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Anne, the Gardener

from The Liberty System by Nat Johnson

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  • Buy the Full Digital Album

  • Compact Disc (CD) + Digital Album

    Hand-numbered limited edition CD with three covers to choose from. Only 300 copies were produced; 100 of each cover. Each one comes with a tiny lyric book (inspired by the tiny books the Brontës wrote as children).

    Artwork by Oliver Allchin, tiny books by Nat.
    NB all CDs contain all three songs

    ...

    The Liberty System is a Brontë sisters triptych full of classical elements and meteorology. The songs 'Anne, the Gardener', 'Emily, the Diver' and 'Charlotte, the Levitator' study the literary sisters' creative approaches and their influence on one another's writing and ambitions.

    Each song sees a sister returning to the Parsonage dining room to write - bringing the room alive - before her work is released into the world. Each sister has been ascribed an element and each seeks a different kind of liberty.

    Commissioned by Off the Shelf Festival as part of the Brontë bicentenary celebrations.

    Includes unlimited streaming of The Liberty System via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality download in MP3, FLAC and more.     ... more
    ships out within 2 days
    edition of 228 

      £3 GBP or more 

     

about

A song for Anne Brontë.
Anne's element is Earth. She seeks Liberty of Women.

lyrics

Let out like a scream, you don’t fit with the scheme; an orange hawkweed
Among the blues and yellows, the bells and primrose that line the way home
Where you’re drawn, by-and-by, by invisible tie, a hand in the sky
You’ve been gritting your teeth until your release, and you stole truth like a thief

Sister, lay your burdens on the table
In a bundle of blooms let them grow
Twisting tendrils, oh tormentil your roots running over
To the edge; your wretched vetch stretching out, heading boldly
Down the table leg to flagstone bed 
Your honest seeds are sown

Now like your own self before watch them climbing the walls
Build your trellis according to new rules
Try to train them in lines, prune the faith-strangling vines
“Come forwards”

Sister, grow your garden
Though your soil is pure and giving, your work’s never done
Every harebell you get ringing they hide from the sun
Every yellow rattle shaken, selfheal nettle-stung
But wear your foxgloves with that perfect love, don’t hold your adders-tongue:

“You tell us curl up, “dear creatures”, beside the fire at night
While you hedge this heaven’s pleasures to indulge your appetite
But here in the garden you must walk a straighter edge
You can really smell the roses if you cut back the excess
There’s an expansive future like the Scarborough sea
With all its hope and possibility
And dew from my sister gives my plants their Yorkshire tea
Untasted, unsalted, unkept inspiring me
And the breath of my sister to spread my sprouting seeds

“Taking our plans
In our own hands
Working the land”

credits

from The Liberty System, released October 21, 2016
Written and performed by Nat Johnson
Violins by Katherine Jackson
Artwork by Oliver Allchin

license

all rights reserved

tags

about

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Nat Johnson Sheffield, UK

“A treat for fans of PJ Harvey and Alela Diane” – Subba Cultcha

"Let’s talk about Nat Johnson. Sometimes people do, but not nearly loud enough or often enough, which is a shame, because she is as integral to the Sheffield scene as Kid Acne murals and Jarvis Cocker poems on the sides of buildings." - The Girls Are ... more

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