in an ugly sweater
I wouldn't tell you I like another one better
I'd just sport your style

You can keep me on a leash and collar
It doesn't bother me, I'll never holler
I'll just follow on
cause I love you all the same, all the same

It doesn't matter that you cut off my balls
I'll still come to you whenever you call
You're so good to me
and I love you all the same, all the same

I heart you
whine bark woof

Cody's Theme (All the Same)

As usual, this track is under creative commons licensing. Please feel free to take it and run with it if you so desire! 

My finger's on your pulse, America, I've got you by the throat
I say what's on my mind, that's all it takes to get your vote
I make the cameras flash and the crowds roar
I excite you, entice you, leave you panting for more

What's my name? Say it louder
What's my name? Say it prouder
Feel the fire, feel the power
I'm a demagogic tower
I'm the savior of the hour
and you love me
no matter what I do
yeah you love me even more
when they tell you not to

You're an angry adolescent raging against the machine
I'm a millionaire maverick in a limousine
and you believe in me when I say I'll make you great
You'll disown your family for me 'cause you never liked them anyway

You're burning up with fever, there's a beam stuck in your eye
but you don't want a doctor, just want me to keep you high
Here, let me strip off all those bandages and salt your open wounds
and trust me, I'll be here to seize you when you swoon

Pulse

Julia's song for week 18 of #songaweek2016. A poem I wrote last year, that I set to music this week, about my love-hate relationship with the Internet. 

Vocals, rhythm guitar and bass - Julia
Lead guitar and Studio One drum tracks - Nathan

No no disconnect me
from the bluster and brooding
from the bright and blare
This is a hole in my heart
This is a tunnel to somewhere
I can't remember
and can't get back
and cannot banish
it
will not vanish

Thoughts transfer
from brain to brain
meat brain
to silicon brain
I have cut out the middleman
skipped the paperwork.
All this high-tech transcendence
makes me dizzy
I am falling down a hole
falling down a tunnel to somewhere
I can't remember
and can't get back
cannot banish
it
will not vanish

Sleep baby sleep
your dreams have all been written
watch the screen
breathe easy
lullaby
LOL-a-bye.

Blinding Noise

Julia's song for Week 31 of #songaweek2016. Introducing Luthien Bloom on cello! 

trouble don't know your name
trouble don't play no games
trouble
trouble don't understand
trouble just holds your hand
trouble

oh trouble rest you now
poor trouble lay you on down

trouble got no web to weave
trouble got no plans to leave
trouble
trouble don't hold a grudge
trouble just pulls the rug out from under you

oh trouble rest you now
poor trouble lay you on down
trouble don't, trouble don't, trouble don't, trouble don't
trouble me
please

trouble just rides on through
trouble don't have a clue
trouble
trouble don't got no charm
trouble don't mean no harm
trouble

oh trouble rest you now
poor trouble lay you on down
trouble just trouble just trouble just trouble just
let me be
please

trouble don't sit too well
since that day he fell
trouble

trouble don't know
trouble don't care
trouble don't feel
trouble's just there

oh trouble rest you now
poor trouble lay you on down
trouble don't trouble don't trouble don't
trouble me
please

trouble just trouble just trouble just
let me be
please

CoL@home

Trouble

Julia's song for week 35 of #songaweek2016. A tribute to words. Photo is our kids surveying Art Alley, downtown Rapid City, South Dakota.

and when I'm sleeping
words are creeping
through my darkened brain
without my consciousness
to stop them 
hopping runaway trains

Dream . . .
   
wishing on a starfish
-ing in the sea
-ing with my 
I remember it all
-ee, ollee, oxen free

and when I'm waking
words are making
nests inside my mind
and if I catch them
I can't hatch them
they fall back in flat lines

and when I'm busy
words get dizzy
with the speed of life
so to relax them
I just ask them
would you help me write?

Wishing on a Starfish

Impromptu recording- technically terrible in every way, but I love the arrangement and energy.  

Song written and originally recorded by Mark Heard.

Rise From the Ruins

Bloom family holiday greeting 2018 https://youtu.be/oSblk7OByTQ

Here We Come A Wassailing

O Holy Night

Julia's song for week 6 of #songaweek2020. Image is detail of "Receive the Blessing" by DeAnne L Parks (https://artdeanne.com). Words are breath prayers shared by Rev. Jodi Houge last week at Humble Walk (http://www.humblewalkchurch.org).

Breathe in and out while thinking/listening/feeling words:
I am blessed (in) the whole world is blessed (out)
I am loved (in) the whole world is loved (out)

Breath Prayer Song

Julia's song for week 7 of #songaweek2020. 

