Get all 20 Tess Callaghan releases available on Bandcamp and save 30%.
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1. |
The Burren
04:51
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The Burren
I keep saving you for later
And remembering you late
As the light it is fading
Turns the sky a violent pink
Petals in a violet dusk
I stand outside to drink
With eyes weary from the day
Now open wide awake
In the Burren
The stone has drunken in the rain
Somewhere to resurface
And arise rise up again, into the clouds
Into the sacred circuit
And fall on the spring gentian
Down through to caves and streams
To the eternal chandelier
That lights up Burren dreams
As I try to watch my step
Around the grikes and clints
A snail with helix pattern appears
Right near where I place my foot
As a tourist from another land
Compares you with the plinths
The silence of your landscape
Whispers resilience
I walk around the Burren, yeah
I’m in the Burren
Where I like to go
Walking around the Burren
Now I’ve a thirst to climb
The randomly spread stone walls
As sheep encroach like clouds
And guardedly I drive slow
On cattled elbow roads
My inner strength replenished
From its beauty
I take another look around
Before it’s time for me to leave
In the Burren yeah
In the Burren yeah
I’m in the Burren
Where I like to go
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2. |
Bean An Ti
04:27
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Bean An Ti
With her hair rolled up at the back
A care in her inflexion
Joy in her reflective stare
In her husband’s silent presence
Bean an Ti
The woman of the house is she
A photograph of a white haired lady
She’s stood outside some white washed walls
She says, somebody planted me a rose bush
My hasn't it grown well
Far away on another continent
Her daughter in law with kids on her knee
She’s starting herself a new life
Now she is a Bean An Ti
Bean an Ti
The woman of the house is she
Inside the walls
There’s a black motif
A smooth stone
Something to rub
Sheila na Gig
She brings good luck
She brings good love
She brings true love
Sheila Na Gig
She brings you power
Sheila is a Bean An Ti
Bean an Ti
The woman of the house is she
Bean An Ti
Woman of the house is she
And who needs gold when she does what she does
She puts the house to sleep
The day is over now
She’s tired, she's a bean an ti
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3. |
Riptide
04:17
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Riptide
Let me live my life
Free from decisions made long ago
Let me live not die
In the unintended undertow
They say you’ve got to swim a riptide
But I’m tired and I want to let go
Seems I’m drifting further out
On this riptide
The consequences slow to show
I thought I could control
Now it’s messing up the tides of my life
Where things have a certain flow
They say you’ve got to swim a riptide
And use waves to bring you home
Well I’ve been waiting but I’m further out
Further from the shore
I can float and I can dream
Of what I could have done better
To have escaped this fate
Or maybe I’d have fared no better
If I swim across I’ll find
Calmer waters where fears subside
When every bit of give is gone
Is it enough to have strength of mind
They say you’ve got to watch for riptides
And you see them better from the shore
Of hard experience where lifeguards
Fear to go
Still even a long lost cause
Has hope
Though far gone
Just gotta hang in there
A little longer
On this riptide
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4. |
Stolen Child
05:08
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Stolen Child
Where dips the rocky highland
Of sleuth wood in the lake
There lies a leafy Island
Where flapping herrons wake
The drowsy water rats
There we’ve hid our faery vats
Full of berries
And of reddest stolen cherries
Come away oh human child
To the waters and the wild
With a faery, hand in hand
For the world’s too full of weeping
More than you can understand
Where the wave of moonlight glosses
The dim gray sands with light,
Far off by furthest Rosses
We foot it all the night
Weaving olden dances
Mingling hands and mingling glances
Till the moon has taken flight;
To and fro we leap
And chase the frothy bubbles,
While the world is full of troubles
And anxious in its sleep.
Come away oh human child
To the waters and the wild
With a faery, hand in hand
For the world’s too full of weeping
Than you can understand
Where the wandering water gushes
From the hills above Glen-Car,
In pools among the rushes
That scarce could bathe a star,
We seek for slumbering trout
And whispering in their ears
Give them unquiet dreams;
Leaning softly out
From ferns that drop their tears
Over the young streams
Come away oh human child
To the waters and the wild
With a faery, hand in hand
For the world’s too full of weeping
Than you can understand
Come away oh human child
To the waters and the wild
With a faery, hand in hand
For the world’s too full of weeping
Than you can understand
Away with us he's going,
The solemn-eyed
He'll hear no more the lowing
Of the calves on the warm hillside
Or the kettle on the hob
Sing peace into his breast,
Or see the brown mice bob
Round and round the oatmeal chest
For he comes, the human child
To the waters and the wild
With a faery, hand in hand
For the world’s more full of weeping
Than he can understand
For he comes, the human child
To the waters and the wild
With a faery, hand in hand
For the world’s more full of weeping
Than he can understand
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5. |
Ciel Cielo
05:03
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Ciel Cielo
The sky so clear and blue
The leaves still on the branches
Though autumn’s come and gone
Cold in the air
The water’s looking low
Hardly covers stones below
My thoughts that’s where they go
Then to the sky
Ooh Ooh
Ciel Cielo
Ooh Ooh
Ciel Cielo
Ciel Cielo
The bridge is filing now with
People in the afternoon
Holding hands like lovers do
Enjoying the day
The shadow from the sun
Is getting longer as light and
Dark change round under the clear
Blue sky
Ooh Ooh
Ciel cielo
Ooh Ooh
Ciel cielo
Ooh Ooh
Ciel cielo
Ooh Ooh
Ciel cielo
