1. |
Old Man Winter
04:35
|
|||
|
Old Man Winter
Feel the autumn memory fade,
Her dress abandoned where it lay,
The golden reds and copper shades,
Become a carpet: threadbare made.
Build the fire up,
Close the door shut,
Old Man Winter comes,
Build the fire up,
Close the door shut,
Old Man Winter comes.
Growth suspended, holding breath,
Dormant trees sleep nonetheless,
Their intricate, stark silhouettes,
Cast shadows with a dark caress.
Build the fire up,
Close the door shut,
Old Man Winter comes,
Build the fire up,
Close the door shut,
Old Man Winter comes.
The hare who wears a winter coat,
In motion celebrates the snow,
Sitting tight to fox its foe,
In stillness of nocturnal cold.
Build the fire up,
Close the door shut,
Old Man Winter comes,
Build the fire up,
Close the door shut,
Old Man Winter comes.
Now winter's at the window,
See jacks fingers scratch,
As still wind brings the first snow, laying light on tile and thatch.
Though the brooks and rivers freeze,
Water still flows underneath,
Tears of heavy skies that bleed,
From hilltop spring to cisterns deep.
The pulse of life for beast and men,
Holding fast 'til winter ends,
To nurture and prepare for when,
Old Man Winter comes again.
Build the fire up,
Close the door shut,
Old Man Winter comes,
Build the fire up,
Close the door shut,
Old Man Winter comes,
Build the fire up,
Close the door shut,
Old Man Winter comes.
|
||||
2. |
Owls
03:29
|
|||
|
Owls
Hearing the sound of owls,
Courting in the distance at night,
Their simple song echoes,
Repeatedly calling for flight.
Under starlight's myriad Milky Way,
Over a moonless clear sky,
Starlight reluctantly gives away,
Guides to the meaningless plight,
Of the not inconsiderable life,
In our twinkling eyes.
Silently catching the air,
On featherlight, whispering wings,
Long lazy circles they turn,
Watching small scurrying things.
Under starlight's myriad Milky Way,
Over a moonless clear sky,
Starlight reluctantly gives away,
Guides to the meaningless plight,
Of the not inconsiderable life,
In our twinkling eyes.
This hunt is a dance,
That falls from the sky,
Over the moment that it begins,
If you're keeping an eye,
For the plummet and rise,
Or just watching the weathercock spin,
Neither invisible nor dizzy birds,
Care what you think.
Casting ghost shadows on ground,
That's passed swiftly and overthrown,
Drunk in and witnessed by eyes,
That behold the world wholly alone.
Under starlight's myriad Milky Way,
Over a moonless clear sky,
Starlight reluctantly gives away,
Guides to the meaningless plight,
Of the not inconsiderable life,
In our twinkling eyes.
And owls share our delight,
In dark starry skies.
|
||||
3. |
||||
|
The Promise that you Make
Do unto others with an open heart and mind,
But keep your fingers crossed,
Behind your back,
Let empathetic charity be at the forefront of your mind,
But expect everyone to be,
A greedy twat.
The choices you make are easy to change,
But choices you give don't fake,
And promises you take,
Sometimes are reneged,
But the promise that you make,
Don't break.
Turn the other cheek and don't retaliate in kind,
But the again,
It's probably better just to duck,
Be a Good Samaritan who won't let others fall behind,
But don't get pulled down,
And trodden in their muck.
The choices you make are easy to change,
But choices you give don't fake,
And promises you take,
Sometimes are reneged,
But the promise that you make,
Don't break.
Be considerate, compassionate, and listen to all sides,
Watching the glint of sharpened knives,
Laying in wait,
Choose your words respectfully,
With dignity at all times,
And be prepared for base rhetoric of hate.
The choices you make are easy to change,
But choices you give don't fake,
And promises you take,
Sometimes are reneged,
But the promise that you make,
Don't break.
Let fairness guide your hand,
Your honesty be unimpeachable,
But there's nothing more believable than lies,
Let all your plans be clear and demonstrably feasible,
Yet the wow factor's all pie in the sky.
The choices you make are easy to change,
But choices you give don't fake,
And promises you take,
Sometimes are reneged,
But the promise that you make,
Don't break.
The choices you make are easy to change,
But choices you give don't fake,
And promises you take,
Sometimes are reneged,
But the promise that you make,
Don't break,
The promise that you make,
Don't break,
Promises you make,
Don't break.
|
||||
4. |
You & I
02:24
|
|||
|
You & I
I'll hold on and I won't let go,
No matter how high you climb,
Yes I'll hold on and I hope you know, babe,
It's you and I this time,
It's you and I this time.
