SEED Songs - Album Liner Notes
Credits
All songs by Carmen Braden
Except Woman with the Blade by Carmen Braden and Mark Adam
All parts sung and performed by Carmen Braden
Except Woman With The Blade: Carmen Braden - voice, Mark Adam – synthesizers
Produced by Mark Adam
Mixed by Mark Adam at Music In the Woods
Mastered by John McLaggan at Parachute Mastering
Graphic design by Mel Leonard
Photography by Hannah Eden
Thanks
Thanks to my family - couldn’t do any of this without you.
Thanks to Mark Adam for the guidance, friendship and honesty. And the beautiful music.
Thanks also to Mary Kelly, Marie Coderre, Debbie Peters, Mel Leonard, Hannah Eden, Sarah Mcleod, Rob and Margo Warburton, Taylor Jacobs, Etandah.
Supported by the NWT Arts Council, the Yellowknife Community Foundation and the Northern Arts and Cultural Centre.
Lyrics and LIner Notes
1 The Mind is Wild (2:11)
The wilderness is just a state of mind
The mercury it drops below the line
The cold, it keeps our fears away
We organize our minds in layers
The air, it hurts my skin to breathe
The cold, it keeps our fears away
We organize our minds in layers
2 Dance with your Troubles (1:03)
No matter how many times you look away it’ll still be there
Reach out your hand, take your troubles for a dance
3 Cascade (1:22)
Cascade, touch touch go
Domino, domino, domino
Like a river rushing downhill, all pregnant with snow
And million-year-old overflow
Cascade, touch touch go
Domino, domino, domino
4 Menu (2:01)
You got me all carved up like a menu
One for you, one for you, one for you
The knife carves up the day,
Faster and faster like a butcher well-practiced
Each part falls away leaving just the bones
With a push they collapse
Every man, woman and child in arm's reach wants a piece of me
Like I’m the only bird in a house full of foxes,
chickadee chickadee
Scramble for the door, lock it down, lock me in
Lock it down, lock me in
Lie down still on the floor
Feel the hum of the nervous system
You got me all carved up like a menu
One for you, one for you, one for you
5 Hummingbird Fast (0:58)
Give me your heartbeat, hummingbird fast
I’ll lay it down gently on my own chest
Sew it on with bone needle and ink for thread
So it will last, hummingbird fast
6 Kick Kick (2:38)
Kick kick, tell me how all the time that I should have done something else
Or all the times you rolled your eyes, the clenched fist, the heavy sighs
Would’ve been better if I kept quiet
But not far
Was it what I said, the way I said it, or was it the things that I never said?
The things I just rehearsed in my head
Kick kick, cover up, smile for the kids and the cameras
Kick kick, make it up, make up and make love about it
Go our separate ways
But not far
7 I’m Jealous (0:56)
I’m jealous of your body in its untouched glory
I’m jealous of your body and its oblivious centre of gravity
I’m jealous you can turn your brain off so many times a day
And still be considered the same by the outside world
I’m jealous of you lying in the bed without a care in your head
And it’ll keep me awake long after I come to bed
8 Touch of a Stranger (1:25)
Some days I crave the touch of a stranger
One that’ll never happen again
I see it coming, I let them in
There’s a time to be gentle and a time to be firm
Some days I crave the touch of a stranger
9 Grief Wine Whiskey (1:17)
My grief and your grief hung out together
Your grief gave mine a bottle of wine
My grief wished that it was whiskey
And the weather never is what it needs to be
There’s always more time for our grief to meet
But a bottle of wine will never be a bottle of whiskey.
10 Ken’s Calves (1:53)
Ken’s calves got me through
Like two legs wrapped into one
With my back to the wall, all I could see was Ken’s calves.
The hour was a hard hour, sweat hour!
Ken’s calves got me through
Like the CanadArm on the International Space Station
Goin’ round, round, round, round, round was Ken’s Calves
All we do is 7-8-9
I wanna hit my 10
The hour was a hard hour, sweat hour!
Ken’s calves got me through
Flying up in the air like E.T. against the moonlight
Ken’s calves got me through
I pull the lightening on my legs,
Let’s go, let’s keep it stationary
11 Perfect Little Heart (0:50)
Your perfect little heart grabbed me by the heartstrings
Your perfect little heart grabbed me like a kite in the wind
Your perfect little heart wouldn’t let me go
In the middle of the night, all I want to do is fight your perfect little heart
12 The Lights of Port Angeles (1:38)
And the lights of Port Angeles looked so friendly
Across the water, through the telescope
Some days I thought I could taste the border
But it was just the ocean being foreign and frightening like it always is
We trespassed with a time limit
Staring at the locals, wondering what they thought of us
Broke back through the barrier
and signalled the all-clear, come and get us
And the transport took me home
and I slept each night full of wonder at what I’d seen
and a conscience far from guilty.
13 Skylight (0:54)
Punch a hole through the skylight
Make it count like a precision strike
You’re not a sparrow, you’re a tiger shrike
Smile through a mouth full of glass ceiling
Punch a hole through the skylight
See the hole, the hole lets the light in
Follow the light
14 Hermit (0:45)
Little hermit
Little snail in your shell
I was your link to the outside world
Everyone who came knocking had to go through me
15 Related through skates (1:06)
The man who was the best man at your best friend’s wedding just gave my little girl his youngest son’s skates. I guess that means we are related now.
All the things you turn to when you need someone to tell you that you got it made, but you’re still afraid to say so. I guess that means no one can tell you how.
It’s a shame I was ashamed of all the little thoughts I thought were the same as all the other ones that other people thought. I guess that means I can forget them now.
16 Woman with the Blade (1:27)
Trust the woman with the blade
To bring my face to life
Beautiful dead cells for a frame
17 Only One of Her (0:38)
There’s only one of her
Only one, only one
I could say it many times, many times
But there’s only one, only one of her.
18 Serendipity (3:04)
Fifteen thousand feet above the Canadian North
It’s a big place
We met and it was up in the air
All the impossible things humans can do
Some call it serendipity, I call it me and you
On a nameless lake, beside the one with the name
It’s a big place
We met and got a fire going up in the rain
All the impossible things humans can do
Some call it serendipity, I call it me and you