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One Way or Another

by Robin Holcomb

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1.
One way or another Be still if you can And just for a moment let things fall where they may Nowhere to run from In a hurry to Up late again counting on coming alive A little bit of trial by jury Remember learning to crawl As you stagger out under the weight of the world One foot it starts to fall Sometimes you get lucky Sounds like a lullaby And a whole other morning is blooming outside I know, I told you otherwise
2.
Waltz 02:19
Mention the weather When you describe the town How near it lays To where you were born How flat the sky Covers all sleeping things As dreamers we often see Glory Remember the light That shines beneath doorways How birds hang motionless Beating their wings And the words that are offered Repeated, suspended Between the new man New women And all living things
3.
Let us pause in life’s pleasures and count its many tears While we all sup sorrow with the poor There's a song that will linger forever in our ears Oh hard times come again no more ‘Tis a song and a sigh of the weary Hard times, hard times come again no more Many days you have lingered around my cabin door Oh hard times come again no more Though we seek mirth and beauty in music bright and gay There are frail forms fainting at the door Though our voices are silent, their pleading looks will say Oh hard times come again no more ‘Tis a song and a sigh of the weary Hard times, hard times come again no more Many days you have lingered around my cabin door Oh hard times come again no more Oh hard times come again no more
4.
Put your lips up close to mine Kiss me, kiss me, cause now’s the time I’ve got that feeling Stealing through my heart again Hold me baby, don’t let me go Kiss me, kiss me, real soft, real slow I’ve got that feeling Stealing through my heart again Talk to me whisper in my ears All the sweet things I long to hear I’ve got that feeling Stealing through my heart again Hold me baby, make me scream Don’t let me wake up and find that this is all a dream I’ve got that feeling Stealing through my heart again I’m helpless when I’m in your arms My brain is reeling with all of your charms I’ve got that feeling Stealing through my heart again
5.
Once 03:55
Once I was a woman, once I was a wife Once I wrote a bible, and once I took a life Way past conversation or a decent sleep or two When I laid my hands upon you, you knew just what to do You couldn’t see me coming, all the light was in your eyes Half of what you think you know you hardly recognize You know that little mirror, the one you always pass It hangs inside the doorway Well that’s where you saw me last I haven’t worried for a long time And here’s how I decide When I come upon a crossroad I always take the ride Cheatin’ hearts grow lonesome You can always tell Diamond earrings glitter From the bottom of the well Come in from the airport, the moon is shining bright Over the feathered fields of Newark things are flying low tonight I never check my luggage, so I couldn’t say for sure But what I carry with me might not be mine no more Pale fingers reach from nowhere to catch the small soft face But when they lifted out the baby No one was there to take his place Once I was a woman, once I was a wife I wrote this in my bible And then I took my life
6.
I have a little story, it’s not very long About a lazy farmer boy who wouldn’t hoe his corn And why this was I never could tell For that young man was always well That young man was always well He planted his corn on June the last In July it was up to his eye In September there came a big frost And that poor farmer’s corn was lost That poor farmer’s corn was lost He’d head to the field he got there last The weeds and the grass were up to his chin The grass and the weeds they grow so high They caused that poor man for to sigh Caused that poor man for to sigh When his courtship it did begin She said dear man have you hoed your corn Well I tried I tried I tried in vain But I don’t believe I’ll raise one grain Don’t believe I’ll raise one grain Why do you come to me to wed If you won’t raise your own cornbread Single I am and will remain But a lazy man I won’t maintain A lazy man I won’t maintain He hung his head and he walked away Saying kind miss you’ll rue the day You’ll rue the day that you were born For giving me the devil cause I wouldn’t hoe my corn Giving me the devil cause I wouldn’t hoe my corn Now his courtship has come to an end As he walked away he did begin Saying kind miss I’ll have another girl If I have to ramble this big round world Have to ramble this big round world
7.
All of the true believers Ever on their way Dreaming of the day The sky it is hot and it’s raining Little pencil rolls down to the sea I saw and I copied, recalling I’m gonna lose again Longing for a river At the end of the day Trees fill with laughing birds And the tears roll down my face How you like to look When you want to be seen Slamming the door, the curtains pulled closed And the room swept clean Cover your head and you’re holy Walk with the women who do The story that ends with forever Go over and over it’s true I liked when you said it was simple I thought that you already knew Take all of the weight of the world off your shoulders But it’s much harder to It’s winter again and it’s raining Little pencil grows cold in my hand Come with a coin and a bottle Inviting fortune in Cast away everything empty You win every time in the end Four letter words that were sent but unopened I’m gonna lose again I’m gonna lose again
