This one starts with a song I wrote for my mom: the idea was that getting to know her as an adult, after all my youthful rebelliousness and teenage angst were over, was a revelation for me; it felt like ice melting after a long hard winter, and the sun coming out and warming everything up. The song was called “Thaw,” and we used to do that song a lot in my band, GrooveLily.
My mom passed away in 2009, and we haven’t played it in the band since — but this solo project is the perfect opportunity to bring it back; I think my mom would be very excited and proud about what I’m doing here. Just like my son is now, she was a small person with a very big voice and big personality, and she loved to sing. She was part Irish, and loved to sing Irish songs…so this is a re-imagining of “Thaw,” my song for my mother, mashed up with the Irish lullaby she used to sing to me.
lyrics
All of my strength, all my pride, these two eyes of blue
Everything I call my own first came from you
Age five: I ask why the ice melts - is it alive?
You smile and talk to me as we drive
You say everything changes when winter's gone
Ice melts and water flows on
I looked around
At the snow on the ground, and I saw...
The sun growing hotter, the ice cracking free
Clear rushing water as it raced toward the sea, past me
Then came the silence, the fury, the wars that we'd wage
Our house was colder than hell, heated only by rage
I grew tall
And stopped asking why 'cause I knew it all
The ice thick between us, a solid wall
You tried with fire and you tried with steel
Only to reveal
Nature's strange design
Warmth can only come in time...
Over in Killarney
Many years ago,
My mother sang a song to me
In tones so sweet and low.
Just a simple little ditty,
In her good old Irish way,
And l'd give the world if she could sing
That song to me this day.
"Too-ra-loo-ra-loo-ra, Too-ra-loo-ra-li,
Too-ra-loo-ra-loo-ra, hush now, don't you cry!
Too-ra-loo-ra-loo-ra, Too-ra-loo-ra-li,
Too-ra-loo-ra-loo-ra, that's an Irish lullaby."
Now the sun's growing hotter, the ice cracking free
Clear rushing water from you to me
Mother to daughter, the ice cracking free
Clear rushing water from you to me
Due to my publishing deal, I need to list this track as "All rights reserved," but if you want to use this audio for something, just get in contact with me at valerie at milburn dash vigoda dot com and we'll work something out.
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