How many miles can a live song travel,
If I sing it into the wind,
How often must my longing for you wrestle,
With time and the demons within.
So don't doubt me,
Just let me show,
That I'll hold on and I won't let go,
No matter how high you climb,
Yes I'll hold on and I hope you know, babe,
It's you and I this time,
It's you and I this time.
In whatever direction life carries you,
I'll be there,
Your co-conspirator in laughter and in tears,
Never with intention to trap you anywhere,
I'll just catch you if you fall,
And calm your fear.
So don't doubt me,
Just let me show,
That I'll hold on and I won't let go,
No matter how high you climb,
Yes I'll hold on and I hope you know, babe,
It's you and I this time,
It's you and I this time.
Yes, I'll hold on and I won't let go,
No matter how high you climb,
Yes I'll hold on and I hope you know, babe,
It's you and I this time,
It's you and I this time,
It's you and I this time.
|
||||
5. |
Say Goodbye
04:34
|
|||
|
Say Goodbye
He rode the late night busses,
Watching drunks and the forgotten,
Looking for a feeling he had lost along the way,
He wouldn't tell you if you asked,
Just when it was the future left him,
Or the reason nor the meaning,
Just the cost he had to pay.
The overcoat he's wearing,
Has seen one too many seasons,
Of a life built around secrets,
And of disclosures owed,
Of how heavy are their burdens,
Now his confessor has been taken,
And the significance of company,
Becomes clearer when alone.
His voice calls like muted trumpets,
In some New York basement jazz club,
Rallying the broken and the scarred,
With a sermon of rebirth,
His words tumble like confetti,
Through a gutter,
Past an old church,
Carrying discarded shards of hearts,
To save their worth.
And disguise the pain he holds close,
As though diamonds made of razors,
Are severing the present from yearning memories thorns,
While he scatters benedictions,
And becomes the weary pilgrim,
Cursed, forever traveling,
With his back turned towards the dawn.
He'd been left behind to watch,
The sunrise that she missed,
Remembering their last kiss,
Turned his mind,
So let go now,
Let go and turn around,
And face the sunrise,
Let go and turn around,
And say goodbye,
say goodbye,
say goodbye,
say goodbye,
say goodbye,
say goodbye,
And face the sunrise,
Face the sunrise,
Turn around and say goodbye.
|
||||
6. |
Remembering Rain
05:15
|
|||
|
Remembering Rain
She lived in a house on a hill in the city,
She was inclined to be,
Somewhat reclusive,
Yet still those who new her spoke generously,
On Tuesday she'd walk up without fuss,
To settle bills,
Each time seemed to be,
Breaking for cover as retuning with groceries,
She'd hide in routine.
Within her home it is surprisingly airy,
All things have their place,
It is ordered and simple: mementos are hidden,
They were once displayed,
Celebrations of instants of reasons to smile,
Foundations of faith,
Put away now in shadows as deep as the sea was,
When the storm front came,
And took tomorrow away.
And the rain ran in rivers of Olympian laughter,
Past the three steps leading up from the street,
I where the paint on the door,
Was all flaking and faded,
And numbers hung loose as ripe fruit,
Now the heat, oh, the heat of endless summer,
Bathes her face in sepia haze,
As she turns away,
Remembering rain.
And if you knocked once or twice,
You'd be sure she would answer,
And invite you inside,
She'd offer you tea in small cups of bone china,
Which were unusually fine,
And trade stories and histories of memorial reverence,
She listens in kind,
To kindle a hunger with diffident questions,
Repeatedly time after time.
Of when the rain ran in rivers of Olympian laughter,
Past the three steps leading up from the street,
I where the paint on the door,
Was all flaking and faded,
And numbers hung loose as ripe fruit,
Now the heat, oh, the heat of endless summer,
Bathes her face in sepia haze,
As she turns away,
Remembering rain.
Leaning out of her window with precarious ease,
She looks down on the bay,
Each morning at twelve o'clock sharp, she appears,
As though something may change,
Maybe moved by the moon and celestial trance,
As she watches the waves,
Or perhaps more mundane is her reason for waiting,
Remembering that day,
She silently prays.
