Benjamin Bower and the Goose Flock present: Goose Flock's Moon Chants

Written and recorded over a weekend in early February 2014, this collection centers around the Goose Flock: a vocal and percussive goose jazz backing band performed entirely by Benjamin Bower. The record is structured to reflect the yearly cycles of Canada Geese and was inspired partly by the large populations of such geese that, contrary to traditional migratory habits, have taken up permanent residence in the watershed of the Chesapeake Bay. It parallels my inquiries into the nature of domesticity, environmental interdependence and seemingly sudden, irreparable crises of personality, culture and land. Recorded and produced by Benjamin Bower using his very limited understanding of Garageband and the internal microphone on his MacBook in a one-bedroom apartment in the Museum District of Richmond, VA.

September sesquehannock

Walk, widow, wallow.
Kiss goodbye the summer breeze.
Time will take us,
by and by,
time will show us all that we can be.

Hop, bitter hollow,
to the two-step of the leaves--
the one that makes them bleed and fall
the other brings us crawling on our knees.

Songs sung in sorrow,
do they bring us any peace?
Time will take them,
by and by,
time will show us all that we need be.

10 Birds Of The Air

The True Story of this Record:

At the beginning of 2014, I was living with my girlfriend Maria and working a job that I liked. By summer, the season during which I wrote these songs, I had lost the girlfriend. Later I found out I had lost my job, though nobody there seemed able to tell me why. This trend continued, and I was charged by the city with Obstructing Justice for refusing to be questioned by police without a lawyer present. (At the moment of this writing I am facing up to a year in jail, just for knowing and exercising my rights.) As the months went by, I was shocked at how poorly things seemed to be going, but somehow I was not deeply bothered by the changes. Situations that I was afraid might kill me did not and, though there was great pain in all of it, I managed not to become very negative about things in my life (though I still harbor some rather bad feelings towards Maria). In August I moved into a small room in the back of a row house in Jackson Ward and started recording. This is what I got, complete with some weird technical issues I don't understand related to my attempt to teach myself more about working with sound.


Here's some lyrics:

Sweetness of the Snow

Broke the locks and slipped into the streets
lit by sounds of mind that bristled from below.
Walked a while until the darkness deepened and
woke to all the sweetness of the snow.

Fires in the alley in the evening,
sweaters cause the cold is coming on.
Gray the light the moon gives to the sleepless,
wide the bend of river and the song.


Ramblin' Goose Step

She warbles and she flies.
Oh she'll warble and she flies
now she's headed to the west
where she'll find the holy water tastes like wine.

I'm going to change my mind.
I'm going away so I can change my mind,
Going back to high Sierra
in the summer
when the air is thick with pine.


This is not what she said

She said, "When you're broke get up
and do it again.
And honey when my heart's gone
go and find new love,
cause it won't follow you

out of the window
or down to the door.
Love is when your heart's raw,
shame is when you ask for more
and death is never knowing why.

So honey let your soul shine
into the sun
be careful when you're cared for,
careless when you can't take more.
And shit, I'm just not the one."

07 Ain't no dog

06 This is not what she said, she said

05 Ramblin' Goose Step

04 My Sweet Lady

03 Linden St. Stomp (and Never Once Be Wrong)

02 Sweetness of the Snow

01 Instrumental Introduction

Found this at my parents' house over Christmas. It's the first song I ever recorded, I think I must have been a freshman in high school. Dad set me up with his telecaster and drum machine and for the first time I felt like a real artist. 

Moderato

This is a track off of the upcoming record: Fogsong snoring in the soil

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