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When life gets busy and I can’t slow down
I get lost more than I get found
Taking the floor, taking a stand
And dance to the family band
Everybody trying to find themselves
Wallflowers tumbling off the shelves
How do I feel, where do I stand
Will I dance to the family band
I was well loved and I was well taught
Still it didn’t turn out the way I thought
Out of the sea, living on land
Slipping out of the family hand
Falling apart, falling in place
Telling lies and saving face
Looking for right and finding it's wrong
Where do I belong
Good thing the world is bigger than me
Way beyond my own genealogy
Family can’t always be enough
They be drowning in their own stuff
What if family is a tree that bends
Living off lovin' that never ends
Holding out for a loving hand
Can we dance to the big time band
Ain’t nothing wrong with the mom and pop
But the pushing and shoving has got to stop
Ain’t nothing wrong with a personal god
But save the child and spare the rod
Good thing the world is bigger than me
Way beyond my own family tree
Nations can’t always be enough
They be drowing in their own stuff
Ain’t nothing wrong with a personal savior
'Cept when it leads to bad behavior
If you send in your spies and you're trying to bust us
We're gonna rise up for love and justice
Gonna dance, dance, dance to the family band
Keyboards – John Bucchino
Bass – Jan Martinelli
Guitar – Nina Gerber
Drums – Paul van Wageningen
Mandolin – Robin Flower
Somebody's Jail
Words and music by Holly Near
© Hereford Music (ASCAP)
Just walking along, shopping for food
Stepping out of the line of fire when people are rude
Cheap stuff made in China, someone calls it a sale
Somebody's mama, somebody's daughter
Somebody's jail
Beat down in the market, stoned to death in the plaza
Raped on the hillside under the gun from LA to Gaza
A house made of cardboard living close to the rail
Somebody's mama, somebody's daughter
Somebody's jail
chorus:
And I feel the witch in my veins
I feel the mother in my shoe
I feel the scream in my soul
The blood as I sing the ancient blue
They burned in the millions
I still smell the fire in my grandma's hair
The war against women rages on
Beware of the fairytale
Somebody's mama, somebody's daughter
Somebody's jail
The noise of elections, the promise of change
A grabbing of power at the top, a day at the rifle range
Somebody's in danger, somebody's for sale
Somebody's mama, somebody's daughter
Somebody's jail
spoken word
It isn't a country
It's not on a map
The weight of the world on somebody's back
It's the clothes that I wear, it's the food that I eat
It's the women and the children living out on the street
It's the war at the border, the refugee camp
It's the child bride doomed to walk the ramp
It's the boot in the stomach, the slap in the face
It's the death that is handed out simply by race
Rape by the soldiers, abduction of sons
It's nuclear threat, the fascination with guns
Looks at the office, the danger at night
The one you call darling coming home for a fight
It's the AIDS with no borders, it's the African teen
It's the women all over simply going unseen
It's the arrogant posture, the man on the moon
It's the dying of need before the promise of soon
It's the millions who go without food and water
It's somebody's mother, somebody's daughter
Keyboards – John Bucchino
Bass – Jan Martinelli
Guitar – Nina Gerber
Drums – Paul van Wageningen
Gandhi/Buddha
Words and music by Cheryl Wheeler
© Amachrist Music OBO Penrod & Higgins (ASCAP)
Feel this wind blow, scatter all these leaves like paper rain
Feel these days roll back into our winter lives again
The tangle at the garden fence is brown and dry
You call me out and point to your November sky
chorus:
I must've been Gandhi or Buddha or someone like that
I must've saved lives by the hundreds everywhere I went
I must've brought rest to the restless, fed the hungry too
I must've done something… great to get to have you
When the cold comes and you are by your fire and fast asleep
I'll turn a light on, to watch the snow outside fall soft and deep
And when the winter morning shines all white and blue
We'll watch the dogs run through the fields like children do
I suppose stranger things have come to pass
Many's the forest I can't see
I was so down and lost and fading fast
How did you find your way to me?
