Get all 12 Diane Patterson releases available on Bandcamp and save 35%.
Includes unlimited streaming via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality downloads of Satchel of Songs, Ballad of Big Mountain, Somewhere There's a Song Still Singing, Turn Toward The Sun, Open Road, Love & Revolution (Live), Teach, Inspire, Be Real, Build a Bridge, and 4 more.
1. |
Roots Heart Rhythm
05:04
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Roots Heart Rhythm
For the earth, for the healing!
Roots, heart, rhythm!
I feel it in my soul.
So now we’re tending
the soul of the people
We’re busy mending
our relation to the soil
And we’re mending
our relationship with oil
Our busy fingers,
To weaving once again
Weaving the fabric
Of care onto the loom
Cause we’ve forgotten,
Or all gone home to soon
We’re building bridges
So reach outside the door
And hear the music
Of wild birds outside
Come and join us,
Come sit beside me by this fire
Roots, heart, rhythm
I feel it in my soul
She’s a goddess,
She’s the maiden, mother crone
She’s legendary,
She’s our living, earthly home
We’re building bridges,
And singing redemption songs
That unite us,
For together we are strong!
Roots, heart, rhythm!
I feel it in my soul
For the earth, for the healing!
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2. |
Silk and Honest Pay
04:10
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Silk and Honest Pay
Fall 2019
I hear that old language
I hear those old time ways
I see that star map blanket
I see those tall grass days
Woven in your song
Can I run along, beside you
woven in your song
I dreamed a dream tonight
Of silk and honest pay
A traveler there at faire
To trade hand goods we’d made
And oh, fine things we saw,
The beauty of the arts
And oh, the eyes, the skin
The voices from afar
Midsummer dance we did
Until the petals fell
The hands of dancers felt
In mine a happy spell
The music lifted me
To places none can tell
Come fruit in fall again
I’ll meet you by the well
And by the well, my friend,
The mother and the child
Can heal, alive and well
The husband and the wild
In sacred waters where
The mountain does provide
Come rain, come sun we sing
The dark again to light!
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3. |
Satchel of Songs
06:21
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Satchel of Songs
I got a message from the gods
They say, When you’re full
And you’ve made a good killing
Just lie down like the lion
And rest your soul
Rest your soul
Don’t go looking
To seal your fate
Don’t go looking
Just lie down like the lion
And rest your soul
I got a satchel of songs
To say I’m sorry
To the Sami people,
Your family and lands
For pinning your animals
In to a corner
For spoiling the nature of
Life-giving waters
When we thought
We knew better than you
We were wrong, we were wrong
I got a basket of berries to say I’m sorry
To Lakota people, your family and lands
For stealing your children away to our schools
When we thought we were better than you
We were wrong, we were wrong
I got a jar of wild honey to say I’m sorry
To traveling people, your family and lands
For withholding lodging and food to your party
When you came through our town and
We were wrong, we were wrong.
Can’t you see, Dragonfly over the lake
Can’t you see, all Creation singing
Can’t you see?
Don’t go looking
Just lie down like the lion and rest your soul
Rest your soul
Rest your soul
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4. |
Steady the Hand
05:23
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Steady the Hand lyrics
Steady the hand that hovers off the trigger
War is so heavy
Can the people stand back and pray?
We people have a living chance
To end these wars we took and ran
Hold high this natural world alive
Go tend the garden in our minds
Damascus, City of Jasmine
Aleppo, ancient silk cross roads
Again, a war crushes to dust
These cultures five thousand years old
What does this mean, you ask, to pray
It’s to ask for guidance and clear the way
But most to thank this world for life
This mystery beyond our eyes
And if you have a sister,
Can you pray for her safety too
And for her strength and inspiration
In this world riddled with despair
And then, good man, you will have sung
What we can call a prayer
If no one taught you how to live
If no one taught you honor
If indeed someone hurt you instead
Just know you’re always made of earth
And fire brings your heart to birth
These elements don’t judge your life
It’s up to you to make it right
Steady the hand, steady the hand!
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5. |
Maybe Easy (For Stace)
04:46
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For Stace
March 2020
Maybe easy isn’t
What life’s supposed to be
Look, the winter birds keep singing
From a frozen tree
Injury and illness
Plague the human heart
Still we’re making beauty
Through our tears and hurt
All my memories
Of a missing friend
Come as prayer now
A song that never ends
Catch a glimpse of sorrow
Flapping on a windy tree
Wake up to remember
I’ve seen you in my dreams
One as you who gave so much
And only longed for love
You left your gifts here at our feet
And drifted out to sea
For every time you danced
And touched the earth to plant
For every time you sang
To start the circle chant
For every time you sheltered
Someone struggling on the land
For every time you said goodbye
With a loving hand
For every time you loved a child
And gave them magic with your smile
For every time you cooked a meal
Or planned a show or
Drove a mile
For every stitch Sun Sewn old style
From all of us you gave a home
From all of us, all of us, all of us
All our memories
Of a missing friend
Come as prayer now
A song that never ends
This love will last forever
This song, everyone knows
For everyone’s been touched by grief
Let’s walk each other home.
