This song is my way of reclaiming my rage as a vital force in protection of my boundaries, values and the things I hold sacred. I sing this song partially from the perspective of Inanna, the most ancient goddess of love and war. She rages against all of the ways that the feminine principal has been undermined, defiled, extracted and abused, whether that's as abuse of our planet, abuse of women, or deeply ingrained cultural disrespect of qualities associated with femininity such as softess, vulnerability, expression of emotions, and nurture. 

I was really afraid of my anger for a long time because I thought it made my ugly, un-feminine and unlovable. Now I really celebrate it and I want other women to feel like they can also own and celebrate their own power and rage, so that we can all learn how to channel it in healthy ways and stand up for ourselves and what we believe in.

LYRICS

I’m not your angel
I’ve got battle scars, I don’t bow to Mars
Turning the tables, I am rageful over you
You think I’m pretty, I think you’re shitty, cowardly, 
Dreaming of how I could tear you limb from limb,
Burn away your sin, coz

Chorus
I’m not your angel 


I’m not your sweetness
I’m a bitter pill, I can make you ill
Caught in your own snare, I’m not coming back for you
You think you own me, I think you’re lonely
Bonily groping to close up the emptiness inside
As ugly as it’s wide, well

Chorus
I’m not your angel


I’m not your saviour
You better run from me, I’ve got real sharp teeth
I’m out of patience, I’m erasing over you
You think I’m soft as, you better run fast
Your past is coming home to roost, come come come coming home to roost
Your past is coming home to roost, come come come coming home
Coming home, well

Chorus
I’m not your angel 
You’re out of angels

--

Original song and lyrics by Ruth Blake ©2023 All rights reserved.

Produced by James Yuill at the Online Recording Studio.

Not Your Angel

'Breathe in and nourish every cell, feel their vibration,
Breathe in this flourish of divine and pure elation...'
Original music and lyrics by Ruth Blake Copyright 2015. Recorded by Holland Risley. 

If you like this track, please check out the album version in my playlist, Lullabies for Grown-Ups, from the album.

Breathe - sketch

From my debut album 'Lullabies for Grown-Ups' All music and lyrics by Ruth Blake. All rights reserved ©Ruth Blake 2015
https://www.ruthblake.com/#lyrics

Lullabies for Grown-Ups

How Can I Tell You?

Fear Not

Written and performed by Ruth Blake June 2016. All rights reserved.

Lyrics:
Babylon they say
Is causing all the pain
Pulling all the strings
Controlling everything

But who are they? I ask,
The men behind the mask
Babies born once too
All innocent and new

With blood and breath and dreams
What terrors have they seen?
What loneliness inside
So deep that it can hide

Their little hearts unsure
The lovelessness so raw
The shame of innocence
Passed down from king to prince

And so the story goes
A line of dominoes
Each knocked down by the last
A victim to the past

The 'I'm not good enough.'
The act to earn your love
I've worn that armour too
Protect myself from you

And there our leaders stand
The power in their hands
They try to fight with us 
A war to prove that they're enough

And so we feel afraid again
Full up with anger, hate, we rage
We push them far away
Forgetting that we're all the same

But one and one make two
Sides of a coin, there's you
And me to fight this war and
Babylon's the score

Search for the other side
But all I see is mirror light
If Babylon is there
It must be everywhere

If Babylon's in you
If Babylon's in them
If Babylon's in him
It must be here within

Babylon/The Score (Sketch)

You Belong

Mirror Light

From my debut album 'Lullabies for Grown-Ups' Music and lyrics by Ruth Blake. All rights resevered ©Ruth Blake 2015
https://www.ruthblake.com/#lyrics

Breathe

Breathe (ALBUM VERSION)

A personal tale of two children, each 'protected' by the castle they have built around them, who ultimately find healing in their connection to each other; finding freedom in their surrender to vulnerability, intimacy and the wilderness of love.

Image of 'The Eyrie' taken from Games of Thrones.
All music and lyrics by Ruth Blake © 2017

Castles - Sketch

From my debut album, Lullabies for Grown-Ups. All music and lyrics by Ruth Blake. All rights reserved ©2015
https://www.ruthblake.com/#lyrics

Seeds

From my debut album, Lullabies for Grown-Ups. Music and lyrics by Ruth Blake. All rights reserved © 2015
https://www.ruthblake.com/#lyrics

Little Bird

From my debut album, Lullabies for Grown-Ups.  Music and lyrics by Ruth Blake. All rights reserved © 2015
https://www.ruthblake.com/#lyrics

Maria

Maria (ALBUM VERSION)

My version of the traditional Peruvian song, Kunyaq. This song is a beautiful celebration of the waters and in particular from the sacred Kunyaq spring. I love to sing it to celebrate all of Pachamama's blessed waters. 

