Get all 7 Birch Book releases available on Bandcamp and save 50%.
Includes unlimited streaming via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality downloads of Werewolf's Eyes (single w/ b-side), Fortune & Folly (volume II), A Hand Full of Days (Vollume III), Birch Book (Volume I), Birch Book (French 10" EP), Tomorrow's Sun Will Rise the Same, and Tangles of the Vine (VPRO Radio Sessions).
1. |
Birch Bark I
01:53
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2. |
How the Hours...
04:28
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Staring out of the window
How the clouds are moving slow
Watching their broken fragments
As the tea is on the stove
Floor is scattered paper
And the dishes all undone
Before I get my life in line
I'll write me one more song
How the hours sing along
Their solemn requiem
Open sky before me
Behold me now just as I am
Listen here you old big world
Beyond my own mind's door
If you come a-knocking
Mind you ain't no bore
'Cause if you's gonna clamor
Awake my weary dream
You ought at least to offer
For my tea some cream
How the hours sing aloud
Their solemn requiem
Open sky before me
Behold me now just as I am
I have some time for thinking
When nothing else is mine
When I got the world to please
I cannot find the rhyme
Yeah, when I lose my rhythm
Where that I can float
Seems without a river
Ain't much use a boat
How the hours sing along
Their solemn requiem
Open sky before me
Behold me now just as I am
The trees just keep on growing
And the sky still making rain
When I wake I know that
For me it is the same
Ask me why I'm living
I'll say it always was
Ask why the sun is giving
And you see it don't need a cause
How the hours sing along
Their solemn requiem
Open sky before me
Behold me now just as I am
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3. |
Five Hundred Keys
06:12
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On a frosty morning I awake by the gale
And gold sparkled colors, they scatter the trail
I gather my belongings and I follow the scent
All them wise people, I ask where they went
The children are silent with a colorful dress
The old ones just smile under certain duress from another
But what’s at the doorstep as the evening come by,
A gift and a card without any why
I lift up the lid and inside the box
Are five hundred keys
Without any locks worth picking
I arrive at the party with a hole in my shoe
They invite me in for they have no excuse
But the cake is all eaten and the drinks they are stale
They pass round the candle so I tell my tale to another
But what’s on the table as the mornin’ arrives?
A gift and a card and I’m none the wise
I looked at the card to see what it said
It was blank so it left me to think what I may be thinking
On a frosty evening I shy from the gale
And dark settled colors they scatter the trail
I gather my belongings and follow the scent
Find them old people all making lament
The children still silent but over they’ve bent
The ones just wince at their certain descent like any other
But what’s at the graveyard as the noontime abides
A gift and a card, ain’t that no surprise
I left there the gift and I wrote on the card
I’m still learning my ways but give my regard to another
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4. |
Easy to Live a Lie
04:47
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You knew it was bad in October
Thought you had nowhere else to go
Said in November you’re leaving
Got to get on the right track now
Said you’d be saving your money
Had to make good on some old debt
Said in some weeks you’d be ready
“Before twenty-one days I bet”
Why, oh why is it easy to live a lie?
How, oh how do you stay when you ought to go?
Spent your money for booze on the weekend
To make bearable the time
Floating along in Limbo
I’m sure it’s easier without a spine
Worried about all them people
Them that would be let down
Losing your life to the leeches
When you’re ought to be leaving town
Why, oh why is it easy to live a lie?
How, oh how do you stay when you ought to go?
You said it would be February
You’d be free before Valentine’s
Had so much more to get ready
While the weeks just go passing by
Sure, you’d be out end of March
Like you might have thought last fall
But the end of next month is a farce
It never really comes at all
You say it’s hard to think it out clear
Just don’t know what to do
As always there’s something there to fear
And as always it’s up to you
Ah, there’s always an excuse or other
For what never gets done
So, if it’s not worth the bother
I suppose I’m better off alone
Why, oh why is it easy to live a lie?
How, oh how do you stay when you ought to go?