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6. |
One Part Corn
04:47
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One Part Corn
--Diane Patterson 2020
One part corn
Three parts water
Say a little prayer
Give thanks to the mother
I was a child of the commons
No one owned the land
Where the medicine grew
Where I came to understand
Here in the garden
The majesty grew
Here in my garden
The sacred stories are true
Still while the sunlight
Shines upon my days
Here, before the Mystery
I bow, I pray for grace
One part corn
Three parts water
Say a little prayer
Give thanks to the mother
Simple, so simple
The needs of a man
Driven to excess
He’ll starve his own clan
I pray that he reign in
The horses of doom
I pray that he give back
All he’s brought to ruin
Listen, oh listen
I hear our mama call
Get down on our knees now
And sing that ancient song
One part corn,
Three parts water
Say a little prayer
Give thanks to the mother
Medicine woman
Medicine Woman
I was a child of the commons
No one owned the land
Where the medicine grew
Where I came to understand!
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7. |
Turn Toward the Sun
05:41
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Turn Toward The Sun
There are footprints of ancestors falling all around
Turn toward the sun, remember who you are
Turn toward the sun, remember who you are
Let me tell you how I know, let this story here be told
Of when the buffalo came to save us all from DAPL
The vision had been seen by the protector, Geraldine
Ancestors would bring the old ones back
Great Tatanka’s gone so long their genocide is still a song
Of sorrow on the land where the great herds ran
But now the people gathered strong to face Dakota Access Pipeline on
The Standing Rock Lakota Reservation
Tribes came in from all around and peacefully, stood their ground
DAPL’s war machine could not cut them down
Corporate government chose not to help, but thousands came and risked themselves
To save the water for all sons and daughters
Tensions rose, and so I’m told, when winter fell on young and old
The confluence of waters there had not been spared
White Buffalo Calf Woman heard the prayer, and in the vision she looked over where
The people stood by day to protect the water
It was there, the sacrifice was made that first time the bison came,
One small herd running to stop the pipeline
But later in the winter, let it be known and remembered
Buffalo broke the fence and ran to Oceti camp
They were 30, 40 strong that day. The buffalo took the heat, they say
And I’m sorry to repeat, but they got shot
They laid down their lives, and many got shot!
They said, “Look here, you hired gun, We know this war’s an unjust one,
Take us instead, our blood is just as RED!!”
Thank you, noble buffalo, and thanks, courageous protectors
May you always stand up for what you know
And as for sister Geraldine, descendant of Sitting Bull, believe me,
She won’t forget the water or the vision she has seen
She won’t forget the buffalo or the sacrifice they bring
She says, Turn toward the sun, remember who you are
She says, Turn toward the water, remember who you are
credits
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8. |
Cookfire
05:18
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Cookfire lyrics
May my cookfire, my warming fire
Burn brightly, with all people, for all time
That all may be warmed and fed
May my needle, my spinning wheel
Spin beauty, with all people, for all time
That all may be finely clothed
May my shuttle, my warp and weft
Weave beauty, with all people, for all time
That beauty be woven strong
May my stories, my chant and verse
Speak beauty, sing beauty, with all people, for all time
That all remember their worth
May our good works, our sacred play
Carve beauty, forge beauty, dance beauty, grow beauty
With all people, for all time
That rain fall on holy earth
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9. |
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Somewhere There’s a Song Still Singing
Do you sing to the daughter of the sun?
Does Odin guard your shores?
Do you still follow the singing stones?
Reindeer Sami, wild Danes,
Sea Sami, stately Swedes,
I speak your names
Your song sustains
Your air remains
Come lay the land again
Come lay the land again
Somewhere there’s a song still singing
Do you sing of the jackal and gazelle?
So you winter on Persian shores?
Do you still migrate and celebrate?
Qashquai people, Allah’s people,
Centuries on the land,
I speak your names
Your song sustains
Your air remains
Come lay the land again
Come lay the land again
Cross mountains and rivers, nature the giver
Danger now clearer
Hasten to her side
Her world lay burning
Ancient and modern
Born to resist this
Your hungry ghosts so vicious ride!
On to Valhalla
Courage to love us
We sing your praises
Warrior of the rune and the candle, ride!
Howling winds of
Change at your heels, now,
Tighten your reins and
Sing to my memory
You are the one to ride!
Somewhere there’s a song still singing
Do you sing to the rocks and hills?
Does a songline give you life
Do you still echo your ancestors’ voice
Honey ant clan
Pintupi
Dreamtime singers
I speak your names
Your song sustains
Your air remains
Come lay the land again
Come lay the land again
Somewhere there’s a song still singing
Somewhere there’s a singer singing songs
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10. |
Where Are We
03:41
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Where Are We (Coleman Barks, lyrics)
An invisible bird flies over but casts a quick shadow
What is the body
That shadow of a shadow of your love
That somehow holds the worlds inside
A man sleeps heavily though
Something blazes in him like the sun
Like a bright fringe sewn up under the hem
Any image is lie
He turns under the covers
A clear, red stone tastes sweet
You kiss a beautiful mouth
And a key turns in the lock of your fear
A spoken sentence sharpens to a fine edge
A mother dove looks for her nest
Asking where, ku?, where, ku!
Where are we, where are we?
Where the lion lies down
Where any man or woman goes to cry
Where the sick go
When they hope to get well
Where a wind lifts that helps with the winnowing
And sets the ship sail
Where anyone says
Only God is real
Where are we, Where beyond where?
A bright weaver’s shuttle flashes back and forth
East, west, where are we
Like the sun saying where are we
As he weaves with the asking,
Where are we, where are we
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Diane Patterson Ashland, Oregon
Folkgoddess Diane Patterson sings the world awake with powerful voice and revolutionary lyrics. Her sincere spirit and roots storytelling plant seeds of respect and justice. She’s fueled by music-as-activism and love-as-revolution. Made in New Orleans, Diane’s new 2018 album features Mike Napolitano and Ani DiFranco. ... more
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