Woolen Sails and Winter Nights

 

The broad-tailed ship is one of the animals illustrated in our huge family Bible.

LISTEN NOW · 3:49

Press the arrow above to play my previously unreleased new song “In Your Car.”

Hello friends,

Here is a song that feels like winter to me. Long drives when it gets dark early. The stars are especially bright and the air is thin and cold. 

I wrote this song in collaboration with my friend Alfred John Hickling as part of an unreleased album-length project which honored my music mentor Norman Cross.¹ Last month, I wrote about how Norman and his wife Fiona influenced my song “Silver Darling.”

“In Your Car” comes from the same song cycle and, like “Silver Darling,” has a connection to wool.

In verse two, I sing:

Longboat in the Humber, woolen sails of red and white.
Hear the distant singing – lusty tales of icebound life.
What sagas will unfold when we turn back and we drive?

Those woolen sails² come from Norway. In Scandinavia as many as 1000 sheep produced the wool to make one sail for a Viking ship. When I read something like that, I feel so excited that I want to place it in a song. The Humber, the river in the northeast of England at Hull where Norman was born and lived, saw plenty of Vikings in its history.

This song, also like “Silver Darling,” was an instance of my receiving a lot of different impressions – talking with my friend Fiona, hearing about the constellations on the radio, thinking about a bothy in the Highlands, and learning about those vast woolen sails on the ships of long ago. Everything bubbled to the top and my cup tipped over into this song.

The song is about driving, but where is this couple going in their car? To the Humber, to the Highlands, to the stars? Though the lyrics sound quite mysterious, they encompass a very real dilemma. When a person who loves to drive their car gets dementia and can’t drive, what can be done?

For a long time, Norman who loved driving and used to leap at any opportunity to drive to my concerts or drive me to my concerts, just couldn’t understand not being able to drive any more. Fiona kindly kept his wonderful car with its magical double-opening boot (trunk) long past the time that Norman could drive. So, they would sit in the car, safely behind the house, and go on imaginary drives.

In my song, I imagine where they might have gone. To Scotland where Fiona had family – an aunt who could play a song on a comb and paper. To the Humber whose presence defined Norman’s home in Hull. To the stars, where Norman plays his mandolin now … while my dad plays melodeon, Mawmaw sings in her raspy low voice, Mawmaw Margie sweeps to the rhythms, Mawmaw Smith presses the biscuit dough with the palm of her hand, Aunt Edith lays the favors on the table, and so many more circle, all missed especially this time of year. Gather round and look upon us with love, our loves.

Wishing you a peaceful Christmas and a New Year filled with light and hope (let us not lose hope, amen).

Your friend,

Jeni

Mawmaw Smith was a legendary traveler in our family. If there was a car trip, she was going. I’ve written many songs for Narcie Smith, my great grandmother, (scroll back through my letters, perhaps) and I’ve also written about her extraordinary patchwork quilts which you can read about here.

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In Your Car

Music and Lyrics by Jeni Hankins and Alfred John Hickling 

A Roman road, martial straight, you pick up speed and fly.
Silken banners, glint in gold, caught in our headlights.
Mark the pipes and drums, we’re for the Highlands this very night.

Longboat in the Humber, woolen sails of red and white.
Hear the distant singing – lusty tales of icebound life.
What sagas will unfold when we turn back and we drive?

In your car we won’t get far, but I don’t mind at all,
sitting here beside you watching starts begin to fall.
Your body, reluctant rider. Your mind, locked up inside.
The keys safe in my pocket, I say, “Love, let’s take a drive.”

Cassiopeia bows her head as we go sailing by.
Along her hem the great celestial highway in the sky.
Arriving at Orion, shooting stars take their flight.

Vocals: Jeni Hankins, Instruments and Harmony Vocals: A J Hickling 

1

You can hear Silver Darling, Last Time I Changed These Strings, String Unraveller, and Old Hat On, all of which I wrote for Norman, by clicking on the song titles. 

2

This is an excellent article about the history of woolen sails and sheep in Norway.

I made our Christmas tree angel’s costume from some spare fabric I had. Her wings are a paper box decorated with sequins and beads from Aunt Edith. Her halo is made from guitar strings!