Some songs take longer than others....
I went back to the family well again for this one. I was thinking back on stories of a great-grandmother who lived in the Midwest, and who, despite her own evident intelligence and ambition, may not have had the happiest marriage or the ability to spread her own wings. Then there was another story of a great-great somebody whose family was so poor that they had to eat songbirds. And here we are.
Structurally, this song still feels a little shaggy to me...edits to come.
If I wake before sunrise there’s time to count starlings
Outside my window
Reminds me of when I laid traps for the birds as a girl
Each morning, to my mother’s dismay
I opened the cages and they’d fly away
into skies that were fading from gray into mother of pearl
Have you felt your heart lift when you set a bird free
Watched for so long you could no longer see
Maybe someday someone will do that for me
Tommy brought flowers to the shop every day
and he just kept asking
With a fine pocket watch and a smile that just wouldn’t take no
I thought maybe our love would grow wings
but it stayed in its cage—just one of those things
And time, which once flowed like a spring, started to slow
Have you felt your heart lift when you set a bird free
Watched for so long you could no longer see
Maybe someday someone will do that for me
We held on to the shop and we do pretty well
I can send some extra
to my daughter who lives in Chicago, she sings like a bird
That morning, though I wanted to die
I packed up her bags and I told her to fly
And when Tommy came home and asked why
I said not a word
Have you felt your heart lift when you set a bird free
Watched for so long you could no longer see
Maybe someday someone will do that for me
Tommy says hobbies will keep us both young
I look out the window
I tell him that counting the starlings will do me just fine
And he’s out in the shop fixing grandfather clocks
Adjusting the gears and replacing the locks
There’s no laugh in his laugh when he says
I got nothing but time
Have you felt your heart lift when you set a bird free
Watched for so long you could no longer see
Maybe someday someone will do that for me
@richaaaay Feb 2022
Wow. This is touching, both lyrically and how you play and sing the song. The guitar is gentle and flowing. Your vocal phrasing authentic and so tenderly pleasing. Lyrics are just a bowl full of gems. I give this a 10 out of 10.
@mikedebenham Feb 2022
'There's no laugh in his laugh' - lovely line. This is, as usual, masterful storytelling, beautifully paced. And reading your liner notes now about eating songbirds - that adds a whole layer to the opening verse. Necessity forcing you to eat beauty, good lord.
@donna Feb 2022
Beautifully rich, flowing lyric. Wonderful details and storytelling. The music/melody and your vocals are utterly compelling.
@standup Feb 2022
I like the allegory here, the freedom our protagonist desires. The story in the beginning, setting the premise: Trapping birds and setting them free.
Your sense of melody and powerful voice are working nicely here.
And the daughter, telling her to fly--works with this story on all levels.
Not that it matters, but counting starlings. What a depressing task. When I see them they are in flocks of hundreds. And they all look the same. To me.
@truetone Feb 2022
Your voice is beautiful. Great melody too! "I opened the cages and they’d fly away into skies that were fading from gray into mother of pearl," what a great image!
@liz561 Feb 2022
The chorus on this is so heartbreaking. The vocals are so intimate. Is there anything you can't turn into a stunning song???
@nateger Feb 2022
What wonderful images! Love the internal rhymes throughout. Lovely singing and you crafted such an engrossing story. Brilliant stuff!
@tukayandryan Feb 2022
This is such a wonderful story just beautifully delivered. Beautiful imagery as always. Your vocal is just stunning on this. Love love love it.
@davidtaro Feb 2022
Damn, your voice is so frickin good! There’s an indefinable quality in the timbre that all the best singers have, and you’ve just got it in spades. Lovely extended metaphor in the lyrics, and the guitar sounds perfect. But yeah, all about your vocal on this one for me. It’s sublime :)
@coolparadiso Feb 2022
a good storytelling some based in imagery. Time and space to breath. Nice little internal rhymes! songwriters song so much to sift through while pleasing on the ear
@kenmattsson Feb 2022
Such great lyrics (as always). So evocative and I love the identifying setting birds free with so many other situations. As always, flawless playing and singing.
@leslie333 Feb 2022
Oooh, so evocative - wonderful images. I love all the bird mentions throughout and that wistful feeling of wanting to be free. Love it!
@ericlord Feb 2022
This played when I was on the road earlier today and it was perfect, with the sun and the snow. Beautiful and somewhat nostalgic.
@bethdesombre Feb 2022
This is absolutely gorgeous. The birds are so subtly strewn throughout this song -- both real and metaphoric. And that chorus (and its last line)! Oof. (You use the "one note" so effectively -- how do you create such lift with such little melodic variation?) The second verse is heartbreaking in its simplicity, as is the whole story. Just beautiful.
@serene123 Feb 2022
Beautifully heartfelt. Some poignant and descriptive lyrics.. lovely images that engage the listener. The chorus is really good.. that last line especially