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Spun Open

by Hawthorn

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1.
Little Bird 01:44
little bird, little bird, tell me what you've seen what's out there in the great wide world, tell me where you've been mama, oh mama, I've been traveling far I've been wandering over the ocean, under the moon and starts little bird, little bird, what do the people say did they greet you tenderly as you went on your way mama, oh mama, some of them were kind but some were carrying too much pain to give me any mind oh, my sweet little bird, tell me about your heart how did it fare on the winding road did you leave behind a part mama, oh mama, my heart is sad and worn it's all in pieces out in the world, left me here alone   little bird, little bird, what will you do now will you take what you have learned and write your story down mama, oh mama, I’ll take these things I know I will tell them over again, they’re with me as I go
2.
Appalachia 04:14
I went down to Carolina and I swam in foggy mountains the blue-eyed peaks they were watching as I knelt down to the ground and I sought resolution so I wandered through the weeds and I wondered where your feet had carried you to lately and I drove that blue-grey road and I kept the wheel straight and true though my shoulders shook and my knees did quake I kept my hands steady and still Appalachia show me home I went down to Carolina and I swam in foggy mountains the blue-eyed peaks they were watching as I knelt down to the ground Appalachia show me home
3.
Spun Open 04:30
my arms grew like trees into your sky tangled branches, the fire touch of skin on skin with eyes closed under the starry night you crept into my bed and my sight is blind with the scent of your smile and all the while we didn’t know we were spinning spinning, spinning do you want that too time lays on my chest so comfortably I missed you terribly, your breath in my dreams, ever pulsing seams with eyes closed under the starry night you crept into my bed and my sight is blind with the scent of your smile and all the while we didn’t know we were spinning spinning, spinning do you want that too you grabbed my hand a shift in sands and all the while we didn’t know we were spinning spinning, spinning and I want that too
4.
she’s got everything she needs, she’s an artist, she don’t look back she can take the dark out of the nighttime and paint the daytime black you will start out standing proud to steal her anything she sees but you will wind up peeking through her keyhole down upon your knees she never stumbles, she’s got no place to fall she’s nobody’s child and the law can’t touch her at all she wears an Egyptian ring that sparkles before she speaks she’s a hypnotist collector and you're a walking antique bow down to her on Sunday and salute her when her birthday comes for Halloween give her a trumpet, and for Christmas give her big drums she's got everything she needs, she’s an artist, she don’t look back
5.
Salt 04:07
in your dreams of the salt and waves do you see me there in your poems and your beach glass home do you see me there in the harbor, wooden boats crystallize and crash they break together on their own murmurs of the past wild abandoned rituals burning high in the wind where the ocean takes it all to the ash, to the sand waterfalls on silent skin in the cloudy cove build a driftwood castle hall memories unfold in the fires of cliffs and bones bear the stirring truth glowing coals and black blood stones on the open shoreline wild abandoned rituals burning high in the wind where the ocean takes it all to the ash, to the sand in your dreams of the salt and waves do you see me there in your poems and your beach glass home do you see me there
6.
Shadow 03:56
at the end of the day you're too tired for trying feelings dissipate when your weary body breaks what's another woman if you're just another woman yesterday you cared but today it's nothing new after all you're living in a world that wastes its wonder they said baby, understand how passion pardons lying from the doorway they apologize for falling but they never stick around and you're left to clean alone working bones that bear the weight of broken trust wipe your tears so you don't let your muscles rust what’s another woman if you’re just another woman take yourself away from the lies you tell each other spend the end of the day without his shadow in your sheets don't worry about forgiving don't worry about comparing another blazing fire burns better far away what's another woman if you're just another woman yesterday you cared but today it’s nothing new after all you’re living in a world that wastes its wonder at the end of the day you’re too tired for trying feelings dissipate when your weary body breaks what's another woman if you're just another woman what’s another woman if you’re just another woman take yourself away from the lies you tell each other spend the end of a day without his shadow in your sheets on your own you're not another
7.
Borderline 03:50
my love lives by the river, far across the town I go out late to meet him, to the water we go down hand in hand we swim a steady line my lover sings to me across the borderline my lover is a handsome man, he's dark and he is wild the girls all watch him sweetly and they pull him with their guile but oh, his eyes are always locked in mine my lover sings to me across the borderline oh my lover is not steady, no courting man is he while others call more constantly, he never chases me he pays no mind to passing marks of time but he still sings to me across the borderline my lover is a rambler, I cannot keep him here but though he’s on the highway, his heart is always near late at night he's drinking blood red wine and singing soft to me across the borderline
8.
Goldenrod 02:36
goldenrod, growing tall, will you stand beside me as the winds roll in and the waters rise, will you keep my heart afloat sun pours over us, in fields of what we think we know I walk in strength my love, with the spirit of what we'll always hold goldenrod, growing tall, are you here beside me as the winds sing high, and the waters roar, I will keep my head above sun pours over us, in fields of what we think we know I walk in strength my love, with the spirit of what we'll always hold goldenrod, growing tall, will you remain beside me as the light falls low in the changing sky, will I know my home again I will know my home again
9.
oh all the money that e'er I spent, I spent it in good company and all the harm that e'er I've done, alas, it was to none but me and all I've done for want of wit to memory now I can't recall so fill to me the parting glass, good night and joy be with you all oh all the comrades that e'er I've had are sorry for my going away and all the sweethearts that e'er I've had would wish me one more day to stay but since it falls unto my lot that I should rise and you should not I'll gently rise and I'll softly call: good night and joy be with you all

