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With The Dawn

by Bella Hardy

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    "Nothing short of a masterpiece" - The Sunday Times

    Bella Hardy's seventh solo album With The Dawn – her first since being named BBC Radio 2 Folk Singer Of The Year in 2014– isn't just the latest collection of songs from this prolific and ingenious artist. The album is an account of one year of her life. Where previously Bella has adapted and explored traditional ballads and fables to tell her contemporary folk tales, the stories that inspired these songs are her own experiences: good and bad, happy or sad.

    With The Dawn is a more intimate and reflective album than before. Working with producer Ben Seal, the arrangements are more instinctive, more reactive, as befits the mind-set that informed the lyrics. Vivid brass gives way to lonesome piano; choral voices peal; banjos emerge out of beats and blips. Elements of the initial demos, sometimes recorded into a phone as the thoughts occurred, have been kept giving With The Dawn its striking immediacy.

    These are songs written on the road, full of that sense of displacement, longing and contemplation that all itinerant musicians know. On With The Dawn, Bella Hardy's soaring kite-like voice is married to lyrics that poetically question everything she's seen and done up till now; letting go of expectations, both other people's and her own. But with closing lullaby And We Begin there's a light at the end... or rather the beginning. Only one song didn't spring directly from Bella's year of touring and tumult. Jolly Good Luck To The Girl That Loves A Soldier was commissioned by Songs For The Voiceless, a project which gathered the country's best folk artists to sing some of the lesser known stories of World War I.

    The resulting album was one of many bold paths Bella Hardy's career has taken in recent years. From collaborating with Martin Simpson, John Smith and others on the hugely acclaimed Elizabethan Sessions, to a joint tour with Edinburgh miserablist Blue Rose Code, and an international songwriter exchange with Canada's Cara Luft who also guests on this album.

    Includes unlimited streaming of With The Dawn via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality download in MP3, FLAC and more.
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  • Record/Vinyl + Digital Album

    "Nothing short of a masterpiece" - The Sunday Times

    Bella Hardy's seventh solo album With The Dawn – her first since being named BBC Radio 2 Folk Singer Of The Year in 2014– isn't just the latest collection of songs from this prolific and ingenious artist. The album is an account of one year of her life. Where previously Bella has adapted and explored traditional ballads and fables to tell her contemporary folk tales, the stories that inspired these songs are her own experiences: good and bad, happy or sad.

    With The Dawn is a more intimate and reflective album than before. Working with producer Ben Seal, the arrangements are more instinctive, more reactive, as befits the mind-set that informed the lyrics. Vivid brass gives way to lonesome piano; choral voices peal; banjos emerge out of beats and blips. Elements of the initial demos, sometimes recorded into a phone as the thoughts occurred, have been kept giving With The Dawn its striking immediacy.

    These are songs written on the road, full of that sense of displacement, longing and contemplation that all itinerant musicians know. On With The Dawn, Bella Hardy's soaring kite-like voice is married to lyrics that poetically question everything she's seen and done up till now; letting go of expectations, both other people's and her own. But with closing lullaby And We Begin there's a light at the end... or rather the beginning. Only one song didn't spring directly from Bella's year of touring and tumult. Jolly Good Luck To The Girl That Loves A Soldier was commissioned by Songs For The Voiceless, a project which gathered the country's best folk artists to sing some of the lesser known stories of World War I.

    The resulting album was one of many bold paths Bella Hardy's career has taken in recent years. From collaborating with Martin Simpson, John Smith and others on the hugely acclaimed Elizabethan Sessions, to a joint tour with Edinburgh miserablist Blue Rose Code, and an international songwriter exchange with Canada's Cara Luft who also guests on this album.

