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Latest videos from Simon Balto’s official Youtube channel (you can play and browse all their videos directly in this page):
Take Down Your Flag
Description: A song by Peter Mulvey, who asked some colleagues to write a middle verse in honor of one member of the Charleston 9. For Sharonda Coleman-Singleton.
Simon Balto - The Tower and the Bloom
Description: LYRICS:
Last night deep in the woods,
Two kids in winter hoods
Argued over heaven. One tall and plain to see
And one faded just like me
As they trudged blindly through the snow. And the whippoorwill in the forest
Sang a lonely chorus
For the questions they asked there. With their faces to the ground
They listened for a sound
To come floating 'cross the air.
For some kind of sign they might find her there. At dawn the sun it came,
And the snow did not remain
And the kids took off their jackets. And as the dew burned off the hill
And the forest stood quite still
One grabbed a stone and began to stack it. And the whippoorwill in the forest
Sang a lonely chorus
For the labors he did there. While the other cried and shook
The Driftless birthed a brook,
And it matted down his hair.
And he looked for her eyes in the rushing water there. They built a tower to the skies
Past where the bluebird flies
And sat upon its highest peak They stayed there throughout the day
And here and there they'd pray
Otherwise too scared to speak. And the whippoorwill in the forest
Sang a lonely chorus
To the prayers they whispered there But on that mountain made of stones
A fear crept in their bones
As the sun beat in their hair
And they may not find her in the clouds up there. So at dusk they looked around
And still heard not a sound
So they started down the tower One wept into his hands
Said "the question of heaven still stands,"
The other pointed to a flower. And the whippoorwill in the forest
Laughed a perfect chorus
To the smiles they shared there. For that bloom in all it's glory
It sang their mother's story
As the trees gathered to stare.
And they laid her down to rest in the forest there. ---
ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. "The Tower and the Bloom" was recorded on a Zoom handheld recorder, in Chicago in May 2013. For more material from Simon Balto, visit simonbalto.bandcamp.com.
Simon Balto - The One for the Coming Home
Description: LYRICS: This is one for the shuttered home,
This is one for the drifting snow.
Braid your hair up, darling, I'll see you in the Spring;
I'll murmur my way home on a starling's wing. Out of the city, I'm coming home;
I'll meet you where the west wind blows.
With backbone up, I'm coming home;
I'll lay you down where the willow tree grows. This is one for the July fire,
And this is one for the celebration pyre.
Autumn always comes like the springtime flood;
I'll sleep with you in a little room awash in love. Out of the wastelands, I'm coming home;
I'll meet you where the north star glows.
Sure as hellfire, I'm coming home;
I'll lay you down where the willow tree grows. ---
ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. "The One for the Coming Home" was recorded in one take and in one track in Chicago on November 7, 2012. For more material from Simon Balto, visit simonbalto.bandcamp.com.
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