Perennial

RECORDED LIVE AT THE IAMA LOCAL CONCERT SERIES, Jan 3, 2025

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Storm on the Desert

(Written during Artist-in-Residence for the Entrada Institute.)

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Our love is, we both agree
Is rain on the desert, rain on the desert
And our love is, when we disagree
A storm on the desert, a storm on the desert

Where there is nowhere to hide
Nowhere, not where our love goes
And where it goes
Sometimes it looks like we are fighting
But it's more like lightning
More like lightning

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Our tears are, tears that are warm
Are rain on the desert, rain on the desert

And our minds meet in the middle of a storm

A storm on the desert, a storm on the desert

We feel the thunder in the light
We breathe the clouds
And watch how our love grows
And where it goes
Sometimes it looks like we are fighting
But it's more like lightning
More like lightning

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Our dreams, they wake in the lightning storm

And the earth, it shines in the lightning storm

Our hands, they glow in the lightning storm

And our love, it waits in the lightning storm

Our love, it waits in the lightning storm

Sometimes love can be frightening

But it's more like lightning More like lightning
More like lightning
More like lightning

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Beneath the Night Sky

(Written during a river trip on the Green River, UT.)

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Old friends beneath the night sky

Stayin’ awake to watch the moon rise

We see a meteor fall
No wonder I can’t sleep

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All’s quiet in the campground
The sound of the river’s in the background

The stars twinkle, like secrets
No wonder I can’t sleep

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CHORUS
Still have the taste of good wine
The world fades away at this time
Just my friend and I beneath the night sky

Still have the taste of good wine
The world fades away at this time
For my friend and I beneath the night sky

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You ask me a question
It takes a while for me to answer
That’s how it goes when we are traveling through space

No wonder we can’t sleep

Soon you might be in slumber

That spell we all go under
Are we awake or dreaming

No wonder we can’t sleep

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CHORUS

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Plans Are Written in the Sand

(Written during a river trip on the Green River, UT.)

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This time last year we’d planned to meet

Along this river green
But now the campsite’s flooded over

And I cannot read the scene

My heart is torn from what I’d heard
I’d heard my chance is gone
My chance to love, to choose
To dance beneath your golden sun
The plans are written in the sand, but the wind is blowing

Plans are written in the sand, but the wind is blowing

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In cities gray I’d worked away
‘Til my coffers were full
But this and that disturbed the world
And made some of us but fools
As a life can shift, as In the rapids swift
As a rock can fall, or a storm can lift
The plans are written in the sand, but the wind is blowing

The plans are written in the sand, but the wind is blowing

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My dreamcatcher hangs by a thread

At my bedroom door
It dances in the arms of the breeze

It sounds a mystery chord

As when a wily coyote sings the sheep too sleep
They are not warned
Sometimes we are not warned
The plans are written in the sand, but the wind is blowing

The plans are written in the sand, but the wind is blowing

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There are signs in the clouds above

And in the river below
Petroglyphs might point us
To which way we ought to go

The future we cannot tell, tomorrow could be beautiful

Tomorrow could be magical, or tomorrow could be hell

The plans are written in the sand, but the wind is blowing

The plans are written in the sand, but the wind is blowing

The plans are written in the sand but the winds are blowing

The plans are written in the sand but the winds are blowing

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Fair Winds and Following Seas

(Written during an Artist-in-Residence

at Pendle Hill Quaker Retreat, Study,

and Conference Center, Wallingsford, PA.)

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My heart it is a sail
Made fine to carry me
Windward do I pray to thee
For fair winds and following seas

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I’ve heard of harbors fair
And long to seek asylum there

For raging wars and hate despair

Our fair winds and following seas

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A sunstone and a compass are

Bearings by celestial star
For a way to lead me
To fair winds and following seas

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Oh bless the course before me

Bless the boat and the company

Pray I meet God peacefully
By fair winds and following seas

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My heart it is a sail
Made fine to carry me
Windward do I pray to thee
For fair winds and following seas

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EARLY FIELDS - Jean Ritchie

(Found in Jean's Ritchie's early edition of 

the songbook, Celebration of Life.)

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As I walked over the early fields

I heard a song a bornin’
It fell around me like rain
That washes off the morning

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CHORUS
Oh I love the pipes
And I love the drum
I love the wild harp ringing
But there’s naught on earth can e’er match the sound

Of one clear voice, singing

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So far away, the words were dim
And yet I knew their sadness
I knew their peace, and I knew their pain

I knew their joy and gladness

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And still I walk my fields in vain

As evening shadows linger
But a better journey have I had

In searching for the singer

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I Have a Dream

(Written during an Artist-in-Residence

at Pendle Hill Quaker Retreat, Study,

and Conference Center, Wallingsford, PA.)

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CHORUS
Ain’t I a woman, ain’t it the truth
Ain’t I a woman, ain’t I a man, ain’t I a woman

I’m going to speak, speak, truth, truth to power

I’m going to speak, speak, truth, truth to power Ooohhh.....
Ooohhh...

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I have a dream, I heave a dream, how about you

I have a dream, I heave a dream, how about you

That I have been made into an instrument
I have been made into an instrument

And this is my plowshare, not a sword

This is my plowshare, not a sword
So that I may make love, and not war

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CHORUS

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Love sees no colors, love sees no color, how about you

Love sees no colors, love sees no color, how about you

For you can be the change that you want to see
Be the change that you want to be

For love is patient, love is kind

Love is patient, love is kind
So that my work is love
So that my work is love, in action

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CHORUS

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THE LONGEST NIGHT

(Written in honor of the Winter Solstice, 

yet it's also about companionship through 

life's trials and darkness.)

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I left my roots for walking hills
I never had a thing that I could keep forever
But when trees were bare and the longest night was still

It was there in the dark I grew conscious of love's will

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The longest night, is not to fear
It's a quiet thing in the turning of the year
A thing I’d miss on earth, where I belong
To be with you in the longest night, all night long

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We mark the longest night, as it comes and goes
We wax and wane and we laugh between our sorrows
And your company is real, I've come to know
You warm my heart with love that melts the frozen shadows

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The longest night is not to fear
As much as not being able to know you
A thing I'd miss on earth, where I belong
I want you in this longest night, all night long

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The further we have lived the darker night
We follow starlight like so many have before us
Back and forth between your arms and the worldly strife

We are companions in a universal plight

The longest night, is not to fear
As long as I am able to hold you
A thing I'd miss on earth, where I belong
To be with you in the longest night, all night long
I want you in this longest night, all night long

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