    Includes unlimited streaming of With The Dawn via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality download in MP3, FLAC and more.
    ... more
    ships out within 3 days

      £12 GBP or more 

     

  • 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.
The Only Thing To Do (Bella Hardy) I've been travelling, I've been thinking I've been flying, driving, training I've been reading, I've been gazing I can't see what I've been faking I'm too tired and I'm fading projecting and forsaking I've been drinking wine I've been singing all the time Scared myself half blind with the shadows in my mind I've been running running running I've been trying to make you rhyme But you won't stand still So should I hide a broken heart? Or let the world tear me apart again? They say the gods will have their way Well surely if that's true, the only thing to do is love I've asked the tall trees, and the coldest seas I've asked the hot dust dragged from short grass by the summer breeze All the new sounds felt like old sounds Felt like kisses in a whisper in a rain of silver birch leaves I've been drinking wine I've been playing all the time Danced with strangers on the run Danced with the shadows in my mind I've been writing writing writing different men in every line But they won't stand still So should I hide a broken heart? Or let the world tear me apart again? They say the gods will have their way Well surely if that's true, the only thing to do is hide a broken heart And let the world tear me apart again They say each dog will have it's day Well surely if that's true, the only thing to do is love So I'm sending my love back where your days are ending and mine are just beginning I'm sending my love back to the city Sending my love back to the hills Sending my love home There's nothing keeping me on track except the tree upon my back except the skyline in my heart With every word so neatly placed with every demon found and faced should ever lesson be unlearnt? Or should I hide a broken heart? And let the world tear me apart again? They say the gods will have their way Well surely if that's true, the only thing to do is hide a broken heart And let the world tear me apart again They say each dog will have it's day Well surely if that's true, the only thing to do is love
2.
First Light of the Morning 
(Bella Hardy) 
I wished that you were
 the first light of the morning 
But it was only a train signal shining behind me 

The narrow grey railway line split the dark valley 
The 6am moon showed her face in my bracelet
 and crowded stars sang to her radiant chorus

 They lit up the silver wood gatepost where I lent and I wrote 
"I think I might love you now"

 Under dark silken skies of December 
I walked across fields that knew my name 
I walked beneath stars that knew the pain in my heart
 I walked between trees that knew my start and my ending 

On a quiet Christmas morning
 I sang back to my valley and I asked her kindly for a miracle

 And I wished that you would be 
the first light of the morning
3.
The Darkening of the Day
 (Bella Hardy) 
Oh see, with the darkening of the day
 How all my cares and troubles fly away
 And though through this weary world we stray
 All my cares and troubles fly away
 With the darkening of the day 

Oh see, with the rising of the sun
 How light's an equal gift to everyone
 And though down these endless roads we run
 Light's the gift to each and everyone 
With the rising of the sun

 Oh see, kind words cause the clouds to part 
And friendship warms each lonesome broken heart 
And though things seem desperate at the start
 Friendship warms my lonesome broken
 And your kind words cause my darkest clouds to part 

Through the shadows and sidelines
 In riddles and bad rhymes
 There's signs, songs, and smiling hearts called home

 So see, with the darkening of the day
 How all my cares and troubles fly away
 And though through this weary world we stray 
All my cares and troubles fly away
 With the darkening of the day
4.
Jolly Good Luck to the Girl That Loves a Soldier 
(Bella Hardy) 
It’s a cold wind that calls through the darkness
 But here’s a home fire burns bright 
To those that say go and those that say no
 Jolly good luck to the girl that loves a soldier

 To the VADs, munitionettes, and Land Army girls
 To Wakefield’s Nelly Spindler lost at Passchendaele 
To the sweethearts of the Tommies, to the sweethearts of the Hun 
Jolly good luck to the girl that loves a soldier
 Jolly good luck to the girl that loves a soldier

 To the widows of the frenchmen mortar buried at Verdun
 To Maria Bochkareva and her death battalion
 To all those who think that having one as big as theirs will stop the bomb
 Jolly good luck to the girl that loves a soldier

 To our Little Mother and our sickened state 
To our German sister nurses that you call for us to hate 
Whilst our streets are cooly littered with white feathers and disgrace 
Jolly good luck to the girl that loves a soldier 
Jolly good luck to the girl that loves a soldier

 To those stood waiting hand in hand and those who wait alone
 To those who know the inconsolable despair of the unknown
 To those whom only shells of men or ghosts of men come marching home
 singing "Glory glory hallelujah…"
5.
You Don't Have To Change (But You Have To Choose) (Bella Hardy) 
 My wandering friend, he might not be the one
 My dark-eyed friend, he might turn out
 another of life's troubled, troubling sons 

