Get all 23 Beth Patterson releases available on Bandcamp and save 35%.
Includes unlimited streaming via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality downloads of Singles [comp.], Firebrand [comp.], Return to Our Caves / This Goes to Eleven [single], Red Lenses [single], A Winter's Day [single], Air Dance [single], Digging Up My Bones [single], Senzorga [EP], and 15 more.
1. |
Take Some Fire
04:52
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When the weeping willow grants you a place to grieve your loss
When the fire-crested healer sees your bones of shame
When the lowly worm turns silent in a pod of introspection
It's then you'll find a voice to reclaim
The weeping willow once lay choking with a deadly blight
And the fire-crested healer once lay frozen in the snow
You, too, will overcome, though your journey will be hard
And you must take some fire when you go
Celebrate your anger, and be baptized in your tears
For a wisdom lives within you, as only you can know
Prepare yourself for battle, and your flight into the storm
And you must take some fire when you go
When a thousand fallen heroes turn against you in the dark
And your guardian angels here on earth turn a deaf ear towards your cries
When you perform great miracles that no one seems to see
And your good intentions fall by the wayside
When the ice you tread is fragile in the endless winter night
And below its frozen surface are the memories within
The water will still haunt you until you give it some release
As a wound must bleed to cleanse itself again
Celebrate your anger, and be baptized in your tears
For a wisdom lives within you, as only you can know
Prepare yourself for battle, and your flight into the storm
And you must take some fire when you go
Like the kindness of a stranger who sees you safely home
Your fury will propel you to that freedom you desire
That spark that once eluded you now illuminates your smile
And it comes when you take fire
When the need for instant comfort leads you to the poisoned stream
As it strips you of your armor and lances you with pain
When the mask you wear of silence bears a stoic web of scars
And there are secrets you no longer can contain
When a phantom terror drains you of the life you never knew
When your spirit of survival is exhausted to the core
When the sadness of unlearning lies behind your tired eyes
Of one who's seen it all and then some more
Celebrate your anger, and be baptized in your tears
For a wisdom lives within you, as only you can know
Prepare yourself for battle, and your flight into the storm
And you must take some fire when you go
Like the kindness of a stranger who sees you safely home
Your fury will propel you to that freedom you desire
That spark that once eluded you now illuminates your smile
And it comes when you take fire
It comes when you take fire
It comes when you take fire
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2. |
Scorch
03:06
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Common sense would tell us
To share and share alike
But now the iron's hot as hell
I say it's time to strike
I sought to ask one question:
Have once again I failed?
What must I do to qualify,
My efforts to avail?
She told me scorch
Clear the damage with a torch
Raze it to the ground and start it all again
Drive out all impurities
Purging flame will set you free
Rise from the scree and face down what's within
Go forth and scorch
For don't you know that if you strike
An iron that's still hot
Then it won't even matter
If you qualify or not
I posed another question:
How can I sustain the burn?
How can I keep on going
With blind corners every turn?
She told me scorch
Clear the damage with a torch
Raze it to the ground and start it all again
Drive out all impurities
Purging flame will set you free
Rise from the scree and face down what's within
Go forth and scorch
I had a final question
(The darkest of my fears):
Can it truly break the curse
That I've borne so many years?
No more the sword of Damocles
Will hang above your head
A lion's heart, a steady hand
Will be your lot instead
She told me scorch
Clear the damage with a torch
Raze it to the ground and start it all again
Drive out all impurities
Purging flame will set you free
Rise from the scree and face down what's within
Go forth and scorch
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3. |
Red Giant
04:32
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Now that I have become
A red giant in blazing autumn
The time is near, will I be justified
Before I am blamed and crucified?
When will these stars cross again?
In the afterlife they will form a constellation
As a public warning to mortal man
Of unrequited reconciliation
So here's to hoping
Here's to reading between the lines
Here's to searching
For any possible signs
Of cosmic justice
Through every lesson marked by scars
In vain, for there is only justice
In the stars
Those nearest to me in my wake
Will they be spared my apostasy?
Not pulled into my grand collapse
A dark dwarf of dramatic irony
I made my entrance with a big bang
Wholly narcissistic, lonely, and defiant
I will leave the system in great style
I have become a red giant
So here's to hoping
Here's to reading between the lines
Here's to searching
For any possible signs
Of cosmic justice
Through every lesson marked by scars
In vain, for there is only justice
In the stars...
Sentence unfinished
Chord unresolved
Martyr mistaken
Wretch unabsolved
Protest kept secret
Pain held inside
Question unanswered
Blessing denied
Now that I have become
A red giant in blazing autumn
The time is near, will I be recognized
Before I am blamed and ostracized?
The gravity of it presses me to earth
I want to lay me down in heavy surrender
For at the core, I am still Much-Afraid
Only justice can restore me to splendor
So here's to hoping
Here's to reading between the lines
Here's to searching
For any possible signs
Of cosmic justice
Through every lesson marked by scars
In vain, for there is only justice
In the stars...
