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Hey Sammy

by Bella Hardy

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  • Full Digital Discography

    Get all 15 Bella Hardy releases available on Bandcamp and save 25%.

    Includes unlimited streaming via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality downloads of Love Songs, Among These Stars (Black Lives Matter) (Single), Postcards & Pocketbooks: The Best of Bella Hardy, Colorado (single), The Same Mistakes (single), Hey Sammy, Eternal Spring, With The Dawn, and 7 more. , and , .

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1.
Redemption 03:26
Redemption (Bella Hardy) The darkness turns familiar trees to strangers  The snowfall shapes new outlines of the land  Our lives can seem the game of rich men’s wagers  Our days do not unfold the way we planned    But hope is a celebration  Friendships is the key to all things true  Love is each day’s redemption  Where kindness shines then love will see us through    The darkness turns small fears to storms before us  But we can face the worst of life’s demands  If through the years we join each voice in chorus  The moors may shift but still the mountain stands    And hope is a celebration  Friendship is the key to all things true  Love is each day’s redemption  Where kindness shines then love will see us through 
2.
Learning To Let Go (Bella Hardy) In California I cried  Familiar world but not my own   Electric buzz the TV’s shown me all my life   Another way of being known  Another way of being    I’d had my fill of city sounds  Of pacing San Francisco round and round and round    So we took the Golden Gate to another land  Down winding roads out to the sea  but still I could not hear the waves  Just the work I’d left behind  whispering poisoned words to me    In California I cried  And with each breathless tear I realised    that I’m still learning to let go  I’m still learning to let go  I’m still learning to let go  I’m still learning to let go    California, California  I know the who but I still don’t know what I want to be  California, I’m still learning to let go  I write it on magnolia leaves  California, stay with me    In Berkeley, on a call through  While the barber does his thing to you  I find myself sat beneath the pink white trees  while streams of students flow around and around me    Such rivers of potential  In an intangible symphony    and I’m still learning to let go  I’m still learning to let go  I’m still learning to let go  I’m still learning to let go    California, California  I know the who but I still don’t know what I want to be  California, I’m still learning to let go  I write it on magnolia leaves  California, stay with me
3.
Driving Through Harmony  (Bella Hardy & Iain Thomson)  Always a start, always a middle, always an end  Always a start, always a middle, always an end    Driving through harmony  In love, we look for a middle  To last us for a life time  of love, stretching.  Driving through harmony  In love    Always a start, always a middle, always an end  Always a start, always a middle, always an end    Riding down highways  Of sun, in time coexisting  Breath held in waiting  For what’s to come    Always a start, always a middle, always an end  Always a start, always a middle, always an end    Our minds lost in worry, at how we measure up  Romance aspirations, are we doing well enough  Love lives on a schedule  Well this is the middle so set yourself free to enjoy the ride  Through Harmony 
4.
Queen of Carter’s Bar  (Bella Hardy & Peter Groenwald)    Watching from the corner of the bar  Remembering the night I found you at my door  You were running away, drenched by the storm  I said “Listen to the thunder, tells you what you need to know”    The best thing you can give is as good as you get  Another day’s coming, and I’m not done yet    We circled round the sun, and you grew wild and free  With the barn owls and the stars keeping company  Then you woke from a dream and I was bad luck  And she was plucking at my roses, doe-eyed, red-lipped and moon-struck    The best thing you can give is as good as you get  Another day’s coming, and I’m not done yet    But I can’t help remembering  How once you were my own  But when you gave your heart to me  I should have swapped it out for stone    Instead I’m sitting in the corner here in Carter’s Bar  And I’m watching you pretend to be the things you aren’t  First you were a lion, then a snake, then a black dog  But the truth of you has faded, I don’t know you anymore    The best thing you can give is as good as you get  Another day’s coming, and I’m not done yet 
5.
In My Dreams 03:45
In My Dreams  (Bella Hardy, Peter Groenwald & Konrad Snyder)    I hold you in my dreams  I hold you in my dreams  And we ask for forgiveness  I hold you in my dreams    Heart unsteady between haunted walls  Will I be ready when tomorrow calls?    Who’s knocking so loud? It broke through the darkness  The leaves and shadows danced all around  But when they flew away  I was left with all the things you didn’t say    You hold me in your arms  You hold me in your arms  This is imagined kindness  You hold me in your arms    Heart unsteady between haunted walls  Will I be ready when tomorrow calls?    Who’s knocking so loud? It broke through the darkness  The leaves and shadows danced all around  But when they flew away  I was left with all the pieces of you   Who’s knocking so loud? It broke through the darkness  I asked two ravens and a crow  But then they flew away  And I was left with all the things you didn’t say 
6.