To hold someone’s hand would be perfect
A day like today can unearth you
On a day like today with the sun in the sky
On a day like today I’m glad to be alive
Ooh Ooh
Ciel Cielo
Ooh Ooh
Ciel Cielo
Ooh Ooh
Ciel Cielo
Ooh Ooh
Ciel Cielo
On a day like today with the sun in the sky
On a day like today I’m so glad to be alive
Ooh Ooh
Ciel Cielo
Ooh Ooh
Ciel Cielo
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6. |
Mother Tongue
04:05
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Mother Tongue
Oh my, my mother tongue
The mother I have never known
Oh my, my mother tongue
Gone before I was born
Got to tune out of the mainstream
To hear you speak
Gotta find the old place names
Where you have been
Oh my, my mother tongue
I’m finally coming home
Mathair theanga, d’yug-tuh
You’ve been silent far too long
The songs and the wisdom that you reveal
Nourish me
The values the stories, the history
A part of me
Gotta get yourself some new blood, mother
Before you’re weak
In the circle you need life now, mother
To flow downstream
Oh my, my mother mother tongue
This is no fait accompli
We can walk both worlds together
Hand in hand diversity
Oh my, oh my mother tongue
I can hear you now
Ancient words still loud and clear
Saying you've got to persevere
Persevere, persevere
You gotta know where you come from
To know where you’re going
You gotta cherish your culture
Cherish your mother tongue
Her hair rolled up at the back
Cherish your mother tongue
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7. |
He Walks In Beauty
03:18
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He Walks In Beauty
He walks in beauty like the night
Of cloudless climes and starry skies
And all that’s best of dark and bright
Meet in his aspect and in his eyes
Thus mellowed to that tender light
Which heaven gaudy day denies
One shade the more, or one ray the less
Had half impaired his nameless grace
Which waves in every raven tress
Or softly lightens over his face
Where thoughts serenely sweet express
How pure, how dear their dwelling place
He walks in beauty like the night
Of cloudless climes and starry skies
And all that’s best of dark and bright
Meet in his aspect and in his eyes
And on that cheek and o’er that brow
So soft so calm yet eloquent
The smiles that win the tints that glow
And tell of days in goodness spent
A mind at peace with all below
A heart whose love is innocent
He walks in beauty like the night
Of cloudless climes and starry skies
And all that’s best of dark and bright
Meet in his aspect and in his eyes
He walks in beauty like the night
Of cloudless climes and starry skies
And all that’s best of dark and bright
He walks in beauty
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8. |
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She Moved through The Fair
I said to my true love
My mother won't mind
My father won't slight you
For your lack of kind
Then I stepped away from him
And this I did say
It will not be long love
'Til our wedding day
I stepped away from him
And moved through the fair
And fondly he watched me
Move here and move there
I went my way homeward
With one star awake
As the swans in the evening
Move over the lake
The people were saying
No two e'er were wed
But one has a sorrow
That never was said
I smiled as I passed him
With my goods and my gear
And that was the last
I saw of my dear
I dreamed it last night
My true love came in
So softly he entered
His feet made no din
He sat close beside me
And this he did say
It will not be long love
Till our wedding day
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9. |
The Gallowglass
03:31
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The Gallowglass
Outside the Courts of Justice
There go the Gallowglass
Tall like they grew up wrestling
With everyone who passed
Outside the Courts, outside the courts
There go the gallowglass
Outside the courts, outside the courts
Outside let them pass
Some from as afar as Scotland
Left their own families
Others settled Northwards
Fighting their expertise
Outside the Courts, outside the courts
There go the Gallowglass
Outside the courts, outside the courts
Outside let them pass
Dressed in the finest linen
Yellow to the knee
Hair falling on their shoulders
Fringe curt short to see
Outside the Courts, outside the courts
There go the gallowglass
Outside the courts, outside the courts
Outside let them pass
Walking two shoulders three men back
Guarding Grace O’Malley
Heading to Greenwich palace
Off to see the Queen
Outside the courts Outside the courts
What a site to see
Outside the courts outside the courts
Through crowded London streets
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10. |
Ice Age
03:53
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Ice Age
Everything was warm
With and without
The standard cotton wool
And then came the ice age
From straight ahead to a disjoint
A realisation that wasn’t fully formed
Then came the ice age
Then came the ice age
I was so happy going along
Painting at weekends
Watching tv all day and night long
Sudden gradual took it all
Something here is going on
I don’t know what but the effects are strong
And the shadow will be cast
So long
So long young girl
So long young girl
So long
So I find ways to survive
And to shut down thoughts inside
Feel sad and guilty
To be myself
Feel bad and empty
I wanna disappear
Then came the ice age
Then came the ice age
More than just a phase
Then came the ice age
And yeah seems I have surely changed
Not really trying or wanting to remain
But to get through this
Got to shut down
Turn to ice or I will drown
Came the ice age
Came the ice age
Like a thimble on a wheel
Sleep for years and years
Came the ice age
More than just a phase
To middle age and on
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Tess Callaghan
Singer Songwriter from Ireland with 17 electric and acoustic collections since 2015. See review (louderthanwar.com/tess-callaghan-he-walks-in-beauty-single-review/). From indie, blues, rock and pop ('Big Heart', feat. Barrie Cadogan guitar, Simon Little bass) to home-spun acoustic, folk and celtic. ... more
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