Hungry Ghost by Wendy Colonna 
Lyrics:
There’s a hungry ghost that hides
 in the box of the things you left behind
when you died so many years ago, so many years ago

A half dozen virgins and saint anthony
Who preached to the fish and recovered lost things
I wonder if he ever helped you to find
The kindness you lost in the snow. . . 

so many years ago Oh oh, ohhh
so many years ago Oh oh, ohhh

There’s a hungry ghost that sings
from the hammond spinet made back in 63
Where you played so many years ago, so many years ago

The button upholstered bench filled up with hymns
Voice raised to the heavens, confessions, amens
could they ever forgive you, would they even know
How many times you tried . . .  

so many years ago Oh oh, ohhh
so many years ago Oh oh, ohhh

Ooh oooohhhh

There’s a hungry ghost that whispers 
to the heart of a small boy who’s gazing out through 
Your dark chocolate eyes just like you did so many years ago

A photograph moves him like he knew you then
His eyes fill with sorrow like you were old friends
We hide all the letters you filled with dead ends
Did you ever make amends? 

So many years ago

Hungry Ghost

Song 2 Prompt: Fathom - "Sirens of the River"
Lyrics:
I have seen you in the footlights
I have watched you in the crowd
I have seen you with the lovers
One by one you laid them down

I have seen you raise the bottle 
to keep them from getting in
I have seen serene surrender
In a glimmer on your skin

CHORUS:
Are you ready
Are you ready
Are you ready to come down
Are you willing to go under
Let your broken pieces drown
Are you ready 
Are you ready
For the weightless waking dream
Where the sirens of the river
will deliver you to me

Let your mind go empty 
hear the whistle of the wind
Close your eyes and listen to
the secret song within

Your life was born from darkness 
The seed alone in earth
It pulsed among the shadows
Before your aching birth

CHORUS

Let it in Let it out Let the river flow
Let it in Let it go

Bring me all your secrets
Your betrayals and your shame
The cold and bitter silence
That keeps you from love’s claim

Lay down your empty glories
Built on cleverness and schemes
Let go your tired stories
Of the dead ends of your dreams

CHORUS

Sirens Of The River

11:59 Song 3 Prompt "Chimera" 

"Your Real World" inspired by the meta-verse

Lyrics
Chemistry chemistry dizzying when i feel you're near
Feel the heat, No relief, melting me and the steam won’t clear
The space between your skin and mine
Cross continents in quantum time

Why would I ever want to leave this place?
There’s nothing for me in your real world your real world your real world
There's nothing for me in your real world now

On my lips sacraments, tasting the blood of the sacred story
And with no consequence, I am the maker and the destroyer
Breathe it in and breathe it out 
My body fades into the cloud

Why would I ever want to leave this place?
There’s nothing for me in your real world your real world your real world
There's nothing for me in your real world now

Meditate medicate help me forget all the shattered pieces
kill the beat kill the beat, telling the stories that just deceive us
Tell Me All Your Favorite Lies
Show me yours I’ll show you mine

Why would I ever want to leave this place?
There’s nothing for me in your real world your real world your real world
There's nothing for me in your real world now

Your Real World

11:59 PROMPT #4 "WITNESS"

I always knew the time would come
For you to spread your wings
And soar into the mystery
To chase a distant dream

Your eyes are full of stardust
And your hands are soft and kind
No use in trying to stop you
it’s just a waste of time

So, You must go
Make your way (hey hey)
Hold your heart up to each moment
While you try to keep it safe
Over time  I hope you find  (aye aye)
The love you’re out there searching for
Has never left your side

You’ll never know how sweet
It’s been to watch you grow
Eyes that speak a thousand tears
And glow in falling snow

Your voice, just like an angel’s
Sweet as honey, full of light
Like you're singing for salvation
through the longest, darkest night

CHORUS
			
There’s nothing to prepare you for 
This world so unforgiving
But you’ve got everything to lose
In hiding out from living

CHORUS
I always knew the time would come
For you to spread your wings
And soar into the mystery
To chase a distant dream

Your eyes are full of stardust
And your hands are soft and kind
No use in trying to stop you
Without hindsight, we’re all blind

Make Your Way (demo)

For Ryan, my unicorn. 