You Don’t Owe The World Pretty (Bella Hardy) Little girls are born into a world where their bodies are a tool to please  Your face and every action, every placement of a word or leg to be approved  You’ll learn to do you best, to score top marks in every test  And all regardless of the cost    (They say) It takes a village, if that’s true  Then this is what I’ll teach to you    You don’t owe the world pretty  You don’t owe anyone perfect  You just do what you can, and  You don’t owe the world pretty    Little one you’re going to need and little one you’re going to bleed  And you’ll be taught that it’s a shame, to hide the pain and do whatever keeps you most appealing  You’ll learn to bear disgrace, to keep the peace and know your place  But darling, you can set your own pace  (They say) I wish I’d known what I know now  I’ll pass it on to you somehow    You don’t owe the world pretty  You don’t owe anyone perfect  You just do what you can, and  You don’t owe the world pretty    If you can make and shape an outline you can call your own, your home  Then all you need to build this thing, no armored prince, no diamond ring  Just you    You don’t owe the world pretty  You don’t owe anyone perfect  You just do what you can, and  You don’t owe the world pretty 
7.
Busy Head 03:02
Busy Head  (Bella Hardy & Tom Gibbs)    Busy head, busy head  Won't you give me one sweet second's dark and silent rest  I'm still playing catch up with the things I've gone and said  With what I said   Busy mouth and busy head    Busy heart, busy heart  You think you've got so much to say but can't find where to start   So desperate to fit in and so in need of staying apart  Of standing out  Busy heart, vain and vacant busy heart    I chase my will to care around the corners of the morning cold and grey  I would make a map for you, lazy drawn with tired fingers  folded once, folded twice,  to give to you when I feel brave    Busy world, busy world  It's just a set of choices makes you who you are  And who you are you have to own, it's all that you have got  It's all you've got to lose In this busy world  With your busy heart  and your busy mouth    I chase my will to care around the corners of the morning
8.
Heartbreaker 02:48
Heartbreaker  (Bella Hardy & Tom Gibbs)    Pink light on your pink skin  Would it be so hard to let him in?  Heartbreaker  Never needed anything    Blue light on your blue heart  Who saw disaster from the start  Heartbreaker  Never needed anything    It's naked brick, it's peeling walls  He never writes she never calls  Heartbreaker  Never needed anything more    Pink and blue light cross your hair  A neon jazz folk love affair  Heartbreaker  Never needed anything more 
9.
Hey Sammy 03:09
Hey Sammy (Bella Hardy)    Hey Sammy  I saw you kicking the ball round with your friends outside  A ford fiesta bore the brunt of a tussle by the kerbside    Your friend ran into the road  And he was lucky that day, nothing was coming  But Sammy, tell him that he must be more careful  Life’s gone in a second    And I wonder if you know  That they’re saying you should go?  They’re saying you should go    Hey Sammy  I saw your mother with the others looking at you down the street  She has the kindest smile you’d even hope to meet  On your way out the door in the morning    And I wish she never knew  What the papers say about you    Do you wish you never knew?  Do you wish you never knew?  What our ignorance has done?  What our carelessness can do?  Well I hope you never know  That they were saying you should go    Five boys playing at fighting  Five boys caught up in a here and now moment  With not a thought spared for what’s coming up ahead    I saw you set up a game on the pavement  And call across the street to see who would play  And from my window I saw the border’s kicked away  On a grey afternoon in Glasgow      Do you wish you never knew?  Do you wish you never knew?  What our ignorance has done?  What our carelessness can do?  Well I wish she’d never known Oh I wish she’d never known What the papers say about you  How heavy words are lightly thrown And I hope you never know  That they were saying you should go 
10.
South Lake 04:07
South Lake  (Bella Hardy)    Between the heavens and the land  the whole world captured in this shining, shaking skin    A temple tall as it is deep  A thin and shifting double take, Nan Hu, South Lake  The sun from stormy skies has rolled  to turn the grey to gold    Mountain circle hold me here   I tunnelled through and I found  White clouds in muddy water    Between red flowers and concrete pathways  people rush through muggy days   while all around the whole scene plays again    We are pond skaters  We are boatmen crossing to and fro  We are the watchful eyes who stretch our wings   and drop and soar into this complicated and messy world below    Oh to tumble in and down  Oh to tumble in and drown  among white clouds in muddy water    Between each tree, white painted waist to root  I sit with arms bare and rippled  as the breeze upon the shallows    And folded seed pods large as lemon  hang down from these unknown trees  in unknown lands with unknown words  It’s leaves dance and sing out twice to me    Once above and once below  Once in sunlight once in shadow  White clouds in muddy water   Oh to tumble in and down  Oh to tumble in and drown  among white clouds in muddy water 
11.
Stars 06:20
Stars  (Trad (Shijing)/Bella Hardy)    Starlets small, starlets small, three or five in all, starlets small  Starlets small, starlets small, shining in the east, starlets small    Swift by night we go, to the early dawn  Our lot, is not, like hers  Starlets small, starlets small, shining in the east, starlets small    Starlets small, starlets small, one thousand in all, starlets small  Starlets small, starlets small, white tiger of the west, guard us all    Swift by night we go, to the early dawn  Our lot, is not, like hers  Starlets small, starlets small, white tiger of the west, guard us all      Yunnan  Your stars are so beautiful  Dark skies of bright diamonds  Yunnan  Your stars are so beautiful  They are little lights dancing  You can tell by their flashing    They are a million billion light years  And a thousand unique atmospheres    Yunnan  Some of your stars are my stars  They shine down on my valley  Yunnan  Some of your stars are my stars  Their small voices are singing  Can’t you see that they’re waving    They are fascinating satellites  Orion’s belt like disco lights  They are a million billion light years  And a thousand unique atmospheres 