8.
I should’ve said what I wanted My cookpot has a copper bottom A wheel that’s spinning, ordinary has more than confidence to carry A promise stuttering to pieces Odd how everybody comes out even A drifter comes to be my neighbor and keeps on coming to the window Set me up there with my daughter I lost my voice around the corner Don’t confuse me with my laughter I won’t return the morning after Don’t come looking for my blessing I’m not coming back to the colony no, never
9.
Rockabye 03:32
Put pen to the paper and sign The lines on both sides of your hand I can read What settles out at the bottom of a bottle of wine Are promises and lies you can choose to believe When rumors won't leave you alone Your words cast a shadow, try to fill in their form Lay your hat on the table, I'll take your side The mirror allows what the darkness divides You'll never tell all that you know In spite of the shelter the storm still will blow Through the pastures of safety may you plow the straight line Walk slow, with a swing in, the river will rise Pass under my window and wave Sirens yell at each other, I don't hear your name Spin hard in a circle if you want to go down Sing praises to the neighbor who is tending that ground Rockabye, there'll be a blanket to cover you When you go down Rockabye, there'll be a blanket to cover you When you go down What you learn from the bottle is true One is too many and two are too few Line up the small glasses, tell me what have you heard There's not a thing to laugh about tonight in this world You made me call all over town You're easy to lose when you want to be found I remember a room lit by one brilliant light Throw the windows wide open, we'll sit in the dark tonight Rockabye, there'll be a blanket to cover you When you go down Rockabye, there'll be a blanket to cover you When you go down Put pen to the paper and sign The lines on both sides of your hand I can read What settles out at the bottom of a bottle of wine Are promises and lies that you can choose to believe
10.
Shining 03:06
You all should have seen me When I was sixteen years old My hair hanging free down my back Used to shine in the sun like gold Spent eight years of grade school Four years of high school Never was sick one day And the friends who were with you from the first grade They’re with you all the way We’d go done to Atlanta for a ball game Down to Daytona for the race Go to the drive-in every Friday Shine in the sun like gold One cold winter morning, outside the school The bell hadn't rung just yet Stand outside the gate and smoke a cigarette Brush the snow off our clothes, lean against the wall Shining And there wasn't no baby crying There wasn't no laundry waiting for me on the line If I didn't want to be alone, I didn't have to be alone All I had to do was shine Shining, shining Lord there must be something better Lord it just don't seem right To cook the same breakfast for the same man every morning Sleep with the same man every night For the rest of my life For the rest of my life
11.
Woman with a child’s dress on Long hair drapes the arm That cradles a daughter who would sleep Black eyes open and beating But is afraid Little cat, his hair set on end Bolts from a sleeping coil At a sound that you know you have heard in your dreams O come to the window my darling Your heart repeats my own These long rooms are dark The night not much brighter From here we can watch the road A small man is catching the hot knife that flies O hush little baby your crying And your tears taste like the rain Woman with a child’s dress on Long hair drapes the arm That cradles a daughter who would sleep Black eyes open and beating But is afraid Your heart repeats my own And your tears taste like the rain
12.
Old Dog Tray 03:03
The morn of life is past, and evening comes at last It brings me a dream of a once happy day Of merry forms I’ve seen, upon the village green Sporting with my Old Dog Tray Old Dog Tray he’s ever faithful, grief cannot drive him away He’s gentle he is kind, I’ll never, never find A better friend than Old Dog Tray The forms I call my own, have vanished one by one The loved ones, the dear ones, have all passed away Their happy smiles have flown, their gentle voices gone I’ve nothing left but Old Dog Tray Old Dog Tray he’s ever faithful, grief cannot drive him away He’s gentle he is kind, I’ll never, never find A better friend than Old Dog Tray When thoughts recall the past, his eyes are on me cast I know that he feels what my breaking heart would say And though he cannot speak, I’ll vainly, vainly seek A better friend than Old Dog Tray Old Dog Tray he’s ever faithful, grief cannot drive him away He’s gentle he is kind, I’ll never, never find A better friend than Old Dog Tray A better friend than Old Dog Tray
13.
The point of it all you shift until your bearing’s gone between two eyes you fall in love The saint perseveres with sudden ordinary tears tourniquet the years for love Lay me back in my bed cool hand upon my head shake like the healer said like love For now I am through need water I’m telling you begin with all things new o, love

