Who Knows Where The Time Goes? (Sandy Denny song)

We've been rehearsing this fireside friendship/ love song about the passing and changes of time all winter and watching the birds circling in the evening over the woods across the way. In North Norfolk you're never far from heath, holt and wild water so there are a lot of birds, including the winter geese audibly referenced at the end of the song. We both love this song. 

Across the evening sky

All the birds are leaving

Ah how can they know

It's time for them to go?

Before the winter fire

I will still be dreaming

I have no thought of time

For who knows where the time goes?

Who knows where the time goes?

Sad, deserted shore

Your fickle friends are leaving

Ah, but then you know

It's time for them to go

But I will still be here

I have no thought of leaving

I do not count the time

For who knows where the time goes?

Who knows where the time goes?

And I am not alone

While my love is near me

I know it will be so

Until it's time to go

So come the storms of winter

And then the birds in spring again

I have no fear of time

For who knows how my love grows?

And who knows where the time goes?

Words and Music by Sandy Denny

Who Knows Where the Time Goes? lyrics © Fairwood Music (uk) Ltd., Winckler Musikforlag

The New Humanity (Love versus Great Forces of Destruction)

The snow-capped mountains, ice-capped seas, The rivers, forests, bees; Fjords and deserts, tropics and poles, The herds and flocks and shoals; Hear greed-is-God merchants of death At limits of all breath, Trump, “Follow Me Me to the end of the world! Come down into The Flood.” ("State of the Ark" © Gareth Calway 2024) The first tune we sing to is a medieval church scale melody in the Phrygian mode composed by Thomas Tallis, originally as a setting for Psalm 2, arr Peacock's Tale. Lead vocal, Echo Strum Acoustic guitar - Maz Lead vocal, voice, Alien Waves Bass, Drums, Harmonium, Recorder, field recordings - Gaz. The second part with the voice over is a Greensleeves rhythm section of acoustic guitar, drums, recorders, harmonium and bass The voice over is extracts from the writings of Meher Baba, a spiritual Master of of Persian ancestry born in Poona, India, a discourse he called "The New Humanity." We feel both parts of this track - the fear and foreboding for the planet and our species of "State of The Ark" and the sublime optimism of the Meher Baba discourse. As he puts it "Great forces of destruction ARE afoot and SEEM to be dominate at the moment." (our emphasis). The image is Hokusai's "In the Well of the Great Wave of Kanagawa" which seems to illustrate both the impending doom and the ultimate faith in humanity to overcome it.

New Lang Syne

This is the same live soundtrack filmed in    • Auld Lang Syne Live at Burns Night 20...   only with all the other instruments (harmonium, snare, bass drum, hi hat) I couldn't throw in the mix at the time as I had my hands and feet full. Surely the most popular parting song sung in the world with words written by Scotland's national (and international) poet Robert Burns, his canon bestriding both the 18C Enlightenment and Romanticism. It seems "Auld Lang Syne" (literally 'old long ago') replaced 'A Parting Glass' as Scotland's favourite end of evening farewell and that one takes some beating. We always sing it with the Ecclefechan Tarts Orchestra and Choir at the winding down midnight close of our annual Burns Night banquet of haggis, poetry and song by which time I am revealing far more inner thigh than is strictly necessary and one of us seems to think it's already the end of the year! Auld Lang Syne Words by Robert Burns [Verse 1] G D Should auld acquaintance be forgot, Em C And never brought to mind? G D Should auld acquaintance be forgot, Em C G And auld lang syne! [Chorus] G D For auld lang syne, my dear, G C For auld lang syne. G D We'll take a cup o' kindness yet, Em C G For auld lang syne. [Verse 2] G D And surely you’ll buy your pint cup! Em C And surely I’ll buy mine! G D And we'll take a cup o’ kindness yet, Em C G for auld lang syne. [Chorus] G D For auld lang syne, my dear, G C For auld lang syne. G D We'll take a cup o' kindness yet, Em C G For auld lang syne. [Verse 3] G D We two have run about the slopes, Em C And picked the daisies fine; G D But we’ve wandered many a weary foot, Em C G Since auld lang syne. [Chorus] G D For auld lang syne, my dear, G C For auld lang syne. G D We'll take a cup o' kindness yet, Em C G For auld lang syne. [Verse 4] G D We two have paddled in the stream, Em C From morning sun till dine; G D But seas between us broad have roared Em C G Since auld lang syne. [Chorus] G D For auld lang syne, my dear, G C For auld lang syne. G D We'll take a cup o' kindness yet, Em C G For auld lang syne. [Verse 5] G D And there’s a hand my trusty friend! Em C And give me a hand o’ thine! G D And we’ll take a right good-will draught, Em C G For auld lang syne. [Chorus] G D For auld lang syne, my dear, G C For auld lang syne. G D We'll take a cup o' kindness yet, Em C G For auld lang syne.

