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Steel Bones

by Anne Hills

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about

Anne writes: "In January of 2018, Bill George, Ramona Murray (manager of Godfrey Daniels Coffeehouse) and I began planning a collaborative project, dubbed "Poets, Troubadours and Troublemakers," as part of Touchstone's "2019 Festival Unbound." The series of twelve lectures and songwriting workshops spanned six months, with numerous well-journeyed writers sharing their process, answering questions and giving input to a small group of songwriting participants. The goal was to envision the future of Bethlehem, a steel town that hasn't made steel in well-over 20 years, by using local history, the growing dreams and changing diversity of our Valley's population as prompts. All this would culminate in a recording of new material at the coffeehouse. One year later we began, however, my own song showed up late to the party after we'd wrapped up the scheduled gatherings. I finally found time to locate lyrics I had written back when the steel first closed. The lines "you can ride along the rim of the rusting skeleton, down along the river" brought back my first impressions of the massive structures that once ruled Bethlehem's Southside but now stand empty. It got me rewriting, and I was honored to open Festival Unbound with this song. The voices singing on the recording are the "Poets, Troubadours & Troublemakers" who participated in the songwriting series."

lyrics

A dinosaur falls, sooner or later
shakes the earth and leaves a crater
a town could fall in, be torn apart
leaving nothing but the bones and a broken heart

when the dinosaur lived, all steel and glory
it forged the backbone of a nation’s story
built city skylines, sea to sea
but nothing lives forever, that's our destiny

but the bones of steel, they still are there
fossilized in the Lehigh air
and time is short, it hurries on
we look ahead as a new day dawns

when dinosaur fell, we felt the thunder
tried to push this whole town under
but dreamers work and workers dream
what may seem lost is soon redeemed

now, both sides of the river new life is growing
restaurants and breweries, cleaner water flowing
scholars come to teach, doctors come to heal
families come to farm, plant organic fields

bones of steel they still are there
fossilized in the Lehigh air
'cause time is short, it hurries on
we look ahead as a new day dawns

this valley sings of the men, the women
everything once made, all that we've been given
by those long here or immigrant hands
we regenerate and restore these lands

and where the steel stacks stood there’s music ringing
through the old mill walls you'll hear children singing
as the old men talk and recall the ways
that dinosaur lived in the dinosaur days

credits

released October 29, 2019
w&m 2019 Anne Hills
recorded & produced by Jason Reif Freestone Productions

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Anne Hills Bethlehem, Pennsylvania

Anne Hills is a well-loved voice in the contemporary folk music scene. She has a catalogue that encompasses well-over 20 CDs and has toured the United States, Canada and the U.K. Her unique solo and collaborative recording projects are a testament to her creativity, and her voice and songs have inspired audiences around the world. ... more

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