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I was asked by a "Reggie Lafleur" (Art-preneur) to do an artist-in-residence in Nelson B.C., at the Big Yellow House project, explaining it was an artists-helping- artists scene and wanted to create some opportunities to support new work.  

So I did! During October/November 2022 I spent a month researching and working on this show.  

I wanted to highlight a voice of the land among a variety of stories.  

  7 original songs and images tell the stories in a unique way. 

The show runs just under  25 minutes.

Special Thanks: to: Incoming Theatre Festival for presenting it, Lauren Jerke for Dramaturgy and Directing,  Casey Colwill (caseylcolwill@gmail.com) for voicing Gretchen,  Jeni Luther(@jeniloothair - Instagram) for the visual designs, as well as Robin Brownright, and Yolannah Diakiw. Images and film clips from The Pre-linger Archives and other photo's from Lost Kootenay (facebook page.)

 

Mini Glossary:

Tynemouth:-  a Brideship that sailed 100 days from The UK to Victoria, B.C, in 1862. :

Sandon- a silver mining town in the Kootenays that is now another  ghost town left in the wake of the gold and mining rush.

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Here's the list of song charts, short descriptions and the lyrics for each...

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Gold dust  ( I was inspired by all the different types gold diggers and snake oil salesmen that chase them on what seems to be an endless merry -go-round) 

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Gold dust
Am        C
Mail order bride
Em
miles from home
Am
Leaning on a fencepost
Em        
looking down a gravel road
Am                  C
Over graves
      Em
Muddy boots and muddy trails 
Am             
bridges rising 
F            Dm        
under  steaming rails
C   G    Am       Em 
Out for  gold  
F    G    Dm  Em   
Out for gold
C   G    Am Em 
dust creeps in  
F            G    Dm  Em  Am
Like a riders ghost
Am                C            
Threats and threads 
Em 
Picking  holes
Am        
Snake oil salesmen
F        G
Silver tongues of coal

Chorus   Dm Em A7

G A D 

Bm  
**Instrumental Break**
E7  
Chorus riff in Bm   F#7         
Bm          D
men erode
F#m       
Drilling  hills to the bone
Bm          
Poison water 
G                        A
Sleeping in the snow
               Bm    D
grandfather clock
F#m                
6 bells    and in the field         
Bm            G         A        
Tilling crops for someone else to steal, who’s

 D   A    Bm       F#m 
Out for  gold  
G    A    Em     F#m 
Out for gold

D   A    Bm        F#m 
dust creeps in  
G          A              F#7   
Like a riders ghost


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The last water dragon - My friend Yolannah was telling me about people who have drowned in Kootenay Lake but their bodies were never recovered. There is some mystery around it and this song was inspired thinking about the ones lost in the endless deep.
Capo 2 - drop D

 

Am    
Gold and skeletons
Em        Am
In the endless deep
F
Get the boat on the water
         G
And down below
F
to the caves, glittering so 
          G
that you dive in low
 
Am                                         F        G
Oh the depth, way it turns, turns and curves and sways
Am                      Dm                 G
always upside down when  you lost your way  

Am    
To the gold and skeletons
Em        Am
In the endless  deep
F
All the boats washed ashore 
g
brothers long ago
Down with the last water dragon 
And his lair of gold…
Am                                         F        G
Oh the depth, way it turns, turns and curves and sways
Am                      Dm                 G
always upside down when  you lost your way


Am    
Gold and skeletons
Em        Am
In the endless deep
Dm         G
lost ones in the lake
Dm         G
lost ones in the lake
    Em        Am
Miles below ivory peaks

Am    
Gold and skeletons
Em        Am
In the endless deep

Am    
Gold and skeletons
Em        Am
In the endless deep

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All for Gold _ I was reading the auto-biography of Nancy Greene ( an Olympic Skier from Rossland) and I was inspired by what she said about the Olympics between the 1964 and the 1968 and how they'd changed for the worse.

