We recorded this on Wolfe Island in Canada, at my friend Chris Brown's studio, the Post Office. It's about ghost face of a lost loved one peering in my window as a Super Blue Blood Moon. A fox listened for a minute on the porch while we were getting it down.
lyrics
Ghost Moon
Ghost, not dead enough to be gone
The morning moon still hanging on
Wan light at the window pane
Ghost, both of us up before dawn
Still I can’t seem to get a move on
Haunt me with your moon face
The sun comes up cold and the sky full of crows
Quiet and iced, can’t I go when you go
Renewing the orbit of your ellipse
Here in the umbra of your eclipse
Ghost, endless shaking your grave
Tending the plot where you lay
Folded in the pages of my mind
Oh, to rest in the cool of your shade
To hide while I watch the parade
Clamor for the night sky
Here while gone. Gone, gone all along.
Or you in the umbra and I the shot light—
High in your field, you don’t put up a fight
Even in death your right of refusal
Even in death seeking your approval
Pull, over and over again
On this ocean in the dark.
Full, your perigee flooding and then
The high tide watermark
Gone so soon. Haunt, haunt me on a blue moon.
Here while gone, gone all along, gone so soon,
Haunt me, oh you blue moon.
credits
from Dead Reckoning,
released January 15, 2023
Kate, Chris Brown, acoustic guitars. Chris, wurlitzer; string arrangement, recording. Connor Schultze bass. Lucien Clough on ambient electric guitar. Mixed by Scotty Hard.
The stripped-down approach (mostly piano/organ, bass, drums) favoured here puts the spotlight squarely on Brown's soulful, meditative lyrics and vocals, which are frequently augmented by the sublime Kate Fenner. The arrangements are no slouch either, with perfect flourishes of horns, harmonica and guitar that add to the overall warm folk-soul vibe.
Right on target, so direct, this album feels as natural as the changing seasons and weaves a spell that lingers long after listening. Mike Garrett
As a lifelong fan of psyche, I was delighted to have found this, stunned that I'd missed them for three decades and devastated by the news of Dallas' passing. Makes many of the album's lyrics even more poignant. I hear echoes of the Chocolate Watch Band, Long Ryders and both the pop and country sides of the Byrds. Stunning, and a contender for my album of the year. Iain H