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    • 2019 Indigenous Music Awards
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    • Album release party
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Sandra Sutter

  • Home
  • About
    • Sandra's story
  • Music
    • Artist's Notes
    • Lyrics
  • Photos
    • 2019 Indigenous Music Awards
    • Esquao Awards
    • Native American Music Awards
    • Canadian Folk Music Awards
    • Indian Summer Festival
    • Cluster Stars
    • Through the Years
    • Album release party
  • Concerts
  • Media
  • Contact

Lyrics

01 - MOUNTAIN SONG   

If faith can move mountains, then why can’t I believe   
that my people will protect me, not bring me to my knees   
Oh watch over me, watch over me   
I give to me people, my blood my breath my pain   
I was here in the beginning, I will be here at the end   
I’ll watch over you, I’ll watch over you   

I’ve been here a million years and I know why you cry   
I need you to come to me, There’s a reason we’ve survived, survived   
There’s a reason we’ve survived, there’s a reason we’ve survived   
(this is the mountain, this is the mountain, this is the mountain song)   

I hear these voices deep in my soul (chant)   
They are the Spirits who move me, the Spirits of old (chant)   
They’re calling me, they’re calling me   

I’ve been here a million years and I know why you cry   
I need you to come to me, There’s a reason we’ve survived, survived   
There’s a reason we’ve survived, there’s a reason we’ve survived   
The power of the mind, feel it inside, deep inside   

I’ve been here a million years and I know why you cry   
I need you to come to me, There’s a reason we’ve survived, survived   
There’s a reason we’ve survived, there’s a reason we’ve survived   
(this is the mountain, this is the mountain, this is the mountain song)   
There’s a reason we’ve survived, there’s a reason we’ve survived   
(this is the mountain, this is the mountain, this is the mountain song)  

02 - HOW MANY TIMES   

How many times has a guitar been played in this room   
How many times has a dream been born,   
How many seeds have been sown, how many hearts have flown   
How many times will my guitar be played in this room   

How many times has a woman cried in this room   
How many times has a dream been born,   
How many seeds have been sown, how many hearts have flown   
How many times will a woman cry in this room   

I’ve been wondering how a woman gets to a place where she cannot see   
The beauty that lives inside of her, the beauty that her Spirit breathes   
I heard tonight a young woman say that she was less than I know her to be   
And I wonder why we do that, why we paint with shades of ugly   

How many times will a woman be born in this room   
How many times has a dream been born,   
How many seeds have been sown, how many hearts have flown   
How many times will a woman be born in this room   

I don’t want to change her, I just want her to see the love I feel from across the room when she’s smiling back at me   

This woman is your mother, this woman is your aunt   
She’s your daughter, your sister, your cousin, and it pains me when she can’t   
See the beauty that is all that she is oh she sparkles in the night   
Like a star that’s almost ready to burst forth with Creation’s light   
How many times will a dream be born   

03 - LOVE TOUCH    

Too much, too much, too much, Too much, too much, too much    

I’m giving you a piece of me not living in the world    
The piece of me that doesn’t know how your touch turns me into stone    
I taste the blood on my lips where your fingers have left their mark    
But you no longer touch the essence of my soul or of my heart    

You turn my outside shades of blue    
You say you love me and I know it’s true    
But you love me too much with your love touch    
You say the words I need to hear    
So tell me why I’m still living in fear    
When you love me too much with your love touch    
Too much, too much, too much    

I’ve loved you although you, you believe that I’m a child    
A child would have learned to run from the touch that hurts so much    
I’m running I don’t know where so I can’t stay, can’t stay    
My heart bleeds my body bleed but my soul still cries out for you    

You turn my outside shades of blue    
I know you love me but it’s also true    
That I’m leaving you soon and your love touch    
You say the words I need to hear    
So tell me why I’m still living in fear    
When you love me too much with your love touch    

You turn my outside shades of blue    
I still love you it’s no longer true    
Because I love me too much for your love touch    
You say the words I need to hear    
So tell me why I’m still living in fear    
When you love me too much with your love touch    

04 - SONG OF HEAVEN       

Reg Crow Shoe song introduction       

You want to tell me about a time,       
You were near to losing your mind       
It’s all right, it’s all right       
I know it’s a little scary,       
I know your heart is full of worry       
It’s all right, it’s all right       
But you’ve got a story that’s burning in you       
You’ve got to let it find the way to its home       

