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Aster and Sweet Fern

from Thin | B​-​Sides EP by Lowland Hum

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lyrics

Fair Lydia lost her love to the sea
Thrown overboard at the whim of a storm
Though the account was cloudy

Barnabas Cooke, as good as a man can be
Married our widow fair
Built the homestead at the edge of the trees

Don’t you love a quiet house
Content by the fire and your quiet spouse?
Books in the evening while she goes out walking
Returning with arms full
Aster and sweet fern, elder and blue berry, boneset, marsh marigold

Late one night Barnabas woke to find
His bed cold and empty
The high moon big-bellied
He followed a lantern’s glow
To the heart of the wood where sweet Lydia lay in the arms of a man unknown
Was it a ghost or could this be
The first blush of Lydia’s youth who had slept on the floor of a hungry sea

Run, good man, run, as far as you can flee
At night by the blaze of a fire you will gaze ’til the heat forces you to sleep

Thirty years had passed when the letter found our man
Lydia’s wearing black, mourning her Barnabas
Pity the widowed bride
His veteran’s pension will pay her rent and afford her a modest life

Run, good man, run. Carry yourself to the judge,
Tell him the truth that the wife of your youth claims you dead but you are alive.
Just like her sailor and how many other men
Drawn by her siren eyes

Sleep good man sleep
You’re finally out of her reach
Slouch by the fireside
Walled in on left and right
Books and the embers bright
Lydia visits in dreams soft and distant like haze on the morning

credits

from Thin | B​-​Sides EP, released September 22, 2017

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Lowland Hum Charlottesville, Virginia

For over twelve years Lowland Hum has been a landing strip for your lesser-loved emotions. You can go listen to all of that if you like; eight albums, several EPs, et cetera.

They aren't slowing down. Except metaphysically.

Lauren and Daniel Goans are into DIY. They make their own music and art.
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