But you don't have to cut your hair
 And you don't have to change the clothes you wear 
And you don't have to change 

So even if your future grows 
in tiny hands and tiny toes 
it's only half the one you chose 

And through the telescope of time 
where every strange look is a sign
 doesn't mean they'll judge you either way 

He might still be the one you choose 
And you don't have to cut your hair
 And you don't have to change the clothes you wear 
And you don't have to change 

You don't have to change, you don't have to change
 You don't have to change (but you have to choose)
6.
Another Whisky Song
 (Bella Hardy) 
My darling really loves me after whiskies one and three 
When his kisses sweet and sticky come so freely
 But when there's an old waltz from the band
 And it's time to take my hand
 That's when my man can't be found

 My love's day's only done after whiskies three and one
 When I hide out in the yard so he won't find me
 But when he's passed out in his chair
 Well why don't I leave him there?
 It's because I know he needs me

 My man needs me and just another glass of whisky
7.
Oh! My God! I Miss You 
(Bella Hardy) 
I always knew I'd miss the snow 
I didn't think I'd have to say goodbye to winter too
 Somedays I long to lie out in the cold the way we used to do 
Because oh my god I miss you
 Oh my god I miss you 

When no-one cares you'll wonder why
 But if you never leap you'll never learn to fly 
And I've got to let you go I know, but how, I wish I knew 
Because oh my god I miss you
 Oh my god I miss you 

Misplace the words and I am lost 
Erase the way things were but at what cost? 
Love had me thinking strength was blindness now I see that isn't true
 because I'm self aware and mindless and clear thoughts just can't break through
 and I wish I knew how not to feel this way, lord knows I do
 Because oh my god I miss you 
Oh my god I miss you
 Oh my god I miss you
8.
Gifts 03:54
Gifts
 (Bella Hardy) 
I gifted you the sparrow's wings
 And tail-feathers from that tiny body
 Still warm with newly misplaced life 
Limb from limb I cut with the kitchen knife 

I gifted you the sparrow's wings 
And tail-feathers from that tiny body
 Still warm with newly misplaced life 
Limb from limb I cut with the kitchen knife

 Trying to fit into you, trying to fit in 
Trying to fit into you, trying to fit in Trying to fit into you, trying to fit in 
Trying to fit into you, the offering at your bed-foot 

I woke that night from dreams of wingless pecking at my window
 I'm here and I can't fly I can't fly I can't fly 
I can't fly I can't fly I can't fly 
I can't fly I can't fly I can't fly
 I can't fly, it's me, I've come home, let me in 

Trying to fit in
Trying to fit into you, trying to fit in
 Trying to fit into you, trying to fit in 
You were painting layers of space and I gifted you nothing but trouble

 I gifted you the sparrow's wings 
I gave you the songbird that no longer sings 
And we took each meaning from this life 
Limb from limb we tore through the fading light 

I was trying to fit into you, you were trying to fit in 
I was trying to fit into you, you were trying to fit in 
I was trying to fit into you, you were trying to fit in 
I was trying to fit into you, you were trying to fit in, and now 
I can't fly I can't fly I can't fly, I can't fly I can't fly I can't fly
 I can't fly I can't fly I can't fly, I can't fly I can't fly I can't fly
 I can't fly I can't fly I can't fly, I can't fly I can't fly I can't fly 
I can't fly I can't fly I can't fly
I can't fly, it's me, I've come home, let me in
9.
Time Wanders On
 (Bella Hardy & Cara Luft) 
I've seen the Rockies rise high above the trees
 I've seen the northern lights, brought me to my knees
 Where you are, where you roam
 Time wanders on, time leads you home I've chased the river's rush, run down to the sea
 Charted seasons in the skies, clouds do as they please
 Where you are, where you roam
 Time wanders on, time leads you home 

I've seen the sun scorch the land in flame 
Harvest fields burnt beneath her blaze 
Heard the wild geese cry as they cross the plain 
Heard the wind call my name 

