This song was written in the hope of getting people to think about the reasons why people would leave their homes and travel hundreds of miles in life -threatening conditions.
The idea to release it to raise a bit of cash to help these people was a result of seeing the brilliant work that
The Refugee Community Kitchen are doing in Calais and Dunkirk where a bunch of ordinary people, with no backing from any official body, are feeding about 2000 refugees a day. There are many more people who still need feeding.
The idea to open it up so that anyone can add their voice is a response to the huge number of people who feel that they are not being listened to, that there is no way to be heard, that our political system does not respond to the desires of the people.
For 12 days of Christmas, I have been collecting recordings of people playing and singing this song and mixing them together to make this track. Thank you to everybody who added their voice and music.
(we were doing a pay to download, but as VAT was being added and then Bandcamp taking a small percentage, it seems much more sensible to just trust your goodness and get the money straight to the people who need it.)
lyrics
There's a moment's peace before you wake up
Then you remember where you are
It don't bear contemplation
You’ve got no destination
You’re waking into a nightmare.
If we were swallows we would fly
If we were salmon we'd swim
Are we not all the children of one all-loving God?
Will no-one let us in?
Guns and bombs
Rubble dust and fire
The screaming of the sirens and the maimed
The morning cries
The constant smell of fear
The sickness and the hunger and the pain
Families all broken
Brothers, husbands gone
My children's brave and trusting eyes
We started walking westward where freedom, so we're told,
Is more than just another pack of lies
Chorus (there’s a moment’s peace before you wake up…)
Across the mountains
Through wind and rain and snow
Slipping ‘cross the borders in the night
Waiting by the river for a chance to get across
Knowing that I'm risking all our lives
Should we chance the waters
Or the guards up on the bridge
Should we trust the boatman and the tide?
Sometimes I had to close my eyes, had to forget
That I ever was a good man's wife
Chorus
And now we sit here waiting ‘til somebody decides
If we’re immigrants or if we’re refugees
The news from home is bad
Many more are on the road
And it feels as if were heading for a freeze
And the bombs are still for sale
And the missiles and the guns
Oh they're still arming children and sending boys to fight
Every single man
A mother's son
Chorus
credits
from Refugee Lullaby,
track released January 6, 2016
Written by Kara j Richards
Guitar and Vocal: Kara j Richards
Piano: Jo Levine
Fiddle: Gale Kennedy
Cello: Jo Hooper
Accordion: Doug Hamilton
Mandolin: David Williams
Mastered by Patrick o´Brien at Hillside Studios
Vocals: Declan Miller, Al Groat, David Williams,
Doug Hamilton.Tasha Child, Sara Vian, Patrick Moss,
Mikki Barry, Patrick O´Brien, Sam Harvey, Jodi Harvey, Joanna Harvey, Alison O'Donnell, Jane Jameson, Phil Cooper, Lesley Quayle , Julie Abedin
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