Keyboards – John Bucchino
Bass– Jan Martinelli
Guitars – Nina Gerber
Drums/percussion – Paul van Wageningen
I Am Willing
Words and Music by Holly Near
© Hereford Music (ASCAP)
[Note that this song was a finalist in the John Lennon Songwriting Contest]
chorus
I am open and I am willing
To be hopeless would seem so strange
It dishonors those who go before us
So lift me up to the light of change
There is hurting in my family
There is sorrow in my town
There is panic in the nation
There is wailing the whole world round
May the children see more clearly
May the elders be more wise
May the winds of change caress us
Even though it burns our eyes
Give me a mighty oak to hold my confusion
Give me a desert to hold my fears
Give me a sunset to hold my wonder
Give me an ocean to hold my tears
Vocals – Holly with Libby McLaren
Support vocals arranged by Libby McLaren
Keyboards – John Bucchino
Bass – Jan Martinelli
Guitar – Nina Gerber
Drums – Paul van Wageningen
I Want You Gone Too
Original words and music by Laura Love (2002); New words by Holly Near (2005)
© Laura Love Publishing A/C Painted Desert Music Corp. (BMI)
HN: Laura Love wrote this fun song—check out her version. She generously agreed to let me write new/more lyrics. Will the song be dated in a few years? Wouldn't that be great. But chances are, there will always be someone out there who, in the name of damage control, should gracefully agree to "retire."
You been telling big time lies
And you been stealing money
In any book of law or god, that's illegal honey
You can’t lead your nation and you are no peace maker
With people dying every day, in my book that's a deal breaker
I’m tired being smooth
I’m tired of being nice
I’m tired of making it sound all pretty
I want you gone like the wind
I want you gone like the wind
I want you gone gone gone gone gone - hey
What we need is a mama
Thanks so much for trying
We are sending you on your way
That's the price you pay for lying
But don’t you worry little one
We won’t be after you only
Most the congress and most the court
So you won’t be sad and lonely
We could feed the whole wide world
And empty all of the prisons
Doctors could return to healing
Leaders would require vision
War would be a thing of the past
And we would all learn to listen
You're running the world with an iron hand
And the heart and soul is missing
Vocals – Holly with Linda Tillery, Rhonda Benin, Nicolas Bearde
Support vocals arranged by Linda Tillery
Keyboards – John Bucchino
Bass – Jan Martinelli
Guitar – Nina Gerber
Drums – Paul van Wageningen
Lives in the Balance
Words and music by Jackson Browne
© Swallow Turn Music (ASCAP)
I've been waiting for something to happen
For a week or a month or a year
With the blood in the ink of the headlines
And the sound of the crowd in my ear
You might ask what it takes to remember
When you know that you've seen it before
Where a government lies to a people
And a country is drifting to war
And there's a shadow on the faces
Of the men who send the guns
To the wars that are fought in places
Where the business interest runs
On the radio talk shows and TV
You hear one thing again and again
How the U.S.A. stands for freedom
And we come to the aid of a friend
But who are the ones that we call our friends
These governments killing their own
Or the people who find they can’t take anymore
And they pick up a gun or a brick or a stone
And there are lives in the balance
There are people under fire
There are children at the cannons
There is blood on the wire
And there's a shadow on the faces
Of the men who fan the flames
Of the wars that are fought in places
We can’t even say their names
They sell us the president the same way
They sell us our clothes and our cars
They sell us everything from youth and religion
The same time they sell us our wars
I want to know who the men in the shadows are
I want to hear someone asking them why
They can be counted on to tell us who our enemies are
But they are never the ones to fight or to die
Keyboards – John Bucchino
Bass – Jan Martinelli
Guitar – Nina Gerber
Drums – Paul van Wageningen
Darabouka – Susu Pampanin
Kaman (Arabic violin) – Georges Lammam
Vocals – Holly with Libby McLaren
Bound By The Beauty
Words and Music by Jane Siberry
© Bug Music, Inc. o/b/o Wing-It Music (SOCAN)
I'm bound by the fire
I'm bound by the beauty
I'm bound by desire
I'm bound by the duty
I'm coming back in 500 years
and the first thing I'm gonna do
when I get back here
is to see these things I love
and they'd better be here
first I'm going to find a forest
and stand there in the trees
and kiss the fragrant forest floor
and lie down in the leaves
and listen to the birds sing
the sweetest sound you'll ever hear
and everything the dappled
everything the birds
everything the earthness
everything the verdant
the verdant green
I'm bound by the fire...
