'Travels from your armchair' is the first album by The Bookshop Band. It contains all the songs written for Season One of the author events at Mr Bs Emporium of Reading Delights. The songs were all inspired by folk tales from around the world.
The limited edition bespoke case is designed by the band, is numbered, and printed on an old letterpress in Oxford.
Includes unlimited streaming of Travels from your armchair
via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality download in MP3, FLAC and more.
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Includes unlimited streaming via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality download in MP3, FLAC and more.
This is a tale about a couple that had a boy after years of trying for a child. The woman is so delighted that she dies. The man remarries and has another child, but this mother is not kind. She entices the boy with an apple and chops his head off with the lid of the apple chest. She makes it look as though it is the daughter’s fault, then feeds the boy to his father in a stew which he can’t stop eating. Meanwhile, the boy turns into a bird and sings ‘My mother she killed me, my father he ate me, my sister, Marlene made sure to see my bones were all gathered together, bound nicely in silk, as neat as can be, and laid beneath the juniper tree. Tweet, tweet! What a lovely bird I am!’
The bird gathers gifts from the locals including a stone with which he drops on the mother. The bird returns to being a boy and they go inside to eat.
The song was written and performed at Mr B's Emporium of Reading Delights when Simon Winder came in to talk about the Penguin Central European Classics collection.
lyrics
One winters day, in the snow she lay
There was a tree, a juniper tree
Nine months past and a child at last
Tears were in her eye’s
Of joy, and then she died.
Now, the boy, white as snow, red as blood
A new found love, a wicked love
She cut his head, now he is dead
Tears were in her eyes
Of fear and devil’s lies
Beautiful bird of
Song he sings, for all his loves
People look up above
Below the tree there’s signs of life.
Next winter’s day, now the boy would play
Beneath the tree, the juniper tree.
credits
from Travels from your armchair,
released December 1, 2011
Written and recorded by The Bookshop Band
Mixed by Marco Migliari
The Bookshop Band write songs inspired by books and play them in bookshops. They started as a collaboration between a group
of musicians in Bath and their local independent bookshop, Mr B's Emporium. Now they are about to go on tour, sponsored by Vintage Books and Independent Booksellers Week, around other bookshops and lit fests. Catch them if you can. Details at www.thebookshopband.co.uk...more
supported by 4 fans who also own “The Juniper Tree”
a large chunk of the album resonates with me, love for the hills, mountains, coastline and particularly the north of Britain. Delivered with a wonderful voice and wonderful accompanying music. We found Iona by mistake on a search, so glad we did! scotch_single_malt
British folk musician Tom Nash built these delicate and moving songs around a broken harmonium, allowing its limitations to open up worlds. Bandcamp New & Notable Oct 12, 2021