Dm/f 
made the sacred a circus
Dollars for soul 
made the sacred a circus
All for the gold 
   C                        G
Spectacle of winners and losers at war
Dm/f 
made the sacred a circus
Dollars for gold

C
a name you can hold
       Gm
In your mind like a medal (candle)
       C
and a name you can hold
               Bb
In your heart like gold
 
Dm 
They made the sacred a circus
Dollars for soul 
They made the sacred a circus
All for the gold
Spectacle of winners and losers at war
They made the sacred a circus
All for the gold

C
First out on steep run 
   Gm
carousel of champions
   C
Put on a good one
Bb
Sell out the stands

  
High Plateau (I went to an event called the 'Dance of the Ancestors' while I was in Nelson and had a strange experience of being danced at one point.) I wrote a poem about it which morphed into this song

 

Chorus

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danced
I was sung 
In the hills
pine and honey
I was wrung 
By the storm
I was danced
By the memory
I was sung

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Oh the river
Cooling to the bones 
squealing in 
To a burning rush
High plateau 
Where old hymns echo
fading into  the dusk 

Chorus

High plateau 
Where old hymns echo
fading into dusk 
Old shadows 
folds of the moon 
age old wounds 
man and son

Chorus

High plateau 

Where old hymns echo

fading into dusk 
 

Shadow and the Flame ( mob mentality and the damage there in - always interesting to write a song like this while imagining life back in the gold rush days) 

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Ma waits sleeping by the hearth
for Percy and the Wagon
Gold letters on brown leather book 
Fallen on her chest
Shadow and the flame
Ashes and the rain

down at the coach stop 
he dried out by the fire 
Wagon wheel broke in the ditch
Damn horse thru a shoe
Shadow and the flame
Ashes and the rain

Hannah doles the evening stew
Tends to all the fires
Since her parents left her there
When she was a child
Shadow and the flame
Ashes and the rain
By the next sunrise
Hannahs body black and 
blue  found dead and torn
One thing they knew
She was last seen in the barn 
helping re-shoe a horse 

Sportsmen raised their torches
Carrying their pitchforks 
chased down Percys wagon
Left the Vultures his remains

Shadow and the flame 
Ashes and the rain
While Ma waited miles away 
No tea no flour no sugar
Fainted at the news that came
and never did recover
Shadow and the flame
Ashes and the rain

The culprit got away 
took a lantern
down the miners trail 
back to working on his claim 
no one could recall his name
Shadow and the flame
Ashes and the rain
A shadow in the flame
Ashes in the rain 

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Miner's Ghost ( musing on the ones who hole up in the hills dreaming of their payday come what may)

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Been a long dry season

the hills rust and bone

oh we're all hoping to see you

before the end of season comes

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been climbing all these hillsides

cross the old river bridge

got a new claim for digging

going to make my riches yet

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while they all go down to dance hall

all join in on the song

they'll find their share of heartwarming

when the end of season comes

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for tonight I'll light up my campfire

sing a high lonesome song

oh we're all waiting for something

when that end of season comes

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Battle song- I wrote this one thinking about the choices one makes to create their own way, Little everyday things, big reno's or big changes., picking your battles...

Battle Song

Maybe the soulshine
Will finally come back
Over the empty bank
Plans that have gone bad

There by the gravel
Off to the side
forgotten ballads
And a lost desire

Under the dust 
of a torn down wall
And a paint chip trail
Going down the hall

Sunrise wish of the dawn
Rewrite your battle song
Sunrise wish of the dawn
Rewrite your battle song

tea in the shade
Pen the songs to sing
And out in the fields
plant your offering

Soft glare of headlights
On a tear stained face
Living to pay for 
the time that you waste

Sunrise wish of the dawn
Rewrite your battle song
Sunrise wish of the dawn
Rewrite your battle song

Under the dust 
of a torn down wall
And a paint chip trail
down the hall

Soft glare of headlights
On a tear stained face
Living to pay for 
the time that you waste

Sunrise wish of the dawn
Rewrite your battle song
Sunrise wish of the dawn
Rewrite your battle song

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