I've seen a hundred towns, cities shining bright
 Slept among the summer stars, danced through winter's nights
 Where you are, where you roam 
Time wanders on, time leads you home
10.
Lullaby for a Grieving Man
 (Bella Hardy )
My name is written in your hand 
a single line
a simple sign 
Love don't forget our secret tongue 
Don't give my name to some other charming one you'll find

 My name is writ there in your palm
 Plain as a ripple in a summer calm 
Oh darling let me stay 
Oh darling let me stay 

 On rocks the wise man built his house 
Well I'll put on my coat and boots 
and I'll head out to find some rocks like yours, dear friend
 To find some rocks like yours dear friend

 The stars aren't falling from the sky
 And this June rose won't fade and die 
Time keeps standing still and racing by 

So all the while, I'd ask you to
 remember crocodile wherever these pathways lead us to
 Wherever these strange pathways lead

 A silver strand from me winds back
 to where my name is written there 
upon your hand, dear friend 
I'm written there upon your hand

 And the stars aren't falling from the sky
 And this June rose won't fade and die
 Time keeps standing still and racing by

 So darling believe me 
You'll never need to grieve me
 Because here I am

 And the stars won't fall down from the sky 
And this June rose won't fade and die
 Time keeps standing still and racing by 
Not safe not sorry and nor am I 
And the stars aren't falling from the sky
 And this June rose won't fade and die
 Time keeps standing still and racing by
11.
And We Begin 03:07
And We Begin
 (Bella Hardy) 
They say the night will always win 
But I've seen bold Phoebus breaking in
 through a tow truck window 
As the world rolled out below 
I sang "favourites is a fools game"
 I was wrong because along you came
 and now I know

 There's nothing that I wouldn't give
 To start and end my days like this 
I sang "time can't be turned back"
as we lay in shades of blue
 And in your room of green, you sang
"It's the natural thing to do" 

So I'll map the marks upon your back 
I'll trace a course, a finger's track line 
to be lost and found in 
Oh we're all just navigating
 A three star constellation on your chest 
my weary head rest 
and we begin 

 There's nothing that I wouldn't give 
To start and end my days like this

about

"Nothing short of a masterpiece" - The Sunday Times
"A triumph of folk art-pop" - Songlines Magazine
5***** The Financial Times 5***** fRoots 4* The Guardian
4* The Telegraph 4* Q Magazine - "... a credit to her and the genre"

Bella Hardy's seventh solo album With The Dawn – her first since being named BBC Radio 2 Folk Singer Of The Year in 2014– isn't just the latest collection of songs from this prolific and ingenious artist. The album is an account of one year of her life. Where previously Bella has adapted and explored traditional ballads and fables to tell her contemporary folk tales, the stories that inspired these songs are her own experiences: good and bad, happy or sad.

With The Dawn is a more intimate and reflective album than before. Working with producer Ben Seal, the arrangements are more instinctive, more reactive, as befits the mind-set that informed the lyrics. Vivid brass gives way to lonesome piano; choral voices peal; banjos emerge out of beats and blips. Elements of the initial demos, sometimes recorded into a phone as the thoughts occurred, have been kept giving With The Dawn its striking immediacy.

These are songs written on the road, full of that sense of displacement, longing and contemplation that all itinerant musicians know. On With The Dawn, Bella Hardy's soaring kite-like voice is married to lyrics that poetically question everything she's seen and done up till now; letting go of expectations, both other people's and her own. But with closing lullaby And We Begin there's a light at the end... or rather the beginning. Only one song didn't spring directly from Bella's year of touring and tumult. Jolly Good Luck To The Girl That Loves A Soldier was commissioned by Songs For The Voiceless, a project which gathered the country's best folk artists to sing some of the lesser known stories of World War I.

The resulting album was one of many bold paths Bella Hardy's career has taken in recent years. From collaborating with Martin Simpson, John Smith and others on the hugely acclaimed Elizabethan Sessions, to a joint tour with Edinburgh miserablist Blue Rose Code, and an international songwriter exchange with Canada's Cara Luft who also guests on this album.

credits

released April 1, 2016

North America Release Spring 2016
Magenta/Noe Records at Bella Hardy Music

UK Release 30th March 2015
Noe Records at Bella Hardy Music

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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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