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"Don't leave your own country, till the trial do come on
For they never will hang you for the shooting of a swan"

a re-working of a traditional Irish ballad-- called Polly Vaughn-- with new lyrics reflecting on the American relationship with gun violence.

lyrics

There is blood on the flag from America's birth
We fired a pistol, and the shot filled the earth
It rung through our ears like a bell in a tower
And fatally sounded both the minute and the hour

It wasn't the first time the blood stained our hands
For once there was peace through this beautiful land
The birdcalls have scattered, we've shattered our ears
And the ones who were born here have left here in tears

Oh, how shall we color the flag of our land?
The red, white and blue we will dye with our hands
The blue and the white from the sea and the sun
And the red of the flag from the ones we shot down

And how shall we make it, this flag of our land?
We must cut it and stitch it, that I understand
With swords and sledgehammers, we'll carve out the cloth
With pledges and loyalty, quilt it as one

This won't be the last time we aim and we fire
For the rungs on the ladder reach higher and higher
We'll soon have to ask, as our hands clutch the wood
Oh, how will we live amongst all of this blood?

There is blood on our hands, and there's blood on the boil
There is blood on the sky, and it falls to the soil
There is blood on the wings, hear the wounded eagle call
But the blood on the flag is the reddest of all

credits

from Mothers & Daughters, released June 4, 2021
Composed and performed by Norma Jean Haynes

Mary Lauren Fraser- Fiddle

Engineered by Judy Elliot-Brown at the Institute for the Musical Arts, Goshen MA

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Norma Jean Haynes (Norma Dream) Massachusetts

Norma Dream/Norma Jean Haynes
Northampton, Massachusetts

folk songs finely wrought, deeply rooted

odes to the angels

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