Release Date: February 23, 2024
Lyrics
Vigil
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Wait another night for the morning light to appear
Watching time unravel, extinguishing the years
Keeping to myself my solitary sins
From beautiful companions nameless to the endBut who will wait for the light fading away
And who will stay for the counting of numbered daysThe ghosts of my life scattered by the winds
A broken line of disenchanted lovers and friends
Their faces disappear and memories take wing
Flying like a bird in my bed about to singBut who will wait for the light fading away
And who will stay for the counting of numbered daysThe future steals the past like a thief in the dark
And every memory ends with a question mark
So I wait another night, wait another year
Letting time erase, 'til my conscience is clearAlan Williams © 2009 Under a Metal Sky Music (BMI)
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Strange are the hours
In the late autumn showers
When the mist rises up from the field
Under death's spell
I will lay as i fell
Waiting for all that will be revealedSo far away
As the night follows day
She will turn down the lamp that once burned
There in the dark
She will know in her heart
That her true love will never returnTurning the light out
Sweet were the nights
In the soft candlelight
When the fires were lit in our hearts
Come to me now
In the dream's solemn vow
That all lovers are never to partSo far from home
I am lost and alone
And the darkness has swallowed me whole
Tell me again
Softly, like an amen
Let your words come envelope my soulThe blessed peace
Of the gentle release
Let your prayer come to carry me home
Tell me again, softly like an amenAlan Williams © 2009 Under a Metal Sky Music (BMI)
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Sorry, we can't offer their lyrics.
King Crimson, © 1981 Universal Music Careers obo "EG Music, Ltd." (BMI)
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Now that the lights have dimmed and silence falls like a hymn
The arms of a broken man reach for an open hand
Longing to be restored, the bottle already poured
Moments that never pass bring my lips to the glassDrink to the poison curse
Drink to the miracle cure
Drink to the memory
Drink to the remedyA remedy – bitter and pale
A remedy – nursing a heart that failedThere's something familiar here, the fragrance of bitter tears
Burns in the finest grain and echoes in soft refrains
And now that her eyes are dry, the song of her last goodbye
A kiss that will quickly fade, a lingering serenadeA serenade - broken and frail
A serenade – sung to a heart that failedSuddenly opened doors and footsteps upon the floor
The arms of a younger man reach for an open handWaltzing across the yard, a tango beneath the stars
Stepping through centuries, living in memoryA memory – faded and veiled
A memory – held in the heart that failedAlan Williams © 2009 Under a Metal Sky Music (BMI)
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I have loved you it’s true
I have wondered aloud at the grace
Of a bird as she flew
With a wave of her hand
Never touching the ground where I standEvery gesture she makes
Every movement a storm leaving
Scattered debris in its wake
But a delicate touch
I remember that muchI love you still
Although the years fade into memory
I love you still
Your distant kiss still feels so real to me
So near to me, so nearA promise was made
You embodied my ideal of heaven
But now it’s betrayed
Still your words remain clear
And your voice never seemed so nearThere’s a choice I must make
To follow your footsteps
And relive the same mistakes
So, though it may not be true
This is how I will choose to remember youAlan Williams © 2009 Under a Metal Sky Music (BMI)
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Thank you for your muted response
And turning from a loved one to a stranger
I'm learning not to say it all at once
Learning how to recognize the dangerThank you for the hollow in your voice
Your delicate and eloquent appraisal
I'm listening as if I had a choice
Of hearing something other than betrayalAu revoir, mon ami
We've come to a parting of the ways
Au revoir, mon ami
In your eyes I recognize
There's nothing left to say
More or less
Less is more
Au revoirThanks for the resistance in your touch
Your love for me withheld in hesitation
I've learned to live with needing it too much
So, I'll take the distance as my consolationAlan Williams © 2009 Under a Metal Sky Music (BMI)
Credits
Alan Williams: lead vocals, acoustic guitar, harmonium, percussion, string arrangements
Darleen Wilson: acoustic and electric guitar, harmony vocals
Greg Porter: bass, harmony vocals
Ben Wittman: drums, percussion
Anne Elise Thomas: qunun on “The Heart That Failed”
David Gutierrez: orchestral drums on "Light"
Marissa Licata: first violin
Helen Sherrah-Davies: five-string violin
Catherine Bent: cello
Produced by Alan Williams
Bass and drums (Ben Wittman) recorded by Roy Hendrickson, assisted by Aki Nishimura, at Avatar Studios in New York City.
Strings recorded by Antonio Oliart at Fraser Performance Studio, WGBH in Boston.
Fabio, Jerry, and Anne Elise recorded in their homes by Alan Williams with the Backpack Mobile system.
All other performances recorded by Alan Williams at The Aviary (Mach 1 and 2).
Mastered by Mark Donahue at Soundmirror in Jamaica Plain, MA.
Photography by Julia Margaret Cameron
About The Music
Vigil (2024 Remaster)| Birdsong At Morning
Release Date: February 23, 202024
Vigil
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This song was suggested by the specter of loss that follows Alzheimer's disease, as well as a cautionary tale for folks that move quickly through relationships without establishing real bonds. Who's going to remember you when you can't remember yourself?
When I was a teenager, I spent a long sleepless night listening to the radio after my true love introduced me to her boyfriend. At around 3am, this song came on the radio. Something about that guitar line just resonated, the closest I've come to God speaking to me. Let the airwaves flow.
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The guitar part suggests an Appalachian dulcimer, an instrument I remember trying to play with a Bic pen in a third grade workshop. The lyric was inspired by a series of photographs taken on the battlefields at Gettysburg, and I wrote it from the perspective of a soldier at the moment of his death, imagining his sweetheart.
The title comes from a quote in an Alex Ross story about the composer Aaron Copland, whose last instructions to a string ensemble in rehearsal were, "Very good. Now again, softly, like amen." Sounded like poetry to me, and I held on to the phrase until I could find a song to append it to.
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Formative years, formative years. Looking back, most of the cover songs we have recorded date from the years 1979/1980. Even the Stones cover comes from an album I bought in 1979, and played obsessively every morning before school.
This King Crimson song always captivated me with its ethereal beauty. Our setting attempts to capture that mood, established by Adrian Belew's heavily processed electric guitar, with acoustic instrumentation. The title is Japanese for, "please, wait."
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A song about alcoholism/addiction, a condition I am blessedly free from, as a number of sober friends would concur. While I can't know what that feels like, I can certainly describe what it looks like.
The last verse was inspired by a Raymond Carver story in which a young couple visits a yard sale, the detritus of a dissolved marriage scattered about the lawn. A record player. A dance.
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This is the oldest song in our catalog by several decades. Greg and I performed it in a different incarnation during our conservatory years. Our teacher, Ran Blake assigned us some summer reading – Willa Cather's A Lost Lady – and staged a fall concert to include our musical responses. I was very pleased with the verses, but the chorus was all ham-handed drum machine "rock."
Jump forward a few decades, and a different chorus popped into my head. Now I had a song, but no band to perform it. The seeds for our string section were sown here, and in many ways, Birdsong was formed so that I could perform a song like this. Maybe even this exact one.
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What happens when friendships fade? The song came from the odd coincidence of three difficult phone conversations in the same week, all unexpectedly distant where there had once been deep and easy connection.
Somewhere out there is a guy waiting to hear this over the radio at 3am.