about

'Hey Sammy' is the long awaited ninth solo album by Edale-born singer songwriter Bella Hardy, a record that bears the stamps of extensive musical expeditions far from home.

In the time since 2015’s 5-star reviewed 'With The Dawn', Bella temporarily relocated to Nashville where she became immersed in Music City’s culture of collaborative songwriting and also worked happily in the company of horses as a ranch hand. Two music-finding trips to Yunnan Province in Southwest China also saw this BBC Radio 2 Folk Singer of the Year Award winner return with a suitcase overflowing with new lyrical and musical notions. These radical changes of life and perspective flow through every word and note of the 11 new songs on 'Hey Sammy' – a glorious, accomplished, grown up record.

Produced by Paul Savage (The Delgados, Mogwai, Arab Strap) at Glasgow’s Chem19 studio, 'Hey Sammy' combines innovative, artful arrangements that at times bring to mind Bon Iver, Midlake and Joni Mitchell’s Hejira, with an unabashed embrace of gleeful, melodic choruses delivered in Bella’s unmistakeable soaring and swooping voice.

Two songs (Queen of Carter’s Bar and In My Dreams) were penned in collaboration with Nashville producer and songwriter Peter Groenwald and two more (Busy Head and Heartbreaker) with in-demand Scottish jazz pianist and composer Tom Gibbs who also played keys on the record, alongside Iain Thomson on guitars, James Lindsay on bass and John Blease on drums and percussion. All other instruments were played by Hardy herself.

Humanist hymns, ancient Chinese poems, feminist battle cries and the title track’s reflections on the rise of racism in Britain make this Bella’s most wide reaching and richly rewarding album to date. She also returns to her traditional roots with a retelling of the supernatural ballad Tam Lin.

Bella Hardy found her first home in folk music through a childhood love for ballad books. A self-taught “fiddle singer”, she began performing at Cambridge and Sidmouth festivals from the age of 13 and eventually took a BA in English Literature and a Masters degree in Music. Her debut album 'Night Visiting', released ten years ago, established her reputation as a songwriter when her first original composition Three Black Feathers earned a BBC Folk Award nomination.

Bella has since become a regular on radio and television, notably singing solo in a sold-out Albert Hall at the Proms. She’s written and recorded with everyone from Beautiful South founder David Rotheray to folk luminary Eliza Carthy, and performed with the great Mary Chapin Carpenter on her 2016 UK tour. Her seven-week residency in the Chinese city of Kunming was arranged by the British Council and the PRS For Music Foundation and resulted in the 2017 recording and release of Eternal Spring - an album of songs and poetry made in collaboration with Chinese singers and musicians.

It seems entirely fitting that Bella Hardy should mark a decade of remarkable recordings with the exceptional step forward that is 'Hey Sammy'.

credits

released November 24, 2017

Bella Hardy – Vocals, Fiddle, Harmonium, Xylophone
Iain Thomson – Guitars, Backing Vocals
Tom Gibbs – Piano, Fender Rhodes, Nord, Clarinet
James Lindsay – Bass
John Blease – Drums, Percussion

Produced by Paul Savage
Recorded and Mixed by Paul Savage at Chem19, Glasgow
Mastered by Pete Maher, London
NOE Records NOE10
Released in association with Kartel Music Group

Photos by Kaitlin Raitz
Design by Emma Hardy at Noe Design

All songs written by Bella Hardy, except:
Driving Through Harmony (Bella Hardy & Iain Thomson)
Queen of Carter’s Bar (Bella Hardy & Peter Groenwald)
In My Dreams (Bella Hardy, Peter Groenwald & Konrad Snyder)
Busy Head (Bella Hardy & Tom Gibbs)
Heartbreaker (Bella Hardy & Tom Gibbs)

Published by Domino Publishing Co. Ltd.

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Bella Hardy UK

“Brit folk's finest” Mojo Magazine • “Enduringly seductive” The Telegraph • “A fine, no-nonsense interpreter of traditional music and an excellent songwriter” The Guardian • “An aura of sophisti-cation that will win over listeners who never set foot in a folk club” The Sunday Times • “…a shining star in the folk scene’s firmament” fRoots Magazine • “A triumph of folk art-pop” Songlines Magazine ... more

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