by Ferron

I discovered Ferron via the dark comedy One Mississipi on Amazon Prime. Tig Notaro, who among other indignities has recently undergone a double mastectomy for cancer, gets stood up by her new hot date at a Ferron concert. Emily Nussbaum in the New Yorker (click here) described the scene as “what may be the most lesbian plot ever on television”.  I’m no judge of that, but Tig, alone in the crowd, as Ferron sings Aint Life a Brook was a bit of a moment.

Never Your Own is from Ferron’s 2009 album Boulder.

Could the album cover image be a reference to her fellow Canadian, Leonard Cohen? No. It’s from this song, about holding back those troublesome thoughts about the fate that’s coming down the line – to us all.

Souvenir

What you dream in the morning, may you dream at night
May your love light be so bright it diminish the darkness
that comes without warning
And in no particular way
and threatens to blow you away.

You can pray to a flower or a bird on the line,
What’s clear in the mirror twists with cheap evening wine
Still, those sweet running creek beds seem
to show up on time
And keep you from blowing away

I wish I could tell you all the pain’s in your head
That it all would be better if you’d just do what they said
But if the voice that is talking is never your own
Then who’s going to tell you that you finally come home.

Me, I’ve run with the big boys and I’ve lain in their dirt
It’s the same sorry story and we all have been hurt
by the Truth that we carry and the truth that flies by
And the distance between them is the sweet by and by

We’re born to a body that is destined to die
And we wail at that moment ‘til we learn to say ‘why’
Is it me, am I the only one who suffers this way
that’s when the glorified game goes to play

In the wind there’s a story, in the trees there’s a song
In a friend’s touch there’s so much,
makes you want to live longer
And do a little something that might soften the blow
With your arms wrapped together you say baby I know…