Toss the Bones: Credits and Lyrics

 

 

Toss the Bones (Fall 2017- Winter 2019)

 

Produced, Engineered and Mixed by Grant Heckman.

 

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Mastered by Paul Milner of Trillium House Studio

Percussion and Electric, Baritone and Bass Guitars by Grant Heckman

Percussion, drums and Synthesizer  by Clinton Charlton.                                                               Acoustic Guitars and Vocals by Debbie Adshade

Songs by Debbie Adshade @Socan 2018.                                                                                 (Lyrics for Sancte are Public Domain)

Thank you to the New Brunswick Arts Board                                                                         for support via a Creation Grant. (2012)

Thanks to Jo-anne Elder for her gift of “Unfinished Dreams” and  to the wonderful New Brunswick Poets who inspired these songs.

Thanks in advance to poets Clyde Wray, Greg Cook, Hermenegilde Chaisson  and Ann Compton for inspiration on songs still in the woodshed. 


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Toss the Bones

Inspired by Alden Nowlan’s What Happened When he went to the Store for Bread. In his poem, Nowlan describes a chain of events that begin with his trip to the store to buy bread. He muses on how his taste in music led to a friendship (Jim Stewart) that led to a marriage  and the arrival of children who would never had born except for his taste in music. 

Knucklebones was an ancient game of chance using sheep knuckles for die. You would toss the bones and hope for the best. In this song I contemplated our tentative relationship with destiny. Our orchestrations and solid plans can unravel at a simple fork in the road. A single wayward movement might set off the ‘Butterfly Effect’ rippling outward to ultimate chaos.

I once had a looking glass

showed the future clear and vast

I knew which way the die was cast

My fine designs carved into stone

Every crest and curve was showed

But fickle winds they tossed the bones

***I felt a butterfly flicker my skin                                                                                         Started a hurricane and it all began to spin……….

The mirror cracked my second sight

Turned to the left should’ve gone right

It all had changed at the speed of light

*** I felt a butterfly flicker my skin                                                                                       Started a hurricane and it all began to spin…….


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The Thin Divine

This song was inspired by Allan Cooper’s beautiful poem The Thin Places. His words reminded me of a brief and now elusive experience; something I probably have no business trying to describe.

I played a melody on my guitar

all through the night

Lying on a carpet feet up the wall

trying to get it right

Over and over

all through the night

All at once took a fancy flight

to another plane

Bedazzled becalmed and clear as the sky

saw you again saw you….saw you again

*** it was over in a moment but it haunts me to this day                                                                   And the more I try to glimpse it well the more it stays away

Turned the world over with a fine-tooth comb

Looking for a sign

circles of stones and relics and bones

a holy shrine

seeking the thin divine

*** it was over in a moment but it haunts me to this day                                                                   And the more I try to glimpse it well the more it stays away


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Still I Wonder

Inspired by Lynn Davies’ Rib Cage. This poem with its dark questions and images of a stark winter’s eve invoked thoughts of impermanence and mystery.

Past the great illuminate

past the shadow grave

Past the saffron robes that glow

past the soldier’s blade

Followed in the pale steps of the weary wise

Burnt a hole into the sun

Still I wonder why

Oh and still oh and still…I wonder why

Travelled deep into the gaze of a lover’s eye

Deeper still into the glaze of a flame that died

Oh and still oh and still….I wonder why

Once on a frosted eve over the diamond snow by the willows weave

Thought I caught a glimpse

thought I caught a glimpse


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Sancte

 

Inspired by the ‘Dungarvon Whooper’ by Michael Whelan. This is the story of a violent murder in a lumber camp at the turn of the 20th Century. The eerie howls that came from the spirit of the dead man were legend. The people were so unsettled by these screams that the Roman Catholic Church sent a Priest to perform an exorcism. One of the prayers used during the ordeal had been written by PopeLeo Xlll.  In l884 He took a seizure during Mass and claimed that he had been given the words by Saint Michael. A prayer for protection in dark times. 

Sáncte Míchael Archángele, defénde nos in proélio,

cóntra nequítiam et insídias diáboli ésto præsídium.