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5. |
Coffee Morning
04:42
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Coffee morning
Your dreams slip away
Into fanciful tales of yesteryears
And just the other day
The pleasures you stole
The night before
They still linger in your hair
Coffee morning
Your head’s in a swoon
Your thoughts would seem
Now as the steam
Now, as the dew upon your spoon
Out awnings and leaves
Through windows and trees
Comes the day’s noon
Coffee morning
Smooth your wrinkled brow
Recall the whimsical name
Of a fleeting game
That led you on to know
The wings that she had
When giddy and glad
And the nimbus glow
What was it like hung in mid-flight
Caught on the full moon’s glare
The tune you hear on gilded tiers
The words you wish you’d shared
Coffee morning
You’re coming unsewn
Over that faraway girl
With her heart in her eyes
Her thoughts you’d like to know
About their colors and moods
Refined or crude
But you’re alone
And so you brew
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6. |
Eglantine
02:49
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7. |
Train to Rome
04:12
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I watch the silt of my desire
Settle to an unquiet fire
While my loaded feet watch the ways go by
They will not roam on a train to Rome
In the dark my mind unties
With swollen thoughts of brown wide eyes
Amid the rush, possibilities arise
Glimpsed, then gone, on a train to Rome
A train to Rome; on a train to Rome
Glimpsed, then gone, on a train to Rome
From Leipzig to Milan
I leaned on you; you held my hand
But ours like all the journeys they will end
You continue on alone for a train to Rome
I’ll need to get on to Amsterdam
To catch a plane; to keep a plan
But with a homeless heart held in my hand
All my home is on a train to Rome
A train to Rome; on a train to Rome
All my home is on a train to Rome
From unparted lips a quiet moan
An aching gut and empty bones
For the skin I’ll never touch alone
Torn from my own on a train to Rome
A train to Rome; on a train to Rome
Torn from my own for a train to Rome
I watch the silt of my desire
Settle to an unquiet fire
While my loaded feet watch the ways go by
They will not roam on a train to Rome
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8. |
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Do you ever remember that brief autumn stretch
When you’d spend every night that you could?
We slept carless while leaves made patches on sidewalks
How I remember your eyes then
And the torn faded white blanket that we so adored
Do you ever remember
We laughed all night
And I would bite your ankle
make you cry of laughter
We made forts from the bed that we found at the yard sale
Hid in there ‘til night came so that no one else could see
Do you have any pictures from then?
Do you ever dream about then?
Do you ever feel it now,
The way the Wind was that fall?
How I remember your eyes then
And the torn faded white blanket that we so adored
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9. |
Sleepless Search
03:47
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All that day I have forgotten
And I forgot your name
I’ve only my own inclinations
Of sleepless search
Upon a tireless wing
from the wilderness of self
To the compass of the other
Some inclinations yet to follow
When I knew you you’d take some photographs
Of every happy time you knew
And when you’re old you would remember
And poor the boxes through
If now I could remember
Why it was I refused your arms
And your open bosom bountiful
If now I could remember
How the pieces fit their parts
How the pieces fit together
I’d remember all that day
And I would recall your last name
I’d mind the life that I have chosen
In sleepless search upon a tireless wing
From the wilderness of self
To the compass of the other
Some inclinations yet to follow
If it is I can remember
How the pieces fit their parts
How the pieces fit together
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10. |
Warm Wind and Rain
05:10
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If you have a little time to spend with me
If you have a subtle thought to share
I’m as open as the wild and rolling sea
And I have all the world to spare
If you tell me now as real and true
What you see or seem to be
as luring as the outspread sea-sky blue
Of horizons in the eyes you see
Lay down your burdens
Release your pain
Set a while in the garden
With warm wind and rain
the heart of the heavens heaves heavily
‘neath the sky’s gathering weighted wind
Thunder cracks instantaneously
As resurgent life begins
Soft like the moss growing on the grounds
And the bark of the living tree
Life alive in unknown bounds
Wild in the wind and free
Lay down your burden
Relieve your pain
Stay a while in my garden
With warm wind and rain
The road is yet flanked with briars
Narrow, steep and long
Warm a while ‘round my fire
My shoulder is wide and strong
Heavy is a world of sorrow
Loaded down, drab and grey
Leave your worries for tomorrow
And give today all away
Lay down your burdens
Release your pain
Set a while in the garden
With warm wind and rain
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11. |
Windows
02:27
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I look from my window
To see the sunrise
Stair out to the water
Of life in surprise
My word’s caught in windows
And most of them square
They taunt with their bordered views
And reflective glare
I sit by my window
To see the sunset
My eyelids glisten
Burn and then shut
Are the days growing shorter
Or is it I’m growing old
I’ll wade in the water
Before the story’s told
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12. |
Birch Bark II
01:57
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Birch Book
The enigmatic B’eirth is best known as the frontman for the psychedelic folk outfit In Gowan Ring. However, with his Birch Book project, he has moved away from the psychedelics and instead, opted for a simpler, more straightforward folk sound. The result, however, is still some pretty haunting — and haunted — music, thanks to B’eirth’s deft guitar-work and dreamy Nick Drake-esque vocals. - Opus ... more
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