This song was recorded in the magical Coombe Hill Woods near Glastonbury at the peak of the Summer Solstice on 21st June 2017. In the video you can see all the beautiful faeries dancing along ;-)Check out the video on YouTube https://youtu.be/k4IrSANbpQI

I was inspired to play the song in 6/8 by the wonderful duo, Shrinari, I do recommend you also check them out https://soundcloud.com/shrinari

If you like this then stay connected! I love to hear you and connect with my listeners... There's all sorts of ways to stay in touch - follow me, sign up to my YouTube channel, find me on Facebook and Instagram @ruthblakemusic, and sign up to my mailing list via my website https://www.ruthblake.com/

Kunyaq Lyrics:

Desde Kunyaq vienes
Agüita serpenteando por las acequias y en remolinos
Hacia nuestras vidas

De canta gualinas y al a vez llorando
Toditas mis penas se acabaron
Pachamama esta de fiesta

Una estrellita que alegre me decîa
Canta cantorcito al agüita
Al agüita Madre Kunyaq

Kunyaq (Cuñaq)

Song and video inspired by Clarissa Pinkola Estes' re-telling of the Russian folk tale, 'Baba Yaga', or 'Vasilisa the Wise' from her book 'Women Who Run With the Wolves'. The song also weaves in the the myth of La Loba, the woman who sings over the bones, as well as one of William Blake's infamous Proverbs from Hell, "Drive your cart and your plow over the bones of the dead'. Infinite gratitude from our hearts to these powerful sources of inspiration - thank you Clarissa! Thank you William Blake! Thank you Lotte! Thank you Baba Yaga and La Loba! 

This song honours the energy of Baba Yaga, Kali, La Loba - where the new is knitted out of the old; the fierce and cold compassion of death breathes space for new life to birth; the snake must eat its own tail for the circle of life to continue unbroken. In the song we call upon the fierce witch of the psyche, Baba Yaga, the fire and death keeper of our soul, whom if we meet with great humility and courage, surrendering to the wisdom of our intuition, she will empower us with a fierce discernment, vanquishing our inner demons and fueling the fire of our hearts' purpose. 

Original Song by Ruth Blake from album 'Creation', released September 2018. Copyright 2018 All rights reserved. 

Album available to buy from www.ruthblake.com. Coming soon on iTunes, Amazon, Bandcamp. 

Ruth Blake - Guitar and vocals 
Ben Capp - U-bass, drum kit, shaker 
Tristan Stibbards - Frame drum 

Official Music Video by Chloe Cat Purcell 2018, inspired by the unique shadow animation style of Lotte Reiniger 
https://youtu.be/Elty2p6LA9Y

Follow Ruth Blake: https://www.ruthblake.com Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/ruthblakemusic Soundcloud: https://soundcloud.com/ruth-blake Instagram: @ruthblakemusic Spotify - Ruth Blake 

Follow Chloe Purcell: 
Instagram @chloepuppeteer

Creation

Baba Yaga

Baba Yaga - ALBUM VERSION

Written at the height of the Standing Rock protests, this song is a prayer from my deepest heart for the healing of humanity - and thus the healing of the land - one heart at a time.

Original song and lyrics by Ruth Blake. All rights reserved Copyright 2018.

https://www.ruthblake.com/
https://www.instagram.com/ruthblakemusic/
https://soundcloud.com/ruth-blake
https://www.youtube.com/user/RuthBlake

Lyrics:


Verse 1 
Circle of brothers 
Finding yourselves in the eyes of each other 
Singing the songs of your fathers’s grandfathers 
Calling out from your hearts, 
‘Entrust us.’ 

Verse 2 
Circle of sisters 
Cleansing the blood of the oceans and rivers 
Give of your bodies to nourish the others 
Crying out from your hearts, 
‘Please see us.’ 

Bridge 
I pray that you know yourself 
That you love yourself 
Feel these loving arms around you 
And I pray, oh that you feel safe 
Find your wings of grace 
And your courage rise to meet you 

Chorus 
Mm weya nay hey yo way… 

Verse 3 
Tribes of the forest 
Carry the wisdom of those gone before us 
All you’ve protected so sacred and cherished 
Calling us from your hearts, 
‘Return to us.’ 