Lyrics

When my hands go still and no longer can embrace
When my eyes go dim and i cannot see your face
When the days grow short and the end is in plain sight
This precious love will carry me into the night

When my voice has faded and the songs are hard to find
When my heart’s undone by how the world is so unkind
When these kids are grown and gone and every so often write
This precious love will carry me into the night

Do i deserve it? Did i earn it
From some lifetime long ago?
I Guess I’ll never know
But Like a flower, i’ll keep on leaning
Toward your warm and steady glow
Until it’s time for one of  us to go

When our feet have stood for everything that they could stand
When our beauty lives in pictures from a long time distant land
When the moon sings for the stolen kiss of lovers young and wild
This precious love will carry us into the night

This Precious Love (demo)

"Back To You"  Lyrics

A drop in the ocean
A wave on the shore
I left you in search of
More and more and more
Kickin up dust clouds
Making it storm
Drowning the voices
That sing me to your door

Back to you Back to you 
After all I’ve put you through?
Back to you Back to you 
Could you love me black and blue?

Mind is a madhouse
Of bullshit and blame
How many more midnights
Of sweat laced in shame
Tossing and turning
And tryin’ to keep sane
What i would give to just
Hear you call my name 


CHORUS

Would You Love Me
Could You Love Me
Will You Love Me
As I Am?

Fire in the water
Goes down bittersweet
It empties the soul
And darkens the dreams
A pilgrim unworthy
A picture of sin
You stand in the doorway
And beckon me back in

The song prompt was "12." While I wrote it in 12/8 time signature, the song is also a bit of a dark odyssey into the final moments of a losing match with addiction.  Perhaps the first few of the 12 steps in the journey of recovery.  "You" in this song could be anyone- the self, a loved one or even that higher intelligence. Hope it meets you where it serves you. <3

Back To You (demo)

Swift HR Solutions was looking for a fun experience for their anniversary event. We worked with the remote team members of this fabulous HR firm to build a song that captured the joy and fulfillment (and inside jokes) of the culture at Swift HR Solutions. The song was shared at their anniversary dinner with all the Seattle team members, bonding everyone together!

PEOPLE FOR THE PEOPLE- SWIFT HR SOLUTIONS

We had the pleasure of playing with the attendees of Deb Boulanger's Six Figure Accelerator retreat in Austin, TX. It was an intimate gathering of deeply passionate women leaders visioning their bright futures and the incredible impact of their gifts in the world.  We laughed and cried and came up with this little anthem to capture the spirit of the day called "She Will Rise."

She Will Rise (demo)

“How Many Miles” is a gospel-inspired number that chronicles 2020 – an idea that emerged in a songwriting group with the prompt “diaspora.”

With a Pops-Staples tremolo guitar pulse, the slow-burning number has a backbeat that stays the course on a weary, mortal coil shuffle. The doleful back-up singers point the way, taking a cue from that dude on the River Styx.

“We’re all still processing that crazy year. For what the world went through, 2020 might as well have been a mirror of the Book of Exodus,” she says. “I couldn’t shake the images of folks displaced from their homes by fires, hurricanes, climate change, crime, and the isolation of the pandemic. I tried to capture that haunting feeling in a song. Ultimately, the song fights off being a dirge. It’s a hymn that prays for peace, home, and unity.”
How Many Miles 
How Many Miles 
How Many Miles before we’re home 
How Many Miles?

First came the pharaoh 
A dirty man
If you can’t make him money
He don’t give a damn
 Walk A thousand miles
With nothin’ to eat
nothin’ left to live for 
but these babies’ dreams

How many dreams
How many dreams 
How many dreams will set us free
How many dreams?

Then came the fires
Turnin’ dreams to ash
Wild wind and lightning 
World went up in a flash
It don’t give a damn
‘Bout the tears we cry
Can’t stop the wrath
Ain’t no looking back

How many tears 
How many tears
How many tears will wash us clean
How many tears?

Noone was ready
When the plague came on
It don’t give a damn
if you're weak or if you’re strong
And if a hurricane 
Come and trash your home
And you’re sick and alone
Tell me where ya ‘sposed to go?

How Many Miles. . . How Many Dreams. . . How many Tears. . . .  How Many Miles?

How Many Miles

Inspired

Music, vibration and repeating positive affirmations can rewire the brain, reboot body, resonate with the soul and transform a life. 

I've been studying the power of affirmations and how different frequencies can help to heal the body and I've begun creating custom affirmation tracks for my Lyriculture and Coaching Clients!

AFFIRMATIONS

Sirens of the River by Wendy Colonna

Produced by Katie Marie at Blue Rock Studio
Mixed by Nielson Hubbard
Drums, Vox & Acoustic Guitar: Katie Marie
Bass & Vox: Matthew Lindsay
Guitars & Keys: Chris Gebhard
Djembe & Vox: Wendy Colonna

Lyrics:
I have seen you in the footlights I have watched you in the crowd	
I have seen you with the lovers One by one you laid them down
I have seen you raise the bottle  to keep them from getting in
I have seen serene surrender  In a glimmer on your skin

Are you ready  Are you ready  Are you ready to come down 
Are you willing to go under Let your broken pieces drown
Are you ready  Are you ready For the weightless waking dream
Where the sirens of the river will deliver you to me

