So We Sing: a lyrical collaboration with Cortney Tidwell

I can't resist posting this footage of Cortney Tidwell performing an instore at Grimey's Records in Nashville last year. I've been managing her for a while now, and am also proud to have made my own little contributions to her music. This song, 'So We Sing' -  released as a limited edition single at the end of 2009, and also available on her last album, 'Boys' - saw the two of us collaborate on the lyrics. We also worked together on its partner track, 'Oh Suicide'. "Sour mouth and glum keeps me out..."

So We Sing: a lyrical collaboration with Cortney Tidwell

Hilli (At The Top Of The World): A Collaboration with Lee Hazlewood

It still amazes me to write this, but for eight years I had the pleasure of getting to know the legendary Lee Hazlewood to such a degree that I stayed with him in Las Vegas repeatedly during the last 18 months of his life. Few things during our time together, however, were quite as memorable as his final performance. I'll never forget kneeling before him in his living room, a microphone in my hand plugged into a friend's minidisc player, to record his recitation of lyrics I had written at his request for a collaboration with Icelandic band amiina. The song is called 'Hilli (At The Top Of The World)'.

You can read more about the story behind the song in an interview I did with The Guardian's David Peschek - http://www.guardian.co.uk/music/2007/dec/21/folk - and you can see the video here:




If you'd like to follow the lyrics read on...

At the top of the world there’s an island

A place where the sun never shines

But the people don’t care

Because the snow over there

Is so bright they nearly go blind.

They live at the foot of a mountain

Where the flowers last hardly a day

But they live off the land,

Lend each other a hand

On this island where night is their day.

They’d have punished me if I dared tell you,

And if I asked them they’d say they don’t know,

But what keeps them healthy

Even though they’re not wealthy

On this magical island… is snow.

The flakes as they fall look like candy

Children rush out when it snows for a treat

Then they open their mouths

And gulp down the flakes

Because nothing on earth tastes so sweet.

But then one dark day

Smoke blew in their way

And the temperatures got higher

On the horizon they saw fire

And the waters did rise

As the snow started melting away.

And the people weren’t tearful

Not fearful or scared

Because the secret was out there,

At last,

The secret was shared.

They watched as the ice turned to water

And streamed down into the sea

And lit up the ocean

And crept in slow motion

Towards a world that they never did see

And people in lands round the planet

Were in shock as the light came to shore

And lit up their beaches

And even their teachers

Couldn’t say what the bright light was for.

It flowed upstream through the mountains

Burst out through their fountains

Breaking all life’s natural laws

‘Til it lit up the planet

And all who lived on it

Were touched by this magical force.

And they looked all around

At the sky, at the ground

And they realised the damage they’d done

As they started to cry

Their tears filled the sky

And black storm clouds gathered above

And then the heavens opened

And the rain came to show them

That their world needs a little more love.

At the top of the world there’s an island

A place where the sun never shines

But the people don’t care

Because the snow over there

Is so bright that the sun’s in their mind.

 
One day I'll finish my book about our unusual but deeply gratifying friendship.


R.I.P. Lee Hazlewood.

Hilli (At The Top Of The World): A Collaboration with Lee Hazlewood