a song about fishing terminology and the uselessness of blame 

Photograph of a woman emptying a fish wheel found at: http://trondekheritage.com 

and cited there as: 'Yukon Archives #2156, Vancouver Public Library Coll.'

Lyrics:

I found the fickle man’s fault
I tied it up with string
Took it on down to the washerman’s boat
N’ scrubbed it til it gleamed

With back bent baggy and yawn wrung out
Sat on down to a cricket-croak chime
Slung my rod with that old fault lined clean
Then whittled me some lies

Fed that fault some lies a spell
Until it grew 10 feet
Then threw it out
Beyond the reeds and waited for the reap

Saw a nudge and felt the tug
Of a trout come tickling by
Squat down taut as the fish wheel span
I dredged my ghost net spy

Out I plucked a golden trout
With a mouth of wide shy sky
She noodled up and bit my breast 
So I stabbed out her eye

I found the fickle man’s fault
Inside those scales and gills
There it shone through the blood and guts
And shamed my rusty reel

So I gave up the fickle man’s fault
I took back my ties and string
Then threw it out
Beyond the reeds
And there it lies on the riverbed
A sad and lonely...thing

No I’ll not feed a fickle man’s fault
Nor rear him raised on lies
Instead I’ll shine my own fine boots
And eat my own baked pies

I’ll laugh about the loon moon light
And dance til morning comes
And swim and splash among the reeds
Until the day I die

On Finding The Fickle Man's Fault

Garth Knight imagery

...letting go, relationship breakdown, the paradox that the tighter we hold onto something the more likely it will fly away and learning how to tie a lover's knot

Lyrics:

I had a song
I carried it for so long
It grew heavier day by day
But I couldn't send it away

Binds grow hard and fast my dear
And lord knows we tried
But all those lover's knots we tied
Couldn't quite provide

I sang that song 
The one I had carried for far too long
And I watched you fly away
Something so precious was broken, that day

Binds grow hard and fast my dear
And lord knows we tried
But all those lover's knots we tied
Couldn't quite provide

Lover's Knots

moving on, making choices, how we react to the highs and lows, enjoying plopping sounds...umm, this is not to say that Jeremy Corbyn and I are or have ever been romantically involved.

Image taken from Jon Turner who has a gert lush blog with wonderfully inventive illustrations and stories - http://thisisjonturner.blogspot.co.uk/2008/11/hello-mister-magpie.html

Lyrics:

Jeremy of my 
Blue-tinted magpie
Pushed me in the well again
Been here since I, huh, don't know when

Tickle, trickle, down my neck
Feeling like a washed-out WRECK
Flip on in a coin he said
Squeeze those eyes tight - play dead

We were just friends then
Chasing tails and silver
Took a gamble, but I lost
With a toss, down I *plop*
DOUBLE-CROSSED!

Oh the sun made us lazy
The pollen was thick on the breeze
I was itching and twitching
Trying to stifle a...CHOO
Sneeze.

But. You. Pulled me down with ease,
Me, all wriggles and whee-eee-eeeze
Then you started to tease
Your hands, squeezing my knees

O, please, Jeremy
Release me
O, please
Release me

That's when I heard a voice
Calling down that I had a choice
Climb up to the top
Undoubtedly you'll drop
But you'll survive the bellyflop

Chasing Tails And Silver

A song inspired by the palaeontologist Mary Anning (1799–1847) - an internationally respected female scientist from a working class background who contributed many important discoveries through her lifelong exploration of the Jurassic Coast in Dorset. Nonetheless, as a woman, she was not eligible to join the Geological Society of London and did not always receive full credit for her scientific contributions. She is additionally supposedly the inspiration for the 1908 tongue twister "She sells seashells on the seashore". 

I was also particularly struck by the beautiful names people of the British Isles have given to fossils over the ages: brittle stars, fairy loaves, devil's fingers etc.

Mary Anning

A loving comedic re-imagining of Barry Dransfield's classic track 'The Werewolf' about a love-sick, brain-munching Zombie

Sang with support from Alice Reams

The Zombie (trad-ish) LIVE@ The Portland Arms, Cambridge 2015

Inspired by a triple-hit combo of the sights, sounds and texture of all things folk, Emily Greenfinger loves to be playful and savour glob-like words...this is a hopefully musical journey into the underbelly of  something or another...often time accompanied by 5-string banjo, Greek bouzouki or piano accordion.

I also collaborate with other musicians including Alice Reams (Pat and Pea,  Polly Wilde (Wild Thomas, In the Milkwood), Rosie Garrard (Rosie G)and Alec Manoah Harrison (A Place from Manoah).

Emily Greenfinger

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