Come All Ye (A Folk Song)

We played this live at our local Burns Night Supper then recorded and the following morning filmed it on a mobile phone first take in our front room - a morning after with glorious winter sunshine streaming in. The first part of this video is that live studio first take. The second is the same film and same basic track but with all the sound overdubs we added over the next two days. Which do you prefer? Please let us know. Here's the press release. "This Hutchings/Denny number is the one that kicks off the greatest folk-rock album of all time 'Liege and Lief'. (1969, on the Island label. Essential listening if you've never heard it. ) "Part celebration of traditional English/British folk music and festival, part heart-singing pagan hymn (Oh Come All Ye Folkful?) but above all having some fun (mostly at our own expense) this is our BRAND NEW ONE, rehearsed and gigged and lived since the run up to Christmas and OUT TODAY. We've adapted two of the lyric verses to fit the instruments we have in our repertoire including on this occasion leader of the JD BIG BAND John Davies on sexy sax and his bonnie lassie Kathleen on guest drum roll on the drum verse. (They also have a little married duet of sax and drum roll in the play out.) It was an absolute treat to play live with them at Burns Night and to have their jelly roll jazz ( it's probably swing but you know where I and it's coming from) as part of our folk minstrel one. You can watch a film of us playing this track live with the JD Big Band and the Ecclefechan Tarts Orchestra and Choir last week at our annual Burns Night supper on YouTube film The Full Rabbie which recently premiered -    • The Full Rabbie  (International Burns...   " Come all ye rolling minstrels And together, we will try To rouse the spirit of the earth And move the rolling sky Those that dance, will start to dance And those who don't will stay In time to list our merry tune That we play for you today So, come all ye rolling minstrels And together we will try To rouse the spirit of the earth And move the rolling sky Our tooter, he just loves to toot Upon his common flute Recorder by another name Much better with a mute. So, come all ye rolling minstrels And together we will try To rouse the spirit of the earth And move the rolling sky Possessor of our sax appeal (see picture) And no old folkie he Folk is just some wayward notes Jazz a wayward key. So, come all ye rolling minstrels And together we will try To rouse the spirit of the earth And move the rolling sky Sound of beating on the drum Song behind you'll hear And to the rhythm of guitar We hope you'll lend an ear So, come all ye rolling minstrels And together we will try To rouse the spirit of the earth And move the rolling sky Well, the man who plays the bass does make Those low notes that you hear And the high notes come from you and me For we will sing so clear So, come all ye rolling minstrels And together we will try To rouse the spirit of the earth And move the rolling sky

Source: Musixmatch Songwriters: Sandy Denny / Ashley Stephen Hutchings / Dp Come All Ye lyrics © Warlock Music Ltd Comic adaptations to lyrics of verses 2 and 3 to fit our instruments (and in my case level of virtuosity) by Peacock's Tale.

PREMIERE The Full Rabbie (International Burns Nacht 2025) with the Ecclefechan T...

PREMIERES 7.30 PM TONIGHT. The Full Rabbie (International Burns Nacht 2025) with the Ecclefechan Tarts Orchestra and Choir. ..Burns Night January 25 January 2025. A celebration ( in Norfolk by four Sassenachs and two Germans) of the universal genius and geniality, in poetry and music, of Scotland's national poet Robbie Burns. Featuring  a feats of friendship and a banquet of traditional Scots fare, Selkirk Grace, The Address to the Haggis, The To the Immortal Memory of Rabbie Burns Lecture, the after dinner prayer,  My Love is Like a Red Red Rose, To The De'il, Elegy of the Year .. (updated to 2025) and other poems, Auld Lang Syne and other songs in the spirit of the great Radical Republican European Enlightenment Scots Thinker and Romantic. Lang may yer lum reek.