then I'm going to find an open field
and lie down in the flowers
and then I'm going to find a guitar
and play play play for hours
and then I'm going to find a river
to see what kind of body in
and everything the granite
everything the kiss
everything the earthness
everything the verdant
the verdant dream
Keyboards – John Bucchino
Bass– Jan Martinelli
Guitars – Nina Gerber
Drums – Paul van Wageningen
Hattie and Mattie
Words and music by Eric Schwartz
Additional lyrics by Holly Near
© Claritone / Eric Schwartz (ASCAP)
Hattie and Mattie live downstairs from me
Same apartment since 1943
They've got embroidered pictures on the wall
With quotes that no one said
And an autographed picture of Jesus Christ
Above their double bed
Well they're two old ladies, that can’t be denied
But their matching aprons hide a wilder side
And they will tell you about Paris
Over countless cups of tea
And maybe you will get the clue
But at first it eluded me
That they're the founding mothers of the revolution
Of mating with a blatant disregard for evolution
Lesbians extraordinaire,
Years before they cut their hair
Four stories over all the pushing and the shovin'
Hattie and Mattie got some brownies in the oven
Sitting & knittin' and loving their whole life thru
Now Hattie & Mattie met through Gertrude Stein
One summer day in Paris at a déjeuner divine
Hattie said, "I’m fond of La Joconde and her strange and sexy style"
And so Mattie said, "Leonardo is dead but I know what made her smile"
Now Hattie and Mattie bake for the neighborhood
They've been spreading lovin’ anyway they could
Cuz it’s a special recipe that they got from Alice B.
So I should have known when I heard the groans
But it took me years to see
That they're the founding mothers of the revolution
Of mating with a blatant disregard for evolution
Lesbians extraordinaire,
Years before they cut their hair
Four stories over all the pushing and the shovin'
Hattie and Mattie got some brownies in the oven
Sitting & knittin' and loving their whole life thru
Vocals Holly with Libby McLaren
Keyboards – John Bucchino
Bass – Jan Martinelli
Guitar – Nina Gerber
Drums – Paul van Wageningen
Accordion – Libby McLaren
Show Up
Words by Holly Near
Music by Holly Near, Michael Butler, John Bucchino and Jan Martinelli
© Hereford Music (ASCAP)
I don't feel good, love is gone
Lost all hope by the crack of dawn
But what if more love is on the way
Wouldn't you hate to miss that day
You gotta show up, get ready
See if you know how to rock steady
It don’t look good, news is bad
You know I lost all hope that I thought I had
But what if good news is on the way
Wouldn't you hate to miss that day
You gotta show up get ready
See if you know how to rock steady
Keep walkin’ that walk, keep talkin’ that talk
Get busy, get bold, life never on hold
Show up - get ready
See if you know how to rock steady
Most of the world is ready for change
Being quiet is mighty strange
No reason to feel alone
We're coming together, bring it on home
There'll be hurting and there'll be quiet
There'll be a danger of a riot
You don’t need to do it all
One little bit can break the fall
You gotta show up, rock steady
See if you know how
Sure is easy to lay the blame
Losing the planet is a doggone shame
Little bit harder to do that do
Can’t be done without you
You gotta show up, get ready
See if you know how to rock steady
Keep walkin’ that walk, keep talkin’ that talk
You're never too old, life never on hold
You gotta show up, rock steady
See if you know how to
There's a change in the weather
Let's try to get it together
Talking about nonviolence
And a little defiance
You gotta show up, rock steady
See if you know how to get ready
Vocals Holly with Linda Tillery, Rhonda Benin and Nicolas Bearde
Support vocals arranged by Linda Tillery
Keyboards – John Bucchino
Bass – Jan Martinelli
Guitar – Nina Gerber
Drums – Paul van Wageningen
It's About Time
Words and Music by Holly Near
© 1992 Hereford Music (ASCAP)
Waiting for a long time or waiting for a bus
Feels a bit like waiting for you
I never know if it has come and gone or perhaps it’s a block away
Feels a bit like waiting for you
So you look at me and you say "Well hey, it's about time"
And I say "No, no it's about love"
And you look at me and you say "Well hey, it's about time"
And I need to look back at you and say "It's about love"
Longing for a short time or longing for a train out
Feels a bit like longing for you
I never know if I should sit up all night or take in a sleeping car
Feels a bit like longing for you
So you look at me and you say "Well hey, it's about time"
And I say "No, no, it's about love"
And you look at me and you say "Well hey, it's about time"
And I need to look back at you and say "It's about love"
Holding on to no time or holding on to life
Feels a bit like holding on to you
I never know if I should ride it to the bell or give it to the clown
Feels a bit like holding on to you
So you look at me and you say "Well hey, it's about time"
And I say "No, no it's about love"
And you look at me and you say "Well hey, it's about time"
And I need to look back at you and say "It's about love"
So I look at you and I say "OK then, it's about time"
And you say "No, no, it's about love"
So I look at you and I say "OK then, it's about time"
And you need to look back at me and say "It's about love"
And you look back at me and you say "Oh darling, it's about love"
And I look at myself and I say "Well hey, it's about time."