The rain ran in rivers of Olympian laughter,
Past the three steps leading up from the street,
I where the paint on the door,
Was all flaking and faded,
And numbers hung loose as ripe fruit,
Now the heat, oh, the heat of endless summer,
Bathes her face in sepia haze,
As she turns away,
Remembering rain,
Remembering rain.
|
||||
7. |
Silence
02:30
|
|||
|
Silence
The wall clock stopped at ten twenty four,
As the punter weight dropped,
To rest there against the skirting board,
The pendulum stilled,
And the trembling time hid there under the quilt.
As silence moves into the room,
Uninvited.
Yesterday's shadows cast indelible presence,
Peripheral echoes of unnatural essence,
Droplets of laughter are prophetic encounters,
That fade away after.
Silence moves into the room,
Uninvited.
And the convent bell calls out to here chronicle lover,
As schoolchildren walked past down the street,
But the moments had frozen,
Alone without cover of dust,
In a grand mausoleum,
In s grand mausoleum.
Where silence moves into the room,
Uninvited.
A crack in the plaster hold a memory safe,
One single seed of last melody waits,
To rekindle what two voices heard,
With chaotic rhythms of feet on the stairs.
Before silence moved into the room,
Uninvited.
Silence moves into the room.
|
||||
8. |
Wheel of Life
02:31
|
|||
|
Wheel of Life
Silhouettes of swallows,
Rising effortlessly weave,
Between the resting sunlight,
To hunt voraciously and feed,
Nurturing their future,
'Til fledglings thanklessly leave,
To turn 'twixt earth and sky,
Carrying tomorrow's seed,
Into the dreaming world.
Where brittle light reveals,
A truth that words find difficult to frame:
All beauty has a cost,
And there's a balance to maintain,
As the wheel of life turns again.
|
||||
9. |
4x4 Pram
02:45
|
|||
|
4x4 Pram
You arrived in the north east,
Looking for properties,
To invest in neglect,
You bring an infestation of greed.
Well you can't pick the pocket,
That's got nothing but holes inside,
You're missing the fact that,
You can't put a price on our pride.
So, "Laugh you daft bugger", we sang,
Get off home in your 4x4 pram.
Oh, what were you playing at,
You came here beset with and,
But you're too young at heart,
To wear the face of a bitter old man.
Back home you have breeding,
Entitled ancestral lands,
Up here we've communities,
Lifting the world on our backs.
So, "Laugh you daft bugger", we sang,
Get off home in your 4x4 pram.
It seems that, crucially,
You assumed, unthinkingly,
Up here it's all grim, grey and crap,
Now we, unusually,
Suffer fools and their cynically,
Ignorant grins and their vacuous tact,
So give us half a chance and we'll prove,
An exception to each nonsense you knew.
'Cause there's only so far you get,
With privileged prejudice,
When contempt and avarice,
Discolour the verdant green shades.
Of the Vale and the Wolds,
And the rich Earth of Holderness,
The Moor's timeless beauty rebuts,
Your preconception's charade.
So, "Laugh you daft bugger", we sang,
Get off home in your 4x4 pram,
So, "Laugh you daft bugger", we sang,
Get off home in your 4x4 pram.
|
||||
10. |
Look Up
02:41
|
|||
|
Look Up
Come on down here,
Your high horse is looking pretty skittish,
Try a little giving,
Without tripping,
Gripping a whip in your fist.
Look up,
When you want to look down,
Put your head in the sky,
Leave your shoes on the ground,
Knowing you can keep going,
When you want to turn around,
Hey! Look up now.
In cold fear,
Of brittle viscous anger unremitting,
Why don't you see how it fits,
Just giving a little bit,
Feel how it sits,
But you slipped like a recidivist.
Look up,
When you want to look down,
Put your head in the sky,
Leave your shoes on the ground,
Knowing you can keep going,
When you want to turn around,
Hey! Look up now.
Take hold of the hand that you dreamt of,
Back when it seemed dreams were true,
Be bold,
Understanding what went wrong,
Saddened, redeemed and bemused,
Believe that your friends will be there for you,
Friends, whatever you do.
You have to face it,
He sirens in your mind are growing too loud,
Drowning out the quiet now,
How you're nameless in a crowd,
Once proud,
Now you're diminishing.
Look up,
When you want to look down,
Put your head in the sky,
Leave your shoes on the ground,
Knowing you can keep going,
When you want to turn around,
Hey! Look up now.
|
||||
11. |
Walls
04:23
|
|||
|
Walls
Two choirs duelled in the courtyard where,
A much softer memory sings,
Of hands held and words shared by lovers whose,
Loves yet to reach its spring.
