Winner - SCALA, Festival of Origial Music - (Lyrics Category)
This song was written whilst I was participating in a song writing group that the wonderful Keppie Coutts hosts, (if you would like to find out more, please check out 'How to write songs'). Each fortnight the group is given a prompt to write to, its often a little random and can be tricky. The prompt for this song was the title I ended up keeping "Far From This Tree" the assigment pushed me to explore writing a song that I'd had bubbling away in my mind for a while.
I've written two versions of the lyrics, an Australian version (below) which is about a tree that lives in my back paddock, it is around 500 years old and has seen many lives. I've also written a US version of this song (as I have American heritage) which is similar but with a few changes, that one is about a white oak tree that lives in Tennessee, that tree is around 250 years old, if you'd like to read about that tree, here is a link US Tree Story I hope I get to meet that tree one day.
This is a full circle moment as one of my earliest memories is on my swing set as a little girl singing songs I'd made up to a willow tree in the corner of my childhood home/garden, I love trees, I always have.
Far From This Tree
(Writers: Jessie Che-Lyrics / Chris Palamountain-Music)
Verse
She came into the world, in the shade of this tree
a river red unchanged, in all these years
She knows the bark, like a mother’s skin
Ancestors whisper low…… in the wind
Chorus
and she says…..
Why have I lived so far, from this tree
All I’ve been searching for, is here in these leaves
I follow back the path, like my family
If I listen close enough, I can hear them in the breeze
In the breeze……………..
Verse
This is where, they’d shelter down
To bring new life, on hallowed ground
Water flows, so cool and clear
Tumbling past, this trail of tears
Chorus
and she says…..
Why have I lived so far, from this tree
All I’ve been searching for, is here in these leaves
I follow back the path, like my family
If I listen close enough, I can hear them in the breeze
In the breeze……………..
Bridge
This sacred place, draws her now
Honouring, unspoken vows
Under a sky, of dappled stars
A soul returns…the earth sighs
Verse
She came into the world, in the shade of this tree
a river red unchanged, in all these years
She knows the bark, like her skin
The ancestors whisper low….here life begins
The gracious redgum that lives in my back paddock, here she is in a bigger picture so you can see her in her full glory.