Ímperet ílli Déus, súpplices deprecámur: tuque, prínceps milítiæ cæléstis,

Sátanam aliósque spíritus malígnos, qui ad perditiónem animárum pervagántur in múndo, divína virtúte, in inférnum detrúde. Ámen.


47307592_10161318447775372_4324395625933176832_n      Happy

 

Inspired by Poet Ronald Despres’ ‘Suddenly it was good to be alive.’ This poem reminded me of those brilliant transitions from despair to joy. On those lucky days, it makes you aware of just how stunning life can be.

If you’re happy and you know it

And you really want to show it

If you’re happy and you know it

Take a bow do a jig

Go dancing in the street

If there’s a little bit of love

Tumbling around you from the sky above

If there’s a little bit of sweet love

Catch it up drink it down

Spread it all around.

*** Might be the rain or the color of the sky                                                                            Someone to love and drown in your eyes                                                                                         A hand to hold a kiss good night                                                                                                     The midnight flight of a thousand…fire flies…..


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Inspired by Noah Augustine’s Child of a burning Legacy. In this poem Noah Augustine describes his struggle as a leader of the Metepenagiag First Nation. ‘I was born on an Indian reservation, the child of a burning legacy, I’ve fought battles no man has every won and I’ve lost like the rest of them.’ I was moved by this poem and began to look into the life and stories of this man. This song is a sort of requiem.

Stardust in the spirit sky O warrior                                                                                           cross the heavens where the eagle flies                                                                                        let it go return to grace O warrior                                                                                               leave these broken vows and this mortal race

Fire from a dragon’s game O warrior                                                                                            you crossed the battle lines you walked through flames                                                                                                                                                                                                                    ****Legends from a thousand years are crying in the wind                                                               Go walk among the one’s who’ve gone before and let it go.

Star dust in the spirit sky O warrior                                                                                          cross the heavens where the eagle flies                                                                                      and may your spirit brave and wild O warrior                                                                        find a place in your childrens’ childrens’ child.

****Legends from a thousand years are crying in the wind                                                                Go walk among the one’s who’ve gone before and let it go.


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Welcome

 

      Inspired by Bliss Carmen’s A Northern Vigil. The poem invokes a sense of warmth and comfort and the anticipation of a lover coming home to the fireside.                                                              

 

Welcome bitter winter chill                                                                                                              beyond this frozen window sill                                                                                                   frosted stars and a black sky light                                                                                                 The crack of a river’s purple ice ……welcome

And welcome to my humble home                                                                                             Come sit beside my firestone                                                                                                              a cup of cheer and a song to fill                                                                                                    The winter’s night with our good will…..welcome

Welcome                                                                                                                                                   welcome home my love come freely                                                                                               welcome home my love…come safely

welcome crystal falling slow                                                                                                         The tumbling wings and an angel’s glow                                                                                welcome biting sleet and hail                                                                                                            the frigid breath of a northern gale……welcome

***Welcome                                                                                                                               welcome home my love come freely                                                                                  welcome home my love…come safely


 

The Devil at My Door

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This is the black sheep of this collection; this song is not inspired by New Brunswick poetry. Musically, it’s dirt road material, with a castle thrown in. This is a story of building a fortress to keep out intruders and still managing to lose it all.

 

Woke up my heart beating in the dead of night¬

Something at the back door and it’s moving slow and sly

Been around enough to know how wild things roll

Loser loses all winner takes your soul

*From steel and stone and slate I built a fortress strong                                                            Thought it would keep me safe…. never was more wrong

Saw a shadow move beyond my window sill

Then a silence from my bed made my heart go still

Cried out to my lover well I cried too late

Heard a goodbye on the wind as he slammed the gate

*From steel and stone and slate I built a fortress strong                                                  Thought it would keep me safe never was more wrong

Oh I……would keep the devil from my door and I would keep my love… forever more

Some nights leave you visions and some just lay siege

To a lonely heart and a cold forgotten deed

I am a castle keeper and I hold the key

Nothing’s getting through this door there’s nothing left to leave.

*From steel and stone and slate I’d built a fortress strong                                               Thought it would keep me safe never was more wrong

Oh I……Would keep the devil from my door And I would keep my love…Forever more