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Steer In The Night

by The Old Dance School

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A spring day and the small birds were singing Down by a shady arbour I carelessly did stray and the Curlews were warbling, the harebells blooming I see two lovers talking, a while I did delay. She said my love don't leave me all for another season While fortune may be pleasing I'll go along with you I'll forsake friends and relations and quit this Irish nation And to the bonny Bann banks I'll bid adieu. He said my love don't grieve me or yet annoy my patience You know I love you dearly although I must away I'm going to some foreign nation to purchase a plantation For to feed us hereafter all in Americae. The landlords and their agents, their bailiffs and their beagles The land of our forefathers we're forced to give o'er And we're sailing on the ocean for honour and promotion Parting with our sweethearts, it's them we do adore. And if you were in your bed lying and thinking on dying One sight of the bonny Bann banks your sorrows you'd give o'er And if you were but one hour all in her shady bower Pleasure would surround you and you'd think on death no more. So fair thee well sweet Craigie Hill where of'n times I've roved in I never thought in my childhood days I'd part you any more but we're sailing on the ocean for honour and promotion The bonny boat's a-sailing down by Durin's shore.
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Sit down, sit down son I want to ask you once again This time will you come with me To Sula Sgier across the sea The men and I are leaving tonight We slip the moorings at midnight Vittled to last us two hard weeks Steer in the night north by north-east. Sixty miles on our true line Beneath the cliffs we'll anchor down Eight-hundred years we've taken from here Two-thousand seabirds every year Seared and plucked, salted and stacked We sail two-thousand Gugas back And the people all smile from the harbour wall For gannet and potato on the table. Steer in the night north by north-east Steer in the night north by north-east Steer in the night north by north-east Steer in the night north by north-east Island folk a long time gone Sustained in seabirds on their own Year on year never left them short Boiled in the porridge a puffin they caught But life was hard then not like today With food from sunny lands far away But we'll tip our glass, we'll taste the sea And I'll ask you now like my father asked me Steer in the night north by north-east Steer in the night north by north-east Steer in the night north by north-east Steer in the night north by north-east Listen father, I'm employed By the power company from far abroad Each day up to the peat hags I go Where the great wind-towers like trees they grow The wind is fuel and the price is high For energy harnessed from the sky But my table's set and my bed is warm And our children will find their way back home. So father, father don't you see We're just the same both you and me From the land and sea we take our share White wings on the slant Atlantic air So when the wheat and barley's golden still But before the heather's here Call the men together again And sail for Sula Sgier Steer in the night north by north-east Steer in the night north by north-east Steer in the night north by north-east Steer in the night north by north-east
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Now the water's flowing fast beneath the bridge So many miles have passed beneath the wheel The leaves are stirring up around our feet And we're sitting here just trying to break the deal Just like Blondin with his smile on the wire When we see the smoke we cry fire When we see the smoke we cry fire Tonight by bag is packed For the ones who push their heads into the ground And the lines we have scratched into the map Are splintered and cracked, shackled and bound But it feels like we're still crossing barbed wire When we see the smoke we cry fire When we see the smoke we cry fire Just look out your window, trace your footprints in the snow Look out your window, see how far we have to go Like the brief kiss of light to the silver nitrate This is the real thing. You know we stamp on thin ice But it's hard to see the second we ignored our own advice We're so used to a second chance But it's not the night for wallflowers take my hand, let's dance We're turning up the sound a little higher When we see the smoke we cry fire When we see the smoke we cry fire Just look out your window, trace your footprints in the snow Look out your window, see how far we have to go Like the brief kiss of light to the silver nitrate This is the real thing. This is the right time This is the moment Like the first breaking light through the clouds And we're snatching the pull chord 'cause this is the real thing This time we're going to sing it out loud And we're towing the line now 'cause this is the moment Like the first breaking light through the clouds And we're snatching the pull chord 'cause this is the real thing This time we're going to sing it out loud
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Out on the streams and ribbons of wind The spine of the north stands, dusk begins And chasing the light I'll race the world turning To the rocks on the edge at the end of the day They've watched as the rain moves in from the west And the Ring-Oozel shyly returns to his nest They've stood as the winter ice melts into spring Colours ignited to purple and grey And in the visible silence of scattering light As the forms fade and soften on the crest of the night I've slept by these gritstones amid the moor sleeping Them fast in the darkness as the wind-shadows sway And what of these old songs we hear in the morning? And what of these new lines at the end of the day? Through the tide-race of living, our rising and falling The edge is by island, and I'm cast away As we weather our storms there's a still place within me As the change of the seasons marks the land's constancy And I'll drink in this breath like so many before me Who've stood here forever and the brink of the day So what of these old songs we sing in the morning? And what of these new lines we hear on the way? So chasing the light I'll race the world turning To my place on the north edge at the end of the day.
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Wen (Live) 08:32
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Who'll be the Lady and who'll be the Lord When they are met in the love of one another? Who'll be the Lady and who'll be the Lord In the light that's coming in the morning? Sing John Ball, tell it to them all Long be the day that's dawning We'll crow like a cock and we'll carol like a lark For the light that's coming in the morning. Eve is the Lady and Adam is the Lord When they are met in the love of one another Eve is the Lady and Adam is the Lord In the light that's coming in the morning All shall be met in the fellowship I say All shall be met in the love of one another All shall be met in the fellowship I say In the light that's coming in the morning Labour and spin for the fellowship you're in Labour and spin for the love of one another Labour and spin for the fellowship you're in In the light that's coming in the morning.
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released September 8, 2014

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The Old Dance School Birmingham, UK

Duelling fiddles, soaring brass crescendos, and irresistible grooves, The Old Dance School's expansive, cinematic sound charts their remarkable journey from ballet school basement jam sessions and cowshed rehearsals, to remote lighthouses, to headline appearances at international festivals. ... more

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