Dear Northland from Skyline by The Starlight Darlins

dear northland, pretty northland,
can I get to know you better?
are you blue like me, and could we be
a little less alone together?
the strange, slumbering towns
along your highways gleam with danger
and the call of your winding road’s in my heart
saying, don’t be a stranger

well, I parked beside the cafe sign
and I let the wind blow through me
feeling, for a moment, like a prayer flag
with a faded hope for kinship written into me
I went in and sat at the counter
and a woman brought some coffee
there were roses on the porcelain saucer
it was once her mother’s own, that’s what she told me

[chorus]

on the porch behind a bar, I heard
a group of young men talking
pouring alcohol across their burning sorrows
just as television screens have always taught them
and a stranger saw me listening
and he told me they'd been miners
'til the antimony mine closed down
and became a picture-taking point for hikers

[chorus]

I was leaning against the hood of my car
and the sun was sinking slowly
I was breathing in the smell of alder smoke
and in all my life I’d never felt so lonely
but as the sound of country wafted on the wind
somebody was singing
and confessing that he wanted more folks over
been so quiet here since mama went to heaven

[chorus]

• Acoustic
• Americana
• Appalachian
• Folk
• acoustic folk
• banjo
• fiddle
• four part harmony
• harmony
• loneliness
• pacific northwest
• quarantine
• queer
• singer-songwriter
• vocal harmonies
• Morgantown