about

In 1992, Robin Holcomb stunned the music community with her eponymously titled album, released on Elektra/Nonesuch records. Relatively obscure, Holcomb was best known for her compositions and improvisations as a pianist, and her association with the avant-garde and New York City’s downtown scene. The songs were in equal measure gorgeous, challenging, sophisticated, direct and mysterious. The lyrics spoke to the times like no other. As critic Ben Ratliff simply stated, Holcomb’s music is “staggeringly beautiful.”

At the time the term “Americana” barely existed, but to those in the know Holcomb’s music wrote the book ­– with a strange mingling of a long-lost agrarian tradition, and its intersection with the myriad contradictions of modern American life. Many artists have mined the vast repertoire of early American music, but few with such originality, poetic vision, and utterly unique harmonic language. As the Village Voice commented after her first release, “Satie goes to Appalachia, Morricone goes to the Knitting factory, and you, dear art-folk fan, die and go to heaven.”

After years of focusing primarily on her composing, her family, and her garden, Ms. Holcomb returned to the recording studio to record One Way or Another. “I wanted to revisit the past, and also make public more recent work, cover tunes, and various other projects.” The recordings offer a stark and intimate view of these masterful compositions, without production touches, orchestrations, or overdubs.

Holcomb spent four days at ShowGhost studio in Whitefish, Montana, with only her voice. a Steinway grand piano, and state of the art audio gear. Working with her husband - composer and producer Wayne Horvitz - they chose selections from her four previously released Nonesuch titles, plus compositions from two theater projects. The first, “The Utopia Project”, explored early 20th century experiments in collective living. The second, regarding the life of Rachel Carson, explores Carson’s public persona as a visionary envorinmentalist versus her desire for personal privacy, her battle with illness, and her struggles with personal identity.

Cast away everything empty,
You win every time in the end
Four letter words that were sent but unopened
I’m gonna lose again

In addition, a collection of cover tunes were recorded. In “I’ve Got that Feeling”, by Doc Pomus, Holcomb completely reimagines the harmony and rhythm, creating a powerful and unsentimental remake of the original. “Hard Times” with a lyric as prescient today as any in recent history, is treated for the 21st century as Charles Ives might have for the 20th, with a deeply moving and reconsidered harmonization of Stephen Foster’s original melody.

Almost 20 years ago the New York Times wrote, “The music that results is as elegantly simple as a Shaker quilt, and no less beautiful.” Today, with the release of “One Way or Another”, this proves more true than ever.

credits

released October 14, 2022

Robin Holcomb – Piano and Voice

Recorded at SnowGhost Music in Whitefish Montana
Brett Allen – Recording Engineer
Nolan McCormick – Assistant Engineer
Mixed by Eric Eagle at Skoor Sound
Digital Editing – Wayne Horvitz
Mastering – Chris Gestrin

Photos – Nica Horvitz
Album Design – Jack Dunnington
Produced by Wayne Horvitz

Special thanks to all the Westerlies, Katy Henriksen at Riot Act Media, the late Hal Willner, Brett Allen, Eric Eagle, David Bither, Nica Horvitz, Jim Keller, Ernie Sapiro, and all the amazing musicians who contribute to this music past, present and future Westerlies Records

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Robin Holcomb Seattle, Washington

Robin Holcomb’s music has been called “staggeringly beautiful.” by the New York Times. Through her times sharecropping tobacco as a young woman, as an improvising pianist on New Yorks’ downtown scene in the 80s, and three decades of creating an utterly idiosycratic catalog of songs, Ms. Holcomb has created a singular canon as a composer. ... more

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