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Light Comes In

by Ali Dineen

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  • Compact Disc (CD) + Digital Album

    An actual CD in a beautiful case with 6-panel liner notes (lyrics included) made by Stumptown Printers using offset printing techniques, designed by Ali Dineen.

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1.
Prayer 05:06
for the land beneath our shoes and the river running through for the life that we don’t see and the life we don’t believe may you grow in every crack that we have made in the violence of our trying to create a world we own and design teach us how to forget what’s yours and his and hers and mine and to work with what is good for those lost in depth of night and without a flame or light for those with no place that’s safe and whose laugh now hides away may you know in your bones being lost is to be seeking something more and we only know joy from having known pain some wiser folks have said they are the same some wiser folks have said they are the same for the angry and the cruel and those blinded by their fear for those who can’t stand the pain of the harm they’ve done for their own gain may you find a way to break all the walls you’ve built for ignorance’s sake learn to look at all the life you’ve undone and begin to learn from everyone begin to learn from everyone this a prayer for you and i that we find our way towards a home where all can live strong and free and safe and as the pitcher cries and speaks so do man and woman too, for water work and peace may we do what we know, and know what we love and love all that lives and live how we believe to be true and good
2.
Go, Stay 05:32
go when your feet are restless go when you hear a faraway song heed what your bones are saying don’t wait for your saint to come chorus this is what it means to love let go of all your distant hopes and hold onto what you wish you’d never had and never been stay when your feet are restless stay when every bone tells you to run look where the skin is broken and wait till the light comes in (chorus) no sleep tonight you wake before the light of dawn open and emptying fill me with anything go where your name is spoken stay when you feel like standing still no one can guide your footsteps so walk where you will this is what it means to love let go of all your distant hopes and hold onto what you wish you’d never had and never been to all those things you wish you'd never seen
3.
It was winter when you told your life you were leaving it for warmer countries And as you moved thru your days with the spring coming on you were tearing up roots, thinking soon you'd be gone Somewhere else there were miracles, carnivals, and a space in the air only your bones could fill And right here only emptiness, tragedy cold days and nights all the light far away, in some imagined place We've got to start looking at what we pretend we cant see it will save us, or it will break us and you've got to stop telling yourself what you don't know cuz you know what you know Spring it brought madness and chaos and song the wind growing warm, the days growing long I watched the world blow through your mind we stooped low to pick up what it left behind Scattered stories of our country's childhood, though we're deaf to their sounds We're trying to stand up straight but we don't know what's weighing us down (chorus) It was summer when we learned that you might be leaving us for warmer country And as we moved through our days, cold wind blowing through we were speaking our prayers for the keeping of you Who said speak out or suffocate on slow-burning lies I say we steer this wayward ship home till the last light dies (chorus) And nowhere is without rainfall, nowhere is without drought nowhere is without madness, nowhere is without doubt nowhere without cruelty, nowhere without war nowhere without sunrise when the candle won't burn anymore Resting in the dawn, waking to yourself breath filling our lungs with the same air as everyone else's and we'll find our way home when we find out what we know
4.
Golden Light 07:21
i looked at my lover, constant as the sun i wade in my waters, changing as the tides we woke in the morning and asked ourselves, does the sun see its light on the leaves outside? he turned to me and said when you burn that bright it isn't a matter of distance or sight golden light upon your skin that's the peace that i take my rest in while around my bones and out in the street blows a brutal wind, a storm i fear to meet don't go alone, there's no fun in that be still, you will find the ground beneath can we light a fire bright enough to burn through our darkest hours as we take our turn doubting everything that we've ever done? will we cease to grow before we have begun? don't go alone, though they'll tell you it is right you'll find in time nothing good gets left behind and we're only passing time there's no peace within your mind and what's here is all you'll find, all you'll find
5.
6.
Riversong 03:51
i’ve been down the river, i’ve been to the sea i’ve been to the depths of the waters in me the waters in me like the waters in you are old as the earth, are pulled by the moon the moon with its glow borrowed off of the sun moves cold light on land, moves rivers as they run they run over land made fallow by man a man who's made fallow by his own hands the hands that can grow are the same that can kill but the hands that do wrong are a human's hands still those killing hands are those loving hands are my hands are your hands hands that can harm are hands that can heal hands that can give are hands that can steal what do you do now that you know the shackles are still steel the walls are still stone? don't look away, don't look away and I’ve watched a prison go up stone by stone it’s watching a grave be filled bone by bone bones that have danced and bones that stood strong bones inside bodies with lungs full of song songs that can guide us unto ourselves before they are silenced by movements of hell and hell isn't red hot it's cold and it's hard it's gunshots and courtooms, it’s lies and it’s laws it’s sentences and stipulations, institutions and explanations it’s a cage and a word i’ve been down the river, i’ve been to the sea i’ve been to the depths of the waters in me
7.
8.
well if my sister she calls for me tell her death done silenced me i oughta been in heaven ten thousand years drinkin' of the wine, drinkin' that wine, drinking' that wine i oughta been in heaven ten thousand years drinkin' of the wine let's call the roll, let's call the roll i oughta been in heaven ten thousand years drinkin' of the wine

about

I wrote these songs over the course of two years. Writing them brought solace in times of pain and uncertainty, and singing them is an act of joy, self-love and resistance.
Music is the medium through which I seek to understand myself and history. My music is influenced by folk traditions from the United States, the oldest of which were created by black people suffering under slavery and terrible oppression. Those songs were sung for healing and they were a mode of resistance, used to pass along messages of escape and freedom in lyrics that would go unnoticed by the oppressors. We can hear the legacies of these traditions in much of the music we love today, and see the legacies of that violence in police brutality, mass incarceration, deep-seated racism and the systemic and violent oppression of poor people and people of color in the USA. Resistance continues in the Black Lives Matter movement and countless related efforts toward dismantling white supremacy and on behalf of justice, freedom, compassion and peace.
I seek to resist all that deadens, shames and destroys and I seek to create life, connection and joy. I seek truth. These songs taught me to never look away from suffering, for healing and change can only come from awareness and accountability. They taught me to trust myself. They taught me that conscious art, celebration and community are essential forms of resistance against the white supremacist capitalist heteropatriarchy in which we are living. And they taught me something that I learn anew all the time: the only barriers between any of us are the ones we choose to construct and uphold.
If this music moves you, seek healing for yourself and your community. Seek knowledge about systemic oppression and your role in it. Find solidarity, community and joy, and resist division, isolation, silence and fear. Listen to yourself and to one another.
May you have ease, wellness, compassion and joy.

credits

released December 4, 2016

Ali Dineen: voice, piano, guitar, harmonium
Hannah Sassoon: cello (1, 2, 4), voice (5)
Eleonore Weill: voice (2, 4), double-flute (4)
Jake Schulman-Ment: violin (1, 4)
Jeff Reinhardt: clarinet (1, 4)
Richie Barshay: percussion (1, 2, 4)
Joanna Sternberg:!bass (1, 4, 7)
Ilusha Tsinadze: guitar (2)

All songs except 5 and 8 written by Ali Dineen
1, 2, 4, 5 collectively arranged by Ali Dineen, Hannah Sassoon and Jake Schulman-Ment

Co-produced by Ali Dineen and Danny Blume
Recorded by Danny Blume at The Isokon in Woodstock, NY and Cowboy Technical in Brooklyn, NY.
Mixed by Danny Blume at The Hidden Quarry in Woodstock, NY.
Mastered by Joe Lambert.

Copyright 2016

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Ali Dineen Brooklyn, New York

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