about

“Little bird, little bird, what will you do with your sorrows and your stories? ‘I will tell them over again, they're with me as I go.’
“This really is the essence of Spun Open, the debut album from Boston-based duo Hawthorn. Taylor Holland and Heather Scott chronicle the highs, the lows and the lessons of past years, imbuing the matter-of-fact temperament of the folk ballad with candid sincerity. Musically the whole album has the quality of threads spun out into loose acoustic textures that weave together and fray apart under interlocking vocals. The songs are some of them sad and some of them sweet and all of them resonating with meaning and the unsaid. They will burrow into a nook in your heart.” - Eleanor Elektra

‘Little Bird,’ a short call and response accompanied only by body percussion, opens the record. The dialogue between the Mama and Little Bird voices is a tender reflection on a young woman’s journey into the world, hinting at where Hawthorn has come from and where it is going.

From the sensual ‘Spun Open’ to the bitter loss of ‘Shadow’ and the nostalgia of ‘Borderline,’ much of the record treats with romantic love in its many forms. Hawthorn’s voices blend in joy, sorrow, and resolution, carrying each other through the stages of each song’s journey. There are moments of elation-- “the fire touch of skin on skin” and wise reflection-- “my lover is a rambler, I cannot keep him here / but though he’s on the highway, his heart is always near,” finding and celebrating the soft nuances of relationship.

On the album’s lead single, ‘Salt,’ heartbreak is transformed into a sacred reclamation of wild feminine power. The ocean, at first a place to grieve, becomes the source of active healing, offering inspiration for what Red Line Roots has called “an endless abyss of emotion...that makes its way from the hopeless and tormented to the light and optimistic.”

Hawthorn’s cover of ‘She Belongs to Me’ reimagines Bob Dylan’s anti-love song as a celebration of sisterhood and female artistry, a light-hearted middle finger to anyone that might think heartbreak would hold these women back. When sung by Heather and Taylor, the words “she’s got everything she needs, she’s an artist, she don’t look back” transform from condemnation to affirmation.

Bookending the body of Spun Open are Appalachia and Goldenrod, two co-writes with Hawthorn mentor and friend Henna Wallace (who contributes vocals to Goldenrod as well). These songs carry an gentle but persistent quest for home, from the plaintive call ‘Appalachia show me home’ to the firm questioning of the goldenrod plant ‘are you here beside me?’ The longing for home resonates deeply, echoing Little Bird’s sorrowful discovery that her heart is ‘all in pieces out in the world.’

The album concludes with a haunting rendition of ‘The Parting Glass,’ a traditional song of Heather and Taylor’s Celtic heritage that they sing at the end of every performance. Recorded late at night around a single microphone, the voices are accompanied by a water-filled glass, a final nod to the ethos of the entire recording project: arrangements that could just as easily take place on a porch in late summer as in a studio.

credits

released March 24, 2017

Heather Scott and Taylor Holland
vocals / guitar / songwriting (BMI)

Jacob Rosati - percussion / guitar (6) / banjo (2,4,7)
James Staub - bass (4,5)
Henna Wallace - vocals (8) / songwriting (2,8)
Isabel Ramirez - songwriting (3)
Crystal Wegner - harmonica (3)

Jacob Rosati - engineering / producing / mastering
Sophie Greenspan - design
Cat Dussault - design
Sam Freedman - photography

Recorded at The Berwick in Boston.
Mixed and mastered at Marsella in Mexico City.

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about

Hawthorn Boston, Massachusetts

Hawthorn, created by Heather Scott and Taylor Holland, “digs into its folk roots while also reminding us that tradition is about tending to the flame, not the ashes” (NPR). “When they harmonize, the edges of their voices bleed together like watercolors on paper” (WBUR). Their LP Maggie Willow was named to WBUR and Sound of Boston’s top albums of 2019. ... more

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