Oh baby you will never be 
a tragedy for me, you’re rock solid
I’m wind and wave and energy
I come and go but I always flow to you
Dah dah dah . . .

Lay your weary head down darlin in my ever-loving arms
You’re home, you’re home

We’re old enough to tell the truth
yeah, we’re past our precious youth, we’ve got grit now 
we know each other well enough
to know we’ll never know enough to know
Dah dah dah . . .

Let me lay my weary head down darlin in your ever-loving arms
You’re home, you’re home

Every time I fall, I fall on you
and feel that steady beat of your heart

Hey honey, hope I’ll always be
a melody you want stuck in your head 
I love it when you sing along
cause every song sounds better with a friend
Dah dah dah . . .

Lay your weary head down darlin in my ever-loving arms
You’re home, you’re home

You're Home

Julia's song for Week 20 #songaweek2020. In honor of my Great Uncle Glenn whose death I learned of while I was recording this song today. My mother says he loved his garden. Also Nathan had much fun with guitars!

I’m not so hot, I’m not that cold
I’m not too young, not very old
All the trees are smiling down on me
Here’s the wind it’s laughing around me
I will sing these love songs anyway

Can’t you feel how it goes?
Aching down to the bones of us
Summer sighing while winter waits forever
Everybody dreaming through the spring

It hasn’t rained in many days
I love the sun but not the blaze
All the squirrels are telling dirty jokes
Haughty in their homes of sturdy oaks
I will plant these flowers anyway

Can’t you feel how it goes?
Aching down to the bones of us
Summer sighing while winter waits forever
Everybody dreaming through the spring

Through The Spring

Julia's song for week 25 #songaweek2020. Image is "Sorrow" by Paul Cezanne, 1867, public domain (https://www.wikiart.org/en/paul-cezanne/sorrow-1867).
 Some direct influences in the writing of this song include:
“There’s a song that will linger forever [in our ears]” - Stephen Foster's song “Hard Times”
Psalm 30:5 - “weeping may endure for a night, but joy cometh in the morning.”
“One-way track that circles back” - Lost Dogs' song “Ghost Train to Nowhere” (their line was "ever circling back on a one way track") from their Gift Horse album
The Infinite Monkey Cage 5/26/20 podcast “The End of the Universe” - https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p08dy6ym (I love hearing scientists and comedians discuss cosmology!)
In the Heart of the Beast Puppet & Mask Theatre - https://hobt.org/about/our-name/ (Their Mayday Festival is a few months older than I am, although it was last held in 2018.)

We’re all traveling through time but we’re stuck on this train
In its one-way track that circles back
Through the sins of our parents, the rage of the ages,
The trails of tears and the way of the world

Oh, at the heart of the belly of the beast
Oh, there’s an embryo crying for peace

There’s a song that will linger forever amen
Through all hearts and minds through all space and time
Some call it nonsense, some call it lies
Some close their ears like they’re closing their eyes

Oh, it’s a love song for every last one
Oh, when you sing it you lay your life down

Who’s to say what’s to come, who’s to know what we are
In this blink of light wrapped in darkest night
Are we sleeping through life, are we dreaming of death,
Are we falling stars or rising suns?

Oh, joy will come in the morning I know
Oh, but tonight I am sleeping with sorrow

Sleeping With Sorrow

Week 30 #songaweek2020. For Julia's mom Rebecca Tindall, who retired this week! This is a list my dad and I compiled of jobs she’s had over the years. It may seem like a lot but I don’t think it’s exhaustive!

Photo is of my mother in 2013, by Tara Berg (TGB Photography)

Waiting on the truckers at the Hilltop Diner
Ironing some woman’s husband’s underwear
Making cases for the pill at the plastics factory
Baking shoo-fly pies and cutting college boys’ hair

Working like you mean it for fifty years
I propose to raise a hundred thousand cheers
Hip hip hip (hooray!)
Hip hip hip (hooray!)

Detective’s secretary, pastor’s wife
You supervised the laundromat and raised two kids
you processed appraisals, and some data for the glass plant
Taught yourself to be a church organist

Working like you mean it for fifty years
I propose to raise a hundred thousand cheers
Hip hip hip (hooray!)
Hip hip hip (hooray!)

Receptionist for engineers
Who smoked cigars while you were pregnant
Sewing sleeves on menswear 
working in the mail room 
Office work for school and church, real estate and college
And one insurance company that hired you three times

Working like you mean it for fifty years
I propose to raise a hundred thousand cheers
Hip hip hip (hooray!)
Hip hip hip (hooray!)
You could write a book on how to persevere
Go on and do whatever’s next, push those frontiers!