Keyboards – John Bucchino
Bass – Jan Martinelli
Guitars – Nina Gerber
Drums – Paul van Wageningen
Drunken Sailor
Trad. arranged by Holly Near
New words by Holly Near
© Hereford Music (ASCAP)
HN: Some say this is a traditional Irish air while others say it is one of the oldest Anglo-Saxon sea shanties. It is riddled with verses of punishment like "Put him in bed with the captain's daughter" (captain's daughter is a reference to a whip) or "Shave his belly with a rusty razor." Hundreds of year later, we now know that addiction is a disease and cannot be beaten out of you.* Alcohol, heroin, control, food, oil, work, sex, crack, shopping, gambling, lying, rage, power—whether we are the sailor or the dark shadow of a soul on the widow's walk, it can take us down.
What shall we do with the drunken sailor
Early in the morning
Row the long boat to a landing
The drinking life is too demanding
Tough love will leave you standing
Are you sick of being sick and tired**
Being late and being fired
First one drunk and last one hired
The kids all love you and adore you
But by evening they are looking for you
Rowing a lifeboat along beside you
The wind is up and the ocean rages
Disease will take you down in stages
The killer whale will eat through cages
Loving this much has got me grieving
I can’t stand by and watch you leaving
But no more lies, no more deceiving
The truth comes in the morning
I’m loving the one this storm is taking
I’m on the shore, my heart is breaking
Watching a drowning in the making
It's gonna take me down—by morning
Living in guilt and dying in shame
The drunken sailor is not to blame
But when we asked for help millions came
And it was a brand new morning
Percussion – Jackeline Rago
HN: Thanks to Jackeline Rago for allowing me to sing, again, to her extraordinary orchestra of sounds.
* This sea chanty boasts many verses, all of which are about punishment. We now know that addiction is a disease and not something that can be beaten out of you.
http://www.na.org
http://www.aa.org
http://www.oa.org
**"Sick and tired of being sick and tired" has entered popular language use. Where did it come from? Fannie Lou Hamer said it. She was one of the most important influences in the civil rights movement. Learn more. http://www.ibiblio.org/sncc/people.html
This is Peace
Words and music by Amy Carol Webb
© Different Stripes Music, ASCAP
It's still believing in love in a moment of anger
It's still believing in faith in the face of fear
It's still believing in courage in the presence of danger
It's believing in truth when nothing much seems clear
It's still believing in righteousness when all around seems wrong
It's still believing in joy when sorrow's tears prevail
It's still believing in harmony when your heart forgets its song
It's still believing in hope when all else fails
This is peace
The only kind we'll ever know
On the sojourn here below the canopy of dreams
This is peace
The kind no one may lock and raise
It's gratitude and praise
And love by any means
It's still believing in light as the shadows deepen
It's still believing in fellowship when you feel alone
It's still believing that your memories are the only thing worth keeping
Believing in family when you can’t go home
This is peace
The only kind we'll ever know
On the sojourn here below the canopy of dreams
This is peace
The kind no one may lock and raise
It's gratitude and praise
And love by any means
Vocals Holly with Libby McLaren
Support vocals arranged by Libby McLaren
Keyboards – John Bucchino
Bass – Jan Martinelli
Guitar – Nina Gerber
Drums – Paul van Wageningen
Oh River
Words and music by Holly Near
© Hereford Music (ASCAP)
Oh river take it on down, take it on down, take it on down
Oh river take it on down, take it on down to the sea
Someday i will fly so high
I will walk barefoot on the sky
Oh river take it on down, take it on down, take it on down
Oh river take it on down, take it on down to the sea
Someday i will dance so fast
The future will start to look like the past
Oh river take it on down, take it on down, take it on down
Oh river take it on down, take it on down to the sea
Someday i will sing so high
The birds will look up and wonder why
Oh river take it on down, take it on down, take it on down
Oh river take it on down, take it on down to the sea
Here we are to celebrate love, family gathered around
In a time when war is raging, love is so profound
Oh river take it on down, take it on down, take it on down
Oh river take it on down, take it on down to the sea
Keyboards – John Bucchino
Bass– Jan Martinelli
Guitar – Nina Gerber
Drums – Paul van Wageningen
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