1. |
call down the well
02:37
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take an old tale, give it new life
take a bleached skull
look in its eyes.
call down the well,
see what you find.
pull back the veil and weave through time.
do as the fox
walk the line.
do as the rabbit
crawl inside.
scry in the darkness of your mind.
what do you find there, what do you find?
do you fear death, love?
do you fear life?
there is no law but the cycle that binds.
die back in winter,
but come the time,
your breath is the blossom, the rain and the shine.
dark is the womb
dark is the tomb
dark is the restful night of the moon.
dark is the soil
dark is the tide
no need to fear, dear,
crawl inside
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2. |
pacifism kills
02:30
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our worlds were already burning
before we set the streets on fire.
our hearts were already yearning
for some long-unspoken desire.
your pacifism kills through silence
self-defense is never violence
i want no part of your hollow solidarity.
how much more blood spilled on the floor
before you notice this is war?
and there is no safe space for anybody anymore.
pipelines, prisons, border walls
gender roles and livestock stalls
rows of corn for miles and miles
and fences to keep out the wild
within the confines of the law,
our movements turn mechanical.
linear delineations
confine, define all creation.
your pacifism kills through silence
self-defense is never violence
i want no part of your hollow solidarity.
how much more blood spilled on the floor
before you notice this is war?
and there is no safe space for anybody anymore.
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3. |
magpie
02:52
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if you want to love me,
you must know that the moment you try to capture me,
i'll already be gone.
no, my leaves don't spread,
my flowers don't bloom,
my fruit don't ripen for you
but they can be such potent medicine
if i so choose.
if you wanna be my one and only,
you must not know me
well enough not to hold too closely.
i'm a magpie
bird in flight
you'll have to shoot me dead out the sky
'fore i ever say that i am not my own.
i've been hurt too many times
to resign all this love of mine
to any pretty person that i meet
i'd rather keep myself to myself
i ain't no thing you can buy off the shelf
i belong to the wild woods and dirty streets
if you wanna be my one and only,
you must not know me
well enough not to hold too closely.
i'm a magpie
bird in flight
you'll have to shoot me dead out the sky
'fore i ever say that i am not my own.
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4. |
mosaics
03:13
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i can be water, moving mountains
i can be fire, creative destruction
i can watch willow, letting her leaves go
i can make mosaics out of the shrapnel.
sweeping the scythe goes,
that is the cycle
arms full of shiny, solid gold apples.
there is no time to succumb to fear
death, ever-smiling, is waiting, my dear.
smile back.
let it burn, let it die.
let the vines consume these lights
capitulating spaces never safe for us
let it flood, let it rise
from the salt-springs of our eyes.
i'm tired of waiting for the "right time"
i can be water, moving mountains
i can be fire, creative destruction
i can watch willow letting her leaves go
i can make mosaics out of the shrapnel.
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5. |
devil on a leash
02:49
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honey, i can't hear you through the voices 'side my mind
honey, i wanna be your love, but first i gotta be mine, mine.
lookin' round at the faces, oh, they all look the same.
dimensions tricklin' through the spaces
'tween the normal and mundane.
i don't think you understand:
i need somebody to cut this from my soul.
no, it ain't lovin but at least i ain't alone, no.
i need somebody to shake this from my bones
mark my skin, blood and sin
they leave me lyin' whole.
oh, now you're runnin away.
i don't think you understand:
i need somebody to cut this from my soul.
no, it ain't lovin but at least i ain't alone, no.
i need somebody to shake this from my bones
mark my skin, blood and sin
they leave me lyin' whole.
and now i'm runnin away.
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6. |
bramble
06:33
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i was throwin pebbles at a map laid on the ground,
compass needles turning in my heart.
the flies drowned in my wine
locked in love for one last time
still i drank them down,
drank them down,
drank them down.
i was smashin bottles from a high-rise right downtown
somethin wicked welling in my gut.
i slipped out in the morning as ze lay there softly snoring
and i asked the rain to let my poor soul drown
let it drown
let it drown.
am i too much for you to handle?
am i a burden too much to bear?
when i'm by your side,
do i stick like a bramble?
a knot in the golden threads of your hair.
i was in the basement crying in my underwear
gasping through the hands around my throat.
it's dripping down the wall,
it's spreading all over the ground.
the cool, stale air and how i drank it down.
we was watchin firedancers underneath the bridge.
the carnival lights flickered as the storm came rollin in.
and the river there was bitter, but it flowed out to the sea.
the lightning in your veins helped me to breathe.
am i too much for you to handle?
am i a burden too much to bear?
when i'm by your side,
do i stick like a bramble?
a knot in the golden threads of your hair.
i may be crazy, but you still love me.
when shit gets ugly, you still call me honey.
sometimes i walk slow into traffic
just to feel the fear and shake it out like a rabbit.
sometimes i float away from my body,
to the pieces of my spirit that died in that basement.
i'm a moth flying into the fire
searchin for the moon
but instead found my pyre.
in your dreams, a teacher told you
somethin 'bout desire;
sharper than the edge of a blade.
i was too much for you to handle.
i was a burden too much to bear.
when i was by your side,
i stuck like a bramble.
a knot in the golden
threads of your hair.