Working Like You Mean It

Julia's song for Week 41 #songaweek2020. I heard a reporter on the radio say "If you're looking for a metaphor. . ." and I loved that line so much I built this song around it. I don't even remember what he was talking about when he said it. Also I recycled the woodsmoke and lilacs line from this song - https://soundcloud.com/julia-tindall-bloom/2020-i-still-believe-in-love. 
Nathan played mandolin and slide guitar.

Feel me
Heat on your cheeks 
Breath on your skin

Breathe me
take me all in
Push me back out
Draw me in again
Over and over
Over and out
And in and out and in

If you’re looking for a metaphor
I’ll be the lilacs and the woodsmoke in the spring in your backyard 

Hold me
circle me round
apply
gentle pressure

If you’re looking for a metaphor I’ll be the deep earth 
With diamonds in the rough and a heart of gold 

See me
alive and in love
wander your gaze

If you’re looking for a metaphor I’ll be the black night and
When you wish I’ll be your twinkling stars

If you’re looking for a metaphor I’ll be your bread 
and when you’re weary I’ll be your featherbed

If You're Looking For A Metaphor

Julia’s song for week 46 of #songaweek2020. I didn’t set out to write this song but it found me anyway. For a tidy frame, you could go back and listen to this one from 2016 - https://soundcloud.com/cabin-of-love/pulse Photo from the Houston Chronicle.

I got one hand on the devil’s backbone
And the other on an angel’s breast
I got two eyes on the shiny prize
And a pocket full of nothing left

Take cover, I’m going in
I can’t ever not win
 
I got one hand on the holy bible
And my fingers crossed behind my back
I got two ears forever tuned
To the ravings of the maniacs

Take cover, it’s gonna hit the fan
It’s all pieces of my perfect plan

One Hand

10/4/17 finished 12/8/20
Julia's song for Week 50, #songaweek2020. I've been chipping away at this song for just over three years now, finally calling it done enough this week! Live drums and audio editing by Nathan.
Image is "Epiphany" by Richard Hamilton (fair use) https://www.wikiart.org/en/richard-hamilton/epiphany-1964

	Am					D
There's rips and stains in the fabric of reality
       E				Am
but I've got nothing else to wear
Cause all the capes of crusaders are already taken
and the martyrs have got nothing left to share
	Am
And I want an epiphany
D
need an epiphany
E			Am
give me my epiphany now

There's ice down my back and a fire in my bones
but I'm numb so it's all the same to me
I've got a chip on my shoulder and a beam in my eye
Duck and run, cause it's all a game to me
But I want an epiphany
need an epiphany
can't I have my epiphany now?

D	G	  Am
I am all played out
what's it all about?

I cut my teeth on communion bread
Learned to crawl down the sanctuary aisle
Reverend Tell shot the apple that fell on my head
I was a quiet obedient child
Now for forty years I've been wandering this wilderness
oh the fasting and the fiery trials
and I want an epiphany 
need an epiphany
just one little epiphany now

D	  G	  Am
You told lies to me
the blind will never see

I'm alive I'm alive down to my heart and soul
to the very marrow of my bones
i'm a mystical skeptic a cynic dyspeptic
with a stubborn aching for my home
oh to hell with epiphanies
who needs your epiphanies?
I'll settle for my litanies now

all is all in all
all shall all be well

my hands are tied and my eyes are open
My mouth is a gasping gaping wound
I’ve been marching forever and blowing this horn
But this wall still refuses to fall down
Yet I want an epiphany
need an epiphany
still looking for epiphany now

Epiphany Now

Julia's song for Week 6 #songaweek2021. Nathan played everything! (I did play piano but he embellished it. No loops or samples, these are all live takes!) 
This wasn't initially a Valentine's song. (My first draft of lyrics - "You got no good reason to talk the way you do/You got nothing going but a great big attitude/I’ll just hang tight while you let loose" - yes I am parenting teenagers in a pandemic)

Would you believe me baby if I say it’s meant to be?
Would you call me crazy if I call it destiny?
I’ve got half a mind to throw my whole heart in

Would you hold me honey if i say that it’s okay?
Would you find it funny if I tell you you can stay?
I’ve got all night for your reply

I heart you
Do you heart me too?
I remain
Hopefully yours

I like the way you look and the way I feel with you
I think I’d like to touch you and I think you’d like it too
Come a little closer to my open door

I’ve got a tiny inkling when I blink you wink at me
I’ve got a vague suspicion that you’re wishing you could be
My little valentine, my hunka burning love

Hopefully Yours

Acoustic folk, indie pop and the occasional rock&roll explosion all marbled together into original songs performed with pleasure.

Cabin of Love

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