I can hear the song of heaven,       
It’s there if you stop to listen       
Can you feel the angels gather,       
You know they’ve come to hear the story       
When the student is ready the teacher appears       
If it’s you or if it’s me I don’t know       

Now let me tell you about the time,       
That I finally saw the signs....       
It’s all right, it’s all right,       
It’s all right, it’s all right       
You know I ain’t big on telling tales       
And with how it looks from here, you don’t care       
But I had a story that was burning in me       
And I had to let it go to get clear       

I want to thank you for the lesson       
I didn’t know that I was learning       
It’s all right, it’s all right,       
It’s all right, it’s all right       
Can you hear the song of heaven…       

Reg Crow Shoe’s Honouring Song

05 - MY FATHER’S HOUSE

The stars that light up the night sky are not shining just for me      
I know that they’re a sign that’s it my destiny      
I need the daylight to light up this town so you know where I’ll be found      
When the fog lifts and the sun comes out I will hear those ancient sounds (chant)      

My father lives in a big house, my father lives in town      
My father lives in every house and he’s always around      
So when I feel afraid, when I feel low      
That’s where I go, that’s where I go      

Don’t tell me the sky is falling when there’s sunshine all around      
Don’t tell me your love is calling when there’s no one to be found      
I don’t believe in fairy tales and I try to always see      
That the truth that lives inside of you is the truth inside of me (chant)      

My father lives in a big house, my father lives in town      
My father lives in every house and he’s always around      
So when I feel afraid, when I feel low      
That’s where I go, that’s where I go      

Jesus walked on water I just walk on land      
I think it’s a miracle to see people holding hands      
Don’t tell me the sun is shining when the rain is falling down      
I need the daylight to light up this town so you know where I’ll be found      

My father lives in a small house, my father lives out of town      
My father lives in every house and he’s always around      
So when I feel afraid, when I feel low      
That’s where I go, that’s where I go      
Oh, that’s where I go, Oh, that’s where I go

06 - THE INDIAN IN THE CHILD      

6 years old on his first day of school, and emotions are running high      
Mom and dad are left home home alone, as he bids his parents goodbye      
The shiny white building in a far away place holds promise and a yet unknown fear      
The footsteps this young boy will take on his own, should have been taken with family near      

The weather here is changing, and dark clouds are closing in      
The boy can’t withstand them for long, they remind him his skin is sin      
They are sinister like the weather and like a storm that brews within      
They wash away childlike innocence trying to kill the Indian in him      

They tried to kill the Indian, kill the Indian in the child      
They thought he was a savage, thought he was untameable and wild      
They could not see the Creator’s plan for him was the same for you and me      
We are meant to walk with each other, on the good red road of beauty      

Kill the Indian in the child they said and to be sure those teachers tried      
No language, no family, no culture, every night he cried      
A forced haircut and a cruel bath, bleaching brown skin into white      
Though they tried to kill the Indian, the Indian survived      

Their methods were born of ignorance, along the way the road got twisted      
The boy could not do a single thing right, no matter how hard he listened      
The lessons that he learned were not about writing, literature or math      
What will it take before graduation for him to discover a welcoming path      

They tried to kill the Indian, kill the Indian in the child      
They thought he was a savage, thought he was untameable and wild      
They could not see the Creator’s plan for him was the same for you and me      
We are meant to walk together, on the good red road of beauty      

Oh Canada you failed your people , where did you go wrong?      
Underneath that National Anthem, You were not true, free or strong      
You built a railroad to unite this nation and sent your beautiful children to jail      
They were beaten, starved and tortured, and their future was derailed      

You get 9 years for rape and drug deals, 9 years for a major crime      
Or 9 years in residential school to kill the Indian in the child      
Generations have been affected and had to remember how to pray      
To rediscover a sacred culture and find forgiveness along the way      

For years he spent nights searching for a love he couldn’t find      
In the walls within his prison, in the eyes that had gone blind      
As he found the path to forgiveness, he could leave the pain behind      
The grace he knew would save him was in his heart and not his mind      

Once punished for sins like laughing, jailed in chicken coops by powers that were      
We are walking again on the good red road, and creating a new future      
We thank the Creator for giving us life and reminding us every day      
That the enemy who destroyed us once is now the friend with whom we pray      

