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While we were building Jerusalem
While we are building Jerusalem
While we are building Jerusalem
While we are building with our tired hands
While we were building Jerusalem
Whilst our backs were turned
A roofer up and switched the plans
The pattern books were burned
The architects of Jerusalem
They are dead and gone
In bitter days and twisted ways
It’s hard to carry on
Hello can you hear me
Hello can you hear me
Hello can you hear me
Anyone in the darkness
I shall not cease from mental fight
Nor shall peace slip through our tired hands
While we are building Jerusalem
While we are building Jerusalem
While we are building with our tired hands
We pray for the peace of Jerusalem
Princes and thieves have other plans
Those men will wake one day to find
They have all their temples burned
The flaw in the city of Jerusalem
Is enmity itself
The end of days the darkening ways
We have to carry on
Hello can you hear me
Hello can you hear me
Hello can you hear me
Anyone in the darkness
I shall not cease from mental fight
Nor shall peace slip through our tired hands
While we are building Jerusalem
While we are building Jerusalem
While we are building with our tired hands
Guitars & Vocal: Alan Prosser. Cello: Catriona Bryce.
Vocals: Chris Burn. Guitar & Vocals: Henry Sparks.
Henry Sparks © 2015
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2. |
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If she falls
In a laugh we capture
The wings of the moment
Touch hands then cartwheel and fly
All her sunbeams and sonnets
Her calico bonnets
Girl of the raven blue hair
Dancer at the window pane
Oh she’s gone again
If she falls I will catch her
For nothing else matters
It’s a gift of love for today
I will carve her name
On some wayside stone
Which shall stand as the time drifts away
We shall embark on ships
Burn any bridges
Speak tongues that we always have known
Dancer at the window pane
Oh she’s gone again
If she falls I will catch her
For nothing else matters
It’s a gift of love for today
For nothing else matters
For nothing else matters
For nothing else matters today
Fiddles: Anthony Johnson. Guitar & Vocals: Henry Sparks.
Bass: Julie Walkington.
Henry Sparks 2015 ©
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3. |
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So like a child
Orchards I picked apples in have all been torn down
The planners and the tarmac have covered the ground
And so like a child with trembling hands
I come with you to stand
Parents they gave me love I threw it all away
Too busy mowing the orchards that aren’t here today
And so like a child with trembling hands
I come with you to stand
Vocals: Chris Burn. Cello: Catriona Bryce.
Guitar & Vocals: Henry Sparks.
Henry Sparks 2015 ©
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4. |
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The cowboy song
Hope and dreams the rain washed down
Love it seems is dust on the wind
I’m losing the trace in that empty sound
I’m running away from my heart
I turn my face on the old pale hills
Turn my back on the sun
To have and to hold for good or ill
The sand slips through your fingers then you’re done
Chorus: I am the lonesome cowboy on the prairie of your heart
I ride through the canyons all alone
I will ride that way forever or until I grow old
Or until you say you love me
Or until the grass turns to gold
One day the rose I saw it from the street
Some way I lost you the thread of my days
I’ve wandered this land of dust and heat
The towers of desolation in the haze
Chorus:
Sky come down and bury me in the ground
Horizon is the trick the dead can pass
Calling and calling don’t you be long
This dream of angels shall last
Chorus:
I’m hanging from the wire of heartbreak and desire
Turning slowly in the wind
In the dead quiet valley the horse turns away
The world has nothing to say
The world has nothing to say
The grass is turning to gold
The grass is turning to gold
Lap-steel & Pedal-steel: Alan Cook. Vocal: Sue Hudson.
Bass: Jef Reynolds. Guitar & Vocal: Henry Sparks.
Henry Sparks © 2014
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5. |
Migrant (2024 remaster)
04:07
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Migrant
Three of us died on the train today
One fell chasing a truck
Some curse their gods
Others just curse their luck
We ask around for David
People say that he’s gone
Gone to meet his maker
Or travelling clean away
Far and away over and away
Freedom’s a queen finest I’ve seen
Freedom’s a lover careless and free
Freedom appears calling me home
Those longest last few miles
This day next day someday soon
Lonely scared far from home
I ran down the fenceline
It’s all that we ever do
Searching out the weakness
Trying to find the way through
A lark rose up beside me
Climbing into the air
Rose up singing beside me
Climbing into the air
Higher and away over and away
Freedom’s a queen finest I’ve seen
Freedom’s a lover careless and free
Freedom appears calling me home
Those longest last few miles
This day next day someday soon
But who will see that my grave is kept clean
But who will see that my grave is kept clean
Guitar & Vocal: Henry Sparks
Henry Sparks © 2015
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Henry Sparks Canterbury, UK
HENRY SPARKS lives in England, plays guitar, writes and sings songs.
His music is informed by experience as
a farm hand, pizza slinger, carpenter, architect and lecturer.
Folk - English and American - and a fascination with song-writing have driven his playing and creativity. He now makes music locally with Canterbury legends The Country Counts, and plays in or out at any opportunity.
... more
Henry Sparks recommends:
This is a ramble round the dusty attics of Chris's mind. I particularly like the sound of this album. Listen to the Woolfless Years.
go to album
Essential compost! This is part of a great piece of US folk music field recording work by Art Rosenbaum. Get all of it and listen!
go to album
Bush Gothic
by Jenny M. Thomas and The System
Take a song and turn it inside out...also check out Jenny's earlier 'Farewell to Old England' Album. Deconstruction at it's best!
go to albumIf you like Henry Sparks, you may also like:
Death Folk Country
by Dorthia Cottrell
The Windhand singer's second solo album unfurls reflections on life, lust, love, and loss.
go to album
Ruby Throat’s songs thrive on juxtaposition, setting gentle vocals against big, stormy riffs.
go to album
featured on Bandcamp Radio Nov 17, 2015
go to album