Let your mind go empty  hear the whistle of the wind
Close your eyes and listen to the secret song within
Your life was born from darkness  The seed alone in earth
It pulsed among the shadows Before your aching birth

Are you ready  Are you ready  Are you ready to come down 
Are you willing to go under Let your broken pieces drown
Are you ready  Are you ready For the weightless waking dream
Where the sirens of the river will deliver you to me

Let it in Let it out Let the river flow Let it in Let it out Let it go 
Let it in Let it out Let the river flow Let it in Let it out Let it go 

Bring me all your secrets Your betrayals and your shame
The cold and bitter silence That keeps you from love’s claim
Lay down your empty glories Built on cleverness and schemes
Let go your tired stories of the dead ends of your dreams

Are you ready  Are you ready  Are you ready to come down 
Are you willing to go under Let your broken pieces drown
Are you ready  Are you ready For the weightless waking dream
Where the sirens of the river will deliver you to me

Sirens of the River

The Little Things

Nectar

Shelter And Be Kind

Right Where I Belong

We Are One

Barefoot In Belgium

Your Parade

The Water's Fine

We measure time by the seasons, sun and moon and yet, it still  mysteriously bends and eludes us so strangely when it comes to family, love and loss. "Every Second” speaks to that undeniable ache that we all know in that magical and bittersweet space between the moments.

Lyrics: Every Second
by Wendy Colonna & Mark Addison Copyright 2017

I’m not a big believer in breaking off the past
But sometimes, oh sometimes we shouldn’t let the moments last
That put a crack inside us, shatter dreams like glass
But sometimes, oh sometimes, dreams are simply meant to pass

It’s just a circle
It’s just a season
It’s how we measure when there’s no reason
And it slips right past and fades away
Every second, every hour, every day

I just want one more night
Another kiss before you go
One more reason to believe
You said “it’s better to forgive than to receive”

I lit a candle for you
Made a wish and blew
Sometimes, I swear this house is shifting and it’s you
So much I wanna ask you
So much I wanna share
What I wouldn’t give to hear your laughter once more in my ears

It’s just a circle
It’s just a season
It’s how we measure when there’s no reason
And it slips right past and fades away
Every second, every hour every day

Wish I had one more night
Another mystery to unfold
One more reason to believe
You said “It’s better to forgive than to receive”

I ain’t got time for shame now, no time for regret
but sometimes, sometimes time is all that we have left
The you that I remember would laugh at me and say
“Lift those empty eyes girl, you gotta win another day”

‘Cause it’ a circle
It’s just a season
It’s how we measure when there’s no reason
And it slips right past and fades away
Every second, every hour every day
Every second, every hour every day

Every Second

Edgy, Intimate, Modern, American Roots. www.wendycolonna.com

Wendy Colonna's upcoming album, "No Moment But Now" is a rich, contemporary odyssey through life's light and shadow places. Wendy's honey-grit voice soars, whispers, and growls us through some of the grey spaces of life's journey. From the fringes of femininity in "Girls Like Me" to an outsider punk rock kid grown to adulthood in "Elizabeth Street" to the bittersweet reflections on love and loss in "Every Second" to the soul-shout of finally being comfortable in one's skin in "I'm Satisfied," Wendy fearlessly moves us through an inner journey with a deep groove.

Produced by Mark Addison

I'm Satisfied

The Austin-American Statesman wrote “Wendy Colonna is not just a singer-songwriter, she’s a force of nature.”  Hailing from the gulf coast of Louisiana and calling Austin, TX home since 2000, Colonna is a regular southern renaissance woman: a seasoned troubadour, yogi, bookworm, adventurer, pollination ecology-enthusiast and hula-hooper.  But it’s her songwriting and voice that draw in audiences in like bees to nectar.

Wendy’s resonant, signature voice is grit-infused-honey and her songs echo swampy southern tales of loss, mortality, joy, reclaimed innocence and celebration. With ease, she moves from a sweet whisper to a full on bayou-soul-shout without skipping a beat.
The Austin-American Statesman wrote “Wendy Colonna is not just a singer-songwriter, she’s a force of nature.”  Hailing from the gulf coast of Louisiana and calling Austin, TX home since 2000, Colonna is a regular southern renaissance woman: a seasoned troubadour, yogi, bookworm, adventurer, pollination ecology-enthusiast and hula-hooper.  But it’s her songwriting and voice that draw in audiences in like bees to nectar.

Wendy’s resonant, signature voice is grit-infused-honey and her songs echo swampy southern tales of loss, mortality, joy, reclaimed innocence and celebration. With ease, she moves from a sweet whisper to a full on bayou-soul-shout without skipping a beat.

wendycolonna

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