Verse 4 
Father and mother 
Union of opposites merging together 
Spirit of Heaven meet body of Gaia 
Song of creation sounds 
Within us

These Loving Arms

Original song by Ruth Blake All rights reserved. Copyright 2018
A poetic and moving journey into the transpersonal, inspired by Rumi's poem of the same name. (Some lyrics lifted directly from the poem, see below)

https://www.ruthblake.com/
https://www.instagram.com/ruthblakemusic/
https://soundcloud.com/ruth-blake
https://www.youtube.com/user/RuthBlake

Lyrics (song):

I am the sparkling dust in the sunlight
I am the round sun
I am the morning mist and the breathing of evening
I am the whispering wind in the orchard
And the surf on the cliff
I am the bowed head and the pardon
Both love and the heart that has hardened

I am the fear, the pain and the tears of your loss
I am the time, the void and the line you’ll never cross
I am the dusty dreams of old
Won’t you come and find me?

Look to the skies
See your own eyes
And out to the sea
Hear your heart’s mystery
And the trees and the earth
Sing of our rebirth
Mmm mm mm mm mm

Hail to the Sun
Hail, hail, hail, hail to the God in everyone!
For I am the question that burns in your mind
I am the space as the words fall behind
I am a crumbling concept of time

I am the sweetest taste, I am bitter
I am the curling tongue
I am the calling bird and the unfurling of wings
I am the coldest water falling
And the gift of Spring 
I am the prayer that you whisper each night
And the loving arms holding you tight

I am the sign, the bread and the wine of your flesh
I am the crime, both reason and rhyme of innocence
I am the dusty dreams of old
Won’t you come and find me?

I am I am I am I am I…..

--

'I Am' - Poem by Rumi

I am the dust in the sunlight, 
I am the ball of the sun . . . 
I am the mist of morning, 
the breath of evening . . . . 
I am the spark in the stone, 
the gleam of gold in the metal . . . . 
The rose and the nightingale 
drunk with its fragrance. 
I am the chain of being, 
the circle of the spheres, 
The scale of creation, 
the rise and the fall. 
I am what is and is not . . . 
I am the soul in all.

I Am

An epic anthem from the album Creation.

Original song and lyrics by Ruth Blake Copyright 2018. All rights reserved.

Ruth Blake – vocals, guitar
Tristan Stibbards – djembe
Larry Lloyd – guitar

Lyrics:
Verse 1
Holy holy night, the light and the shadow unite
Here in the dark we can see that I’m you and you’re me

Bridge
And here we are, we’re dancing in a dream
A dream of love 

Chorus
Open your heart
All of the pain you’re afraid of was love at the start
Open your heart
Even the hate that’s created was love at the start
Open up wide, we’ll laugh and we’ll cry
All of my brothers and sisters and I
Nowhere to hide, we’ll live and we’ll die
Just like the stars and the sun in the sky
Open your heart
All of the pain you’re afraid of was love at the start

Verse 2
Calling of the sea, come swim in the water with me
Here in the depths we can feel it’s all real and unreal

Bridge
Chorus

Outro
...All of the pain you’re afraid of
The fear and the shame that it’s made of
The blackest of hate you hate so much…
Was love at the start

Open Your Heart

Written by Ruth Blake
Vocals and acoustic guitar - Ruth Blake
Drums - Rob Turner (Gogo Penguin)
Fretless bass - Dave Tompkins (Johnny Dangerously, Mike Hope's Jazzmahoot, Mojito)
Cello, viola, violin - Alan Keary (Shunya)
Electric guitar, Harmonium and piano - Pete Barrett (Colourfield, John Cooper Clark & Pauline Murray)

Recorded, Produced & Mixed by Damien Mahoney in his attic studio ‘Padded Cell’ in Old Trafford, Manchester 
Mastered by Shawn Joseph (Portishead, Jonny Greenwood, PJ Harvey, Bat for Lashes, Peter Green)

Lyrics inspired by Dr Clarissa Pinkola Estés 'Letter to a Young Activist During Hard Times' and some lines borrowed from a prayer from the Hopi elders

Brave Ships

Written and performed by Ruth Blake
*Inspired by the Rumi poem of the same name

Recorded by Ben Capp
Re-mastered by Shawn Joseph

Brave Ships (Single & B-side)

I Am (Re-Mastered)

Blake's career has led to her recording at Real World Studios with James Frost as well as with Manchester-based collective Caulbearers and the Music as Medicine collective. Based in Somerset, her latest solo works include the uplifting 'Brave Ships' and the fiery 'Not Your Angel.'

Blake crowd-funded and produced her debut album of bitter-sweet folk songs 'Lullabies for Grown-Ups' (2015), followed by the kaleidoscopic 'Creation' in 2018. Lyrically profound and musically captivating, her music is born out of her own passion for self-knowledge and the deeper truths of existence.

With comparisons to Joni MItchell,  Portishead, Laura Marling and Tori Amos, her style is difficult to pin down. With a rare potency, she playfully invites her listeners through myth and magic deep into the heart of their humanity, across the ocean of the tiny heart space and on to the farther shore.

Popular tracks by Ruth Blake