Naturally

03 Heartbreaker

04 Departure

06 Well Done

07 Oyattosan

A song for troubled times. For Julian of Norwich it was the Black Death (bubonic plague),  all the conditions that led to the Peasants' Revolt and whatever vision of a higher and lovelier world for a woman of her gifts it was that made it desirable for Mother Julian to choose to be walled up in a cell attached to a church and have the burial service read over her, spending the rest of her long life meditating on her 16 visions of May 8 1373, and writing the first book written by a woman in English: her 'Divine Shewings' or 'Revelations of Divine Love.' 

“He said not 'Thou shalt not be tempested, thou shalt not be travailed, thou shalt not be dis-eased'; but he said, 'Thou shalt not be overcome…’
‘All shall be well al shall be well and all manner of thing shall be well.’

They buried me alive in here,
The dead they’ll never raise
The maid a parish came to love,
A movement came to praise.

No motion has she now, her course
Is inward, grave and still;
The church behind her every move,
The tomb her anchored will.

‘’So, Julie, can I ask-’ A hush.
It’s ‘Julian’ she sighs.
‘You after some big bishopric?’
‘I need no name that dies.’

‘I’m out of here if that’s your tale,
My column talks the town.
I’ll lose my pitch, my job, my mind,
I’ve got to nail this down.’

‘O frightened child, just run to Him,’
I’m not like you – you’re dead!
‘Dead to the world yet still attached,
All shall be well,’ she said.

‘He showed into my mind a nut.’
I’m seeing one, I grin.
‘In it we seek its maker, rest
Where there no rest is in.’

‘You saw Eternity last May
Through Death’s wedged-open door?’
‘This crucifix - like rain from eaves,
I saw its hot blood pour.’

‘I saw in sixteen shewings how
We must – we can - abide
Dis-ease, travail and storm, for we’re
The thorn in God’s soft side.

‘Which side is that?’ ‘His female side’
‘The Trinity has another?’
‘Christ bears us all upon His breast,
His wound’s our womb and mother.

‘O frightened child, just run to him,’
I’m not like you – you’re dead!
‘Dead to the world yet still attached,
All shall be well,’ she said.

© Gareth Calway 2015 published in the Poppyland volume "Doin Different" https://www.poppyland.co.uk/products/B79622
credits
from Done Different, released March 11, 2024
The direct quotations at the beginning and the sense (and many of the words) of Mother Julian's dialogue in the song are from her "Shewings/Revelations of Divine Love."

The tune is by Andy Wall. (Both he and I believe this is the best thing we've written/composed together).

The Ballad of Julian Of Norwich

From our Sapphire Wedding Album, "Peacock's Tales"  https://peacocks-tale.bandcamp.com/album/peacocks-tales-the-sapphire-wedding-album

I suppose we should have written a track called "45 Years" for that album but we'll have to make do with this. "Twenty Years" achieves the difficult job of being EVEN sadder than the previous track on that album. A heartbreak song after a heartache song. 

It was written by the south/north Civil Wars duo whose combination of many of the binaries that make up the USA generated much creative tension and some wonderful songs before - you guessed it - they broke up. We haven't and our 45 year old duo has always been more civil than war but any real marriage has enough of both to get the point of their name and feel the poignancy of this story. Maz's vocal strikes just the right note of lost innocence. The song always reminds her of the fatal letter Angel puts under Tess's door in "Tess of the D'Urbervilles." 

There's a note underneath your front door
That I wrote twenty years ago
Yellow paper and a faded picture
And a secret, in an envelope

There's no reasons
No excuses
There's no secondhand alibis
Just some black ink, on some blue lines
And a shadow, you won't recognize

And if it means I'll be waiting twenty years
And twenty more
I'll be praying for redemption
And your note, underneath my door
And your note underneath my door
credits
from PEACOCK'S TALES (The Sapphire Wedding Album), released December 1, 2024
Written and composed by singer-songwriter Joy Williams and guitarist/songwriter John Paul White. (The Civil Wars duo)

The video  https://youtu.be/y7tQiuxlXrU  uses images of us on holiday in my once home town (FIFTY YEARS ago) of Frome in Somerset. The opening is me walking along the street I grew up past the house where I luxuriated in Beatlemania, passed my 11 plus and watched England beat West Germany on a black and white TV to win the World Cup in 1966 ("SIXTY YEARS!!)

The track art is a working Georgian postbox at the bottom of Shepherd's  Barton in Frome. You can imagine the letter I've placed there carries the lyrics of this song if you like. I do!

Twenty Years

I like piano or guitar.
I compose by using PC.
I sing.
Thank you for your listening.
I hope that all musicians are good luck.

A marriage (and we are actually married, 45 years so far) of melody and rhythm. We do folk, indie, Americana, Norfolk noir, beat poems &  ghazals. Traditional tunes with contemporary beats. Music videos  https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCb8wV0-DNiFs1R5G2VSytBQ
Maz lead & harmony vocals, acoustic guitar. Gaz vocals, voice, bass, drums & percussion, harmonium, recorders, lyre harp, field recordings.

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCEEWg7OevtTFwNxPut1EPVw

New tracks tagged #Folk&amp;SingerSongwriter

New tracks tagged #Folk&SingerSongwriter