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High On a Hill

from Sweet Pea by Lila Blue

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about

I am occasionally able to write music in my sleep, and High On a Hill was one of the first songs that I wrote in full before I could wake up. In the dream, I was on a plane, and the words flowed out of me until we hit the tarmac. I still have the voice memo I took singing the song right after I’d woken up, slightly panting and dazed but carrying the tune through each of the nine verses. Slowly, with the aid of the incredible Gabriel Ebert and Damon Daunno, I found an excitingly intricate three-part harmony and transformed this tune at MOXE into the song it became. When parsing through the lyrics now, I can see how my sleeping self found a new myth of sorts to share how we wished the wounded parts of ourselves and others could be tended to in the wake of harm, but I can also see my brain’s absolute love of folk tales, the traditional folk tune, and the genre of magical realism and the aching and wondrous mystery of what it would mean to be properly grieved.

lyrics

High on a hill was a woman who drowned
She was soaked to the bone but no water could be found
Her body made a lake of the grave where they buried in the ground
High on a hill was a woman who drowned
She had hair of gold and rings of rust
But her shoes were bitten to the quick if you must know
Her sternum stayed a pearl in a cage of damp bone and dust
She had hair of gold and rings of rust
She had one eye open and one eye closed
As if half of her knew it was time to go
Her lips held the hint of a tale that never got to be told
She had one eye open and one eye closed
Some said they saw her swinging from an old oak tree
Those who stumbled upon her knew it just couldn't be
For every man who gathered by her side swore her neck was kept and clean
But they said they saw her swinging from an old oak tree
The children in town came to kiss her hand
The men and women would never understand
That to die inside a secret is a pain no grown heart can withstand
So the children in town came to kiss her hand
The women lay by her side and they rocked her slow
As if she was a child they bore that they never got to know
They wailed and cried and weeped and bathed her body in the water of the rose
The women lay by her side and rocked her slow
The men dug and dug 'til the moon did rise
They felt a whisper on their necks as they lay her inside
A hole, a home for her that was 6 feet deep and wide
Enough to hold the river that seeped from her spine
you are you are you are you are
you are sky you are sea you are breath
you are you were you were you were you were
you were sky you were sea you were breath
you were you are you are you are you are
you are sky you are sea you are breath
you are you were you were you were you were
you were sky you were sea you were breath
you were you were
High on a hill was a woman who drowned
She was soaked to the bone but no water could be found
Her body made a lake of the grave where they buried her in the ground
If you lean real close to its banks you can hear a ringing, singing sound
You’ll find roses in the breeze and gold in the trees and an aching all around
High on a hill was a woman who drowned

credits

from Sweet Pea, released November 10, 2023
Written by Lila Blue Coley / Lila Blue Music (ASCAP)

Vocals - Lila Blue
Bass - Saskia Lane
Electric Guitar - Phil Roebuck
Acoustic Guitar - Lila Blue
Synth Bass - Jordan Brooke Hamlin
Viola & Violin - Ashley Frith
Percussion - Phil Roebuck
Background Vocalists - Damon Daunno, Gabriel Ebert
Producer - Jordan Brooke Hamlin
Recording & Mixing Engineer - Jordan Brooke Hamlin
Assistant Recording Engineer - Lake Wilkinson

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Lila Blue New York, New York

LILA BLUE (they/she) is a 23 year old non-binary and queer folk musician, singer-songwriter, playwright and performer based out of Brooklyn. Their projects navigate themes of grief, joy, intergenerational trauma, rage, queerness and collisions with divine and haunted spirits, stemming from their own intuitive practices. They've released 3 LP’s, 2 EP’s, with LP 4, SWEET PEA, arriving 11/10/23 ... more

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