1. |
Göteborg
02:39
|
|||
|
Some remaining winter clouds on Gothenburg’s skyline
a mass of people walking out of Oscar Fredrick church.
Things like this do happen in the broadest of daylight
nobody takes notice of the absence of the birds.
A lonely bride is weeping in the shadow of the steeple
she weeps about the pious life that she has never led.
She should be the happiest of all the gathered people
but rumour has it all the birds have suddenly dropped dead.
When they come and go out all alone
how did they even become friends?
When the snow is so ephemeral
it doesn’t matter in the end.
It’s true that birds will fly away to escape the Northern winter
but all the birds in Gothenburg will never sing again.
All the hearts and all the beaks in tiny bits did splinter
and that is due to charities of just a single man.
|
||||
2. |
The Maritimes
03:06
|
|||
|
See the woods are glowing embers, waiting here to shine
See the autumn shakes the trees and frees the Maritimes
See the moss is making way for rocks, and stones, and gravel
And the elements are calling, are calling
Mile after mile, and day after day
The sea, it calls my name
My life at home is not the same
So I’m coming, I’m coming back again
Hear the sound of seabirds, coming from September skies
Hear the sound of waves arriving at the Maritimes
Hear the sound of mighty rivers, heading to the sea
And the elements are calling, are calling
I feel love for some things that I cannot own
I feel love for some ways that the people go
I fear all the reasons coming from the sky
And all we do is waiting, is waiting
|
||||
3. |
John Wilson
03:17
|
|||
|
It’s hard to be creative with people around. It’s hard to stay focused when it’s all much too loud.
So I put on my shoes. No specific goal. I tighten the laces. I’m ready to go.
Olivia writes something. “Do you like these ideas?” I like to go places. She likes to stay here. My name is John Wilson, and I’m an architect. I’d like to go places, but I stay home instead.
It’s hard to stay sober with all these drinks around. It’s hard to build friendships in this part of town.
So I put on my shoes. No specific goal. I tighten the laces. I’m ready to go.
I go. Sometimes.
|
||||
4. |
||||
|
The calluses on the trees around you
It’s frightening and intimate as well
The quiet and the fir trees they have found you
You’re shivering behind me I can tell
And you
Spent the night
In the forest
For the first time
The coffee in your hand is getting colder
This forest is the fountain of my youth
While I’m waiting for some trees to grow older
The waiting it has never been for you
It has never been for you and I
To sleep beneath the stars under this sky
So come and look for me another time
And gather all the branches you can find
And gather all the branches you can find.
|
||||
5. |
The Lion Tamer
02:21
|
|||
|
Girl, you’re not a lion tamer
so leave the lions well alone.
When you realize the danger
a lion poses kept at home…
…you will hit the ground running
while I put on my running shoes
I might not be faster than a lion
but I am faster than you.
Girl, we are not lion tamers
but we face lions now and then.
Although I do not try to tame one
girl, our future will depend
I might not be a lion tamer, but
I’ve got time on my side.
Where you are now I’ve once been myself
now it’s your turn to decide.
|
||||
6. |
Timothy
04:15
|
|||
|
He was a gentle and a careless happy kid.
Fell in love with comic books.
Looking for the hero that he never was and never will be.
He was craving for that look.
He met her on the street in Belfast in the spring.
Looking for words in her eyes.
Don’t know how he got her to love him, but she did until she broke him and she broke him many times.
He said “I’m Batman and I cannot be your lover, for the secrets and the burdens that I bear.
You can’t love, nor can I love another, for the spiked ears and the black cape that I wear.”
Now every time he meets a woman, he thinks too much and loves too less.
He’s not the hero that reads about in all these comic books and so he does what he thinks best.
He says “You are my Gotham City. Just light a sign for me to see.
I will be there when you need me but right now I cannot stay. Let go my hand and let me free.
There are some people in your life who change you for the better.
There are some people in your life who make you worse.
|
||||
7. |
On The Couch
03:10
|
|||
|
I slept in the train on the day I left home
I slept on the couch at her place all alone
We took silly pictures with unselfish smiles;
embraced for too long and then muttered “Good Night”
A lot to confess, even more to leave out;
there are lots of silence in doubt
I’m too scared to be with
a studied psychologist
For fear of transparency
I’m too scared to be.
When she went down under to study abroad
we barely bowed out, but that wasn’t her fault.
A talk in the kitchen, we later dragged out
in bits and in pieces when her mum left the house.
An autograph left in her autograph book
for all the belongings I took.
And we all confess sometimes
for the soothing of the talk
I’m afraid of the reply
but to be honest, aren’t we all?
|
||||
8. |
Dear Driver
02:17
|
|||
|
Dear driver, I wanna thank you for the hours we spent on the road.
For your patience, you waited on me when the train wasn’t ready to go.
They say “Good things come to those who do good things.” – so I think you will be fine.
Like when you gave me ten minutes of your time, to save me an hour of mine.
Take this kindness with you as you go and forever be safe on the road.
Forever be safe on the road.
In your red and blue car.
|
||||
9. |
Dressmaker
02:11
|
|||
|
Make it shorter and make it tight
In the ambiance by the fire
Should you ever come to ruin a hem, just take your time and try to make it whole again.
Look for anything that seems nice
In these fallible neon lights
And the scissors are over there, for you to find and to cut this shirt of mine.
I always wondered what it’d be like
To be a tailor of the loving kind
And if the scissors are untraceable, just take a knife and try to cut along the lines.
Dressmaker do you feel alright
In the ambiance by the fire?
Should you ever come to ruin a hem, just take your time and try to make it whole again.
|
||||
10. |
Leviathan
04:27
|
|||
|
I dreamed I spoke to a whale and she sang, and she sang to me.
And I kissed a long time friend and she swam, and she swam to me.
As I was a lonely diver in the middle of a cold, cold sea.
So I sang with my dear whale, and the bull sharks were staring at me.
As I rose, I was missing a finger and the coast was so far, far away.
I followed the smell of the ocean and penguins they guided my way.
I raised a hand with four fingers and I pointed to that heartless grey sea.
And I sang for my dear whale while the ice sheets were staring at me.
I slept on that whale’s back and the wind sang a lullaby to me.
And I fell from the back of that whale and she circled, and circled ‘round me.
And I was a lonely diver in the middle of a cold, cold sea.
So I sank with my dear whale while someone was dreaming of me.
|
||||
Ben Hermanski Ibbenbüren, Germany
Ben likes to hold on to moments and give them away on stage. To you.
In his songs and the stories that he
tells.
Ben Hermanski is an observer, a sensitive writer. A finder of melodies both engaging, catchy and familiar; a teller of stories both true and remote at the same time.
He keeps his eyes closed on stage, because these moments are for giving. To you.
... more
Ben Hermanski recommends:
Check out my other project.
go to album
Check out my friend Tobi.
go to album
Check out my friend Zeki.
go to albumIf you like Ben Hermanski, you may also like:
All New
by Tom Paxton, Cathy Fink & Marcy Marxer
The sound of classic country music abounds on the latest from Grammy-winners Cathy Fink & Marcy Marxer.
go to album
Here in the Pitch
by Jessica Pratt
On her fourth album, Jessica Pratt blends up 60s pop and bossa nova into a spooky mix of soft psychedelia.
go to album
I Get Into Trouble (LP | 2023)
by Maple Glider
The Australian folk-pop singer tackles deconstruction, her Christian childhood, and sexuality on her infectious sophomore album.
go to album