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7. |
steal, steal, steal
03:06
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i wanna take you down
to the deepest, darkest places i been hangin around.
scratchin in the dusty old corners of my mind.
i know that you can do better than that.
got me stretchin myself like leather
to patch up all the scraps you left behind.
tell me where you put those pieces you took from me.
blindsided, hide yourself behind my eyelids.
you still haunt me in my dreams.
my rivers run bloody and blackened with oil.
my forests been clearcut and stripped of their soil.
and what kind of seeds you plantin back here?
who taught you how to steal?
we all make mistakes.
after that it's all about the path that you take -
but i see you at the crossroads shakin' in your boots.
so come back my way.
my landscape's shiftin to absorb all the pain.
what kind of seeds you planted back here?
who taught you how to steal?
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8. |
spider spinning
02:13
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spider is spinning
she's weaving her web
through the roots and the branches
that gather the realms
pass through the shimmering veils of time
there you will find the well.
draw up the vessel and drink of the void.
ye smallest of creatures and greatest of galaxies
eternity spins on her deft little limbs,
the tapestry finishes where it begins.
some speak of black holes
and some speak of end-times,
but what's on the other side?
some speak of black holes
and some speak of judgement,
but what's on the other side?
spider is spinning,
she's weaving her web.
we're in the weave
and we're in the weft.
here in her swaddle,
all things are kept
until she cuts the thread.
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9. |
animas
03:19
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clear creek
glass eyes
dead eyes
rolling
no fish
dull shine
lead-laced
daisies
sprawling
weeping
red and
orange
gold mines
seeping
white strands
reaching.
i cannot find a reason or rhyme
for the senseless destruction
our sick river cries.
up by the gold king
they pump her with lye
still caustic and toxic -
but the strip test looks fine
where's the resistance?
where's the commitment?
hundreds of landmines just waiting to blow.
how will we answer
to our descendents
with nothing but cancerous waters to show?
come armed to the teeth.
come with spores and with seeds.
come ready to heal
and willing to die.
when will we see
that this land lives and breathes?
that its captors and killers
must pay for their crimes?
my arms ain't wide enough
to hold the world.
my heart ain't hard enough
to watch as it burns.
i can't cry tears enough
to snuff out the flame.
i cannot scream enough
to ease the pain.
does it make you uncomfortable?
does it make you afraid
to think that this entire culture's to blame?
does it smash your illusory notion of "safe?"
will you fight for the land and the life it sustains?
when is enough enough for you?
when is enough enough?
when is enough enough for you?
when is enough enough?
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10. |
holy rot
02:34
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holy, holy rot
spread your tendrils
through this bloated culture of death.
some of us stay behind to paint the bones.
now i know why magpie laughs.
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11. |
uisce
03:13
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can i breathe?
can i grieve?
can i scream?
can i?
can i eat?
can i sleep?
do i look like
a machine?
do i?
tender flesh and bone
wounds give way to
sick and sorrow.
why try
to put on a new face and hide
and fade away?
i held a plastic baby.
deep black doll eyes,
unseeing
leaking breast and sudden regret.
too late
to question my decisions
though they were right.
think they were right.
can i breathe?
can i grieve?
can i scream?
can i?
can i eat?
can i sleep?
do i look like
a machine?
do i?
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12. |
fly
02:53
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i wanna find you somewhere on a mountain
watchin the city dissolve into the ocean.
i wanna recognize your voice
in a symphony of breaking glass and sirens.
i want you to fly.
i don't want you to be mine.
i wanna press you to me
like a letter to my lips to be sent far away.
i wanna trace the curves of your face like
it's the last thing that i'll touch, and
i want you to fly.
i don't want you to be mine.
ebb and flow through my life,
you do.
crash against me like a tide...
you do.
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13. |
shady grove
03:22
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peaches in the summertime
apples in the fall
i can't have the one i love,
i don't want none at all.
shady grove, my little love,
shady grove my darlin,
shady grove, my lil love,
i'm bound for shady grove.
wish i had a banjo string,
made o gold and twine
every tune i play on it,
i wish that love was mine.
wish i had a needle n thread,
fine as i could sew.
sew that pretty one to my side
and down the road we'd go.
some come here to fiddle and dance
some come here to tarry.
some come here to fiddle n dance
but we came here to marry.
every night when i come home
my honey i try to please 'im
more i try, the worse he gets
be damned if i don't leave him
so i said, swing around pretty lil mister,
swing around, my daisy
swing around, pretty little mister
oh, you drive me crazy.
first i saw my shady grove,
he was standin in the door
bells n flowers in his hair and
dirty bare feet on the floor
last i saw my shady grove
he was walkin down the highway
i stood and cried with my thumb to the side
and prayed he'd look back my way.
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14. |
little sparrow
03:05
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come all ye fair and tender ladies
take warning how ye trust young men
they're like a star on a summer mornin
they'll first appear, and then they're gone
they'll tell to you some loving story
declare to you their love is true
then straight away go and court another
and that's the love they have for you
i wish i was a little sparrow
that i had wings, and i could fly
i'd fly away to my false true lover
and while they'd speak, i'd sit and cry.
but i am not no little sparrow
i have no wings, and i can't fly
so i'll sit right here, with my grief and sorrow.
i'll sit right here until i die.
young gal, don't cast your eye on beauty
for beauty is a thing shall fade
seen many a bright, sunshiny mornin
turn into a dismal day.
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Hel Sídhe Wyly New Mexico
all itchy feet, calloused fingers, burnt cities and wild forests.
banjo, dulcimer, concertina, mouth trumpet and vocals by Hel Sídhe Wyly.
contact for booking around the southwest <3
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