As best they can they meet themselves,
Their gentleness is rare,
Each wonders if this time they're both safe,
If their fragility will tear.
Oh, if these walls could speak of what they know,
Would our lives turn upside down,
Oh, if these walls gave up their all,
And showed us,
Could we face ourselves unbound,
Oh, would our walls fall down.
As the pious trade hymnal pomposity,
For pagan celebratory rites,
And whitewash the colours that brightened the dark,
Still the lovers see carousel lights.
Holding each other so neither will slip,
With strength they discover and share,
Neither takes more than they're willing to give,
Both admit to hope and old hurt.
Oh, if these walls could speak of what they know,
Would our lives turn upside down,
Oh, if these walls gave up their all,
And showed us,
Could we face ourselves unbound,
Oh, would our walls fall down.
The choirs are quiet,
Their challenges spent,
Retired posturing to the bar,
The lovers have ghosted away in the night,
Two shadows that fade,
Arm in arm.
Oh, if these walls could speak of what they know,
Would our lives turn upside down,
Oh, if these walls gave up their all,
And showed us,
Could we face ourselves unbound,
Oh, would our walls fall down.
Oh, if these walls could speak of what they know,
Would our lives turn upside down,
Oh, if these walls gave up their all,
And showed us,
Could we face ourselves unbound,
Oh, would our walls fall down,
Would our walls fall down,
Would our walls fall down.
|
||||
12. |
I Bid You Goodnight
03:22
|
|||
|
I Bid You Goodnight
I'd twist the world,
And crush the distance,
I miss your words,
I wish you could sense,
The tang of the brine in my hair,
Hear calling of gulls in the air.
Touch the ground and be sure I'll feel it,
The rushing sound,
Of your heart beating,
A Million and two lonely miles,
Between this song and a sleepy, "Goodnight".
There are lions and tigers and maniacal sprites,
All manner of mischievous beasties abroad in the night,
So sleep tight,
And hope with every ounce of your might,
That the crawlies and creepers and tigers won't bite,
I bid you,
Goodnight.
The Sun and Moon,
Play catch-if-you-can,
Sensual jewels, guiding our way back,
The sun kissed horizon burns twice,
Beacons that call in your eyes.
There are lions and tigers and maniacal sprites,
All manner of mischievous beasties abroad in the night,
So sleep tight,
And hope with every ounce of your might,
That the crawlies and creepers and tigers won't bite,
I bid you,
Goodnight.
I will keep you safe from harm,
While you keep me warm in your arms.
There are lions and tigers and maniacal sprites,
All manner of mischievous beasties abroad in the night,
So sleep tight,
And hope with every ounce of your might,
That the crawlies and creepers and tigers won't bite,
I bid you,
Goodnight.
|
||||
Tim O'Connor Hull, UK
Tim O'Connor is an English Folk/Rock songwriter based in Yorkshire, UK, Performing & recording since the late Seventies,
Tim has released a large catalogue of albums, 39 to date, available on his record label, Uilleand Music.
Band Projects:
cowfisH, from 1992 onwards.
The Ant Farm Collective, from 2014-2017.
Tim O’Connor & the Poachers 2018-
... more
If you like Tim O'Connor, you may also like:
How Does It Feel EP
by Lizzie Weber
Missouri singer/songwriter Lizzie Weber delivers a trio of songs lightly informed by country music, and fleshed out with strings.
go to album
Postcards From the Country
by Trae Sheehan
West Virginia country-folk singer-songwriter Trae Sheehan aims to find a balance between the traditional and the modern on his new LP.
go to album
Guardians Of Our Time
by Edd Donovan and The Wandering Moles
Edd Donovan's day job as a social worker brings a sense of empathy to his elegantly constructed political folk music.
go to album
Dry Bones Dance (2021 Remaster)
by Mark Heard
A 1990 folk-rock triumph gets an overdue reissue, with trenchant lyrics paired with rich Americana arrangements.
go to album
The Texan sibling indie-folk duo is back with a new album that is filled with sweeping, cinematic tracks.
go to album
Darkness begins to creep into the corners on the latest from Itasca.
go to album
Write The Soil Lighter
by Mother Juniper
“Write The Soil Lighter” is full of beguilingly mysterious folk-adjacent music, shrouded in shadow and atmospherics.
go to album