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4. |
Blue Blazes [live]
02:40
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[instrumental]
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5. |
Matchstick
03:50
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Strike of the lightning
Strike of a chord
Strikes me so funny
When caution’s ignored
Strike a hard surface
And the head makes a spark
Rapid combustion
That drives back the dark
Matchstick, tell no one
I am undone
Armor burned away
Free to betray
Friction of matchstick
Friction in clouds
Thunder and lightning
And screaming of crowds
Play on performance
Play over time
Play on emotions
Like whiskey and wine
Play simulation
A pale effigy
A hot burning star
Where your eye used to be
Matchstick, tell no one
I am undone
Armor burned away
Free to betray
Friction of matchstick
Friction in clouds
Thunder and lightning
And screaming of crowds
Burn like a sinner
Burn like a fool
Burn like a candle
That melts in a pool
Burn like a bushfire
Consume hearth and home
Burn off redemption
At last you’re alone
Matchstick, tell no one
I am undone
Armor burned away
Free to betray
Friction of matchstick
Friction in clouds
Thunder and lightning
And screaming of...
Matchstick, tell no one
I am undone
Armor burned away
Free to betray
Friction of matchstick
Friction in clouds
Thunder and lightning
And screaming of crowds
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6. |
Heat
05:34
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Hot-blooded souls can coldly calculate
And if you spring a trap, don’t take the bait
More deadly with the stakes increased
It’s all a burden of the beast
For neither hell nor paradise awaits
Side by side you play with friend and foe
And as to which is which you might not know
The moon may change your blood and bone
But all your thoughts remain your own
So let your instinct guide you in the flow
I would die to defend you, I would live another day
To be by your side, no matter how discreet
Beyond the battlefront
Of the rhythm and the hunt
I need to feel your wisdom and your . . . heat
Some flesh can go undamaged by a flame
Some fires in the heart cannot be tamed
Anything to draw you near
Remain on course or disappear
I’d rather face down mortal death than shame
Some men will go down fighting or be saved
And others might be shackled and enslaved
So beware of friends who show no scars
Beware of heroes haunting bars
Beware of roads too slick and smoothly paved
I would die to defend you, I would live another day
To be by your side, no matter how discreet
Beyond the battlefront
Of the rhythm and the hunt
I need to feel your wisdom and your . . . heat
Cross to bear
Stay aware
On the move
Keep the groove
Fight or flight
Bark or bite
Creature spawn
Show goes on
Endemic to the city is disguise
Ceremonies draw souls in like flies
Show no fear that they might smell
Speak no tales that they might tell
For angels could be fiends that hunt the prize
So when you sing, you must enchant the throng
It’s all you have to show that you belong
Dual natures, single mind
All is glamour, don’t be blind
The price we gladly pay for savage song
I would die to defend you, I would live another day
To be by your side, no matter how discreet
Beyond the battlefront
Of the rhythm and the hunt
I need to feel your wisdom and your . . . heat
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7. |
Before the Blaze
04:16
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Before the blaze, before the blaze
Life was mass hysteria to break wild power plays
Before the blaze, before the blaze
Constellations shifted and the moonrise was out of phase
Before the duel, before the duel
A heartbreak in slow motion is a special kind of cruel
Before the duel, before the duel
A giant leap of faith for a mythology so miniscule
Ahhh…
Too many years competing with a ghost until a ghost is all I am
The turning point of firestorm will separate dark matter from the damned
Apostasy, apostasy
Frightened little phoenix pokes its head from dark debris
Apostasy, apostasy
A shadow of my former self the fearless bird I used to be
The final stage, the final stage
Acceptance comes so easily with no more room for rage
The final stage, the final stage
Abandon expectations and slip through the bars of an empty cage
Ahhh…
Too many years competing with a ghost until a ghost is all I am
Ahhh…
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8. |
Return to Our Caves
03:34
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When a bee gathers nectar just to take it to the hive
It’s unaware it pollinates the land and keeps us all alive
If you steer clear of the hive mind, with hoarding and demanding
I don’t think that in the end you want to be the last man standing
Will you choose to love your neighbor,
Or succumb to your own wishes?
Is it survival of the fittest?
Will you share your bread and fishes?
We can bring such beauty
When the prospects are so dire
When we return to our caves
And rediscover fire
You shrug it off to better homes awaiting in the sky
Does your God want to you pass it to some unsuspecting guy?
And the poor and the foreign, those with different points of view
Do you find their deaths convenient when they don’t resemble you?
Will you choose to love your neighbor,
Or succumb to your own wishes?
Is it survival of the fittest?
Will you share your bread and fishes?
We can bring such beauty
When the prospects are so dire
When we return to our caves
And rediscover fire
And it’s not fair, of course it’s not fair
Like a meteor that strikes the earth, it’s laid our empires bare
And if were some big mistake, the latest phobic fashion
I would still choose to err on the side of compassion
I’m not telling you to stay away because you’re circumspect
Quite the opposite, please take it as a gesture of respect
We can stop this chain reaction from a distance, you and I
For though I want to see you gone, I don’t want to see you die
Will you choose to love your neighbor,
Or succumb to your own wishes?
Is it survival of the fittest?
Will you share your bread and fishes?
We can bring such beauty
When the prospects are so dire
When we return to our caves
And rediscover fire
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Beth Patterson New Orleans, Louisiana
**Click the banner at the top of the page for the Stone Groove merch store**
Beth Patterson -
a Louisiana player of the Irish bouzouki who easily crosses genre boundaries ranging from Irish to Cajun to Metal. She has performed in 18 countries across the Americas, Europe, Oceania & Asia. She has 7 solo albums & appearances on over 170 albums, soundtracks, videos, commercials & voice-overs.
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