This song is based on the life story of a woman named Arlene as she told it to me in the summer of 2015. Thankful to Soulwriter University weekly challenge to give me the push to finally write it.

Arlene
by Havilah Rand copwrite 2017

all the way from sweden 
across the ocean to the trees
packed up all our HOPES AND FEARS
seeking opportunity

built our homes and farmed the land
did our best with what we had
the turning of the seasons passed
 like seawater through the sand

I wore the red dress
I sang the desert song
I’m no ordinary woman
living free and forever strong

fed my curiosity
at the university
worked forty long years
at the columbia lumber company

I wasn’t just a working girl
sang the opera and played piano
a pioneer telling stories on the radio

I wore the red dress
I sang the desert song
I’m no ordinary woman
living free and forever strong

twice I've loved and twice I've been widowed
I've learned happiness is found
somewhere between the light and the shadows
 wore the red dress
I sang the desert song
I’m no ordinary woman
living free and forever strong

now I sit in this small room
a far away look in my eye
figurines and paintings
mark the many chapters of my life

so many years my family made
a trek across the sea
with all their hopes and fears
seeking opportunity

 i'll wear the red dress
I'll  the desert song
I’m no ordinary woman
living free and forever strong

SWU 2017

Arlene

East Side Storytellin' 121 was a live event hosted by Chuck Beard of East Side Story (www.eastsidestorytn.com) at The Post on December 19, 2017. The show featured a reading by the author Joe B. Ingle & music by India Ramey (and friends).

East Side Storytellin' 121 - Joe B. Ingle & India Ramey - 05

SWU Fall 2018

Lightning by Jana Pochop Cover

Woman I Need You - Shawnee Kilgore

The mornings have been preternaturally quiet. Even the sleepy suburbs seem sleepier. I've seen plaintive messages in chalk left for neighbor kids that can't come out to play. Lazy cats in silent gardens. A man quietly singing "Imagine" on his front stoop to noone in particular. The message on a window across from me reading "HELLO WORL" in hastily spraypainted paper. Piles of books and glassware on the street with a "free" sign, products of well-intentioned spring cleaning but left untouched. The world is strange right now, but charming in its way. 

Wilbury Crescent is just some tiny street in Hove I ran down the other day that exemplifies that quiet. I woke up with this song partially intact and wrote it in bed. Time is passing so differently right now.

Cops and robbers, it's the hopscotch blues
Games with the away team where you couldn't lose
The crowd goes wild on the evening news
All is quiet now

The wind picks up the lid and scatters the trash
Newsprint confessionals and cigarette ash
Sweep up the pieces with the petty cash
All is quiet now

What do you make of days when you can't close eyes when it's all said and done?
Wilbury Crescent sleeps in on Sundays and longs for the touch of the sun

The silent sidewalk and the neon chalk
Staggered procession of the evening walk
We can just lie here we don't have to talk
All is quiet now

The gift of hands you cannot receive
The warmth that lingers when it's time to leave
The lack of substance in the space between
All is quiet now

What do you make of days when you can't settle down 'cause you're still on the run?
Wilbury Crescent sleeps in on Sundays and longs for the touch of the sun

What do you make of days when you can't close eyes when it's all said and done?
Wilbury Crescent sleeps in on Sundays and longs for the touch of the sun

Wilbury Crescent

Warrior

Violet.mp3

Pulse of This Town (Threadgill's)

The neon's been buzzing about 40 years
Up on North Lamar Boulevard
Old No. 1 had a ring to our ears
We were coming from near and from far

Park in the back hear the dining room roar
Melinda will find you a chair
10 bucks for music past the old wooden door
And they'll bring you your cornbread and beer

Scotch tape on posters of who's next to play
Next to Janis's wide open smile
That old neon star will keep hummin' and buzzin'
In the pulse of this town for a long long while
In the pulse of this town for a while

It's bitter and sweet how a gas station bar
Made its history under the lights
Now the marquee is empty and the question hits hard
What will we do with our Wednesday nights?
What will we do with our Wednesday nights?

Scotch tape on posters of who's next to play
Next to Janis's wide open smile
That old neon star will keep hummin' and buzzin'
In the pulse of this town for a long long while
In the pulse of this town for a while

Pulse Of This Town (Threadgill's)

Jana

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