The Indian in that child is the Chief of his People today      
He is leading his community, showing them grace along the way      
They walk towards a new future, In this country we all share      
So that his 6 year old grandchild, will have no reason to be scared      

They tried to kill the Indian, kill the Indian in the child      
They thought he was a savage, thought he was untameable and wild      
They could not see the Creator’s plan for him was the same for you and me      
We are meant to walk together, on the good red road of beauty      

Thank you Creator, for the grace that allowed the People to survive      
You can never kill the Indian, the Indian in the child      
Thank you Creator, for the grace that allowed the People to survive      
You can never kill the Indian, the Indian in the child     

07 - PEACEFUL NATION      

When I face the morning sunrise, I give thanks for the water      
The water that brings me life      
Help me my brothers to keep the water pure      
Work with me, Together we’ll find a cure      

Do you know that when you look at me      
You see not only my history      
Do you know that what you see in me      
Is a reflection of our eternity      
We are a peaceful nation, We are a peaceful nation      

When I hear the voice that echoes in a cool mountain stream      
I feel inside my Creator’s dream      
His voice is a tree swaying soft in the wind      
He’s saying peace will reign again      

Do you know that when you look at me      
You see not only my history      
Do you know that what you see in me      
Is a reflection of our eternity      
We are a peaceful nation, We are a peaceful nation.      

My brother is looking for his father, creator      
My sister is looking for her mother, earth mother      
Do you know that what they feel inside is hunger, hunger      
Have you seen the unfed beast show its anger, anger, anger….      

Condemnation is not the answer. Love my hungry brother, feed my starving sister      
Honour my father, respect my mother      

My brother is looking for his father, creator      
My sister is looking for her mother, earth mother      
Do you know that what they feel inside is hunger, hunger      
Have you seen the unfed beast show its anger, anger      
We are a peaceful nation, We are a peaceful nation     

08 - WHAT DID IT COST YOU?      

I haven’t heard much about you lately      
But you’ve sure been on my mind      
I’ve been wondering what it cost you lady      
To never say goodbye      
There’ve been a lot who’ve tried to claim you      
They say your voice lives on inside      
And I guess that’s true in my life too      
‘cause you’re so often on my mind      

Oh but what did it cost you lady      
To never say goodbye      
And what did it cost you lady      
To never sing another lullabye      

I haven’t heard much about you lately      
But you’ve sure been on my mind      
‘Cause in a week or two I’m gonna be      
All the way to twenty nine      

Oh but what did it cost you lady      
To never say goodbye      
And what did it cost you lady      
To never sing another lullabye      
Oh but what did it cost you lady      
To never say goodbye      
And what did it cost you lady      
To never sing another lullabye      

Oh and what did it cost you lady      
To feel your dreams and talent die      
What did it cost you lady      
To be the late great Patsy Cline      
What did it cost you lady      
To be the late great Patsy Cline      

I haven’t heard much about you lately      
But you’ve sure been on my mind     

09 - REAL      

I sit here with the lights down, alone with my guitar      
Coyotes in the background, tryin’ to talk to all the stars      
And I wonder what God’s plan is as I listen to the screams      
Of the loud and lonely sirens, tell me what does all this mean      

And I know that I’m a part of what my Creator thinks and feels      
But tell me when do I get to be Real      

I been thinking about the friends who’ve left me these past few years      
I’ve tried not to take death personally I don’t allow the flood of tears      
But there’s a hollow space inside me where the night has made His home      
I don’t think that’s such a bad thing sometimes we’re better off alone      

And I know that they’re all part of what their Creator thinks and feels      
But tell me when do they get to be Real      

When do they get to be one with eternity,      
And tell me when do I get to be me      

I sit here with the lights off trying to listen to my heart      
Seems it’s trying to remind me of the lessons in the hardest parts      
I don’t have to seek the answers as though they were carved in stone      
I’ll find them a whole lot easier these times that I spend alone      

Yes I know that it’s all part of what my Creator thinks and feels      
But tell me when do I get to be Real      
Yeah I know that we’re all part of what our Creator thinks and feels      
And it’s now that we get to be Real,      
Yeah it’s now that I get to be Real     

10 - THANK YOU      

I remember when you showed me that even grownups cry      
and I remember you used to sing me lullabyes      
You were always the one to stand right by my side      
And I remember, you used to hold my hand with pride      

The days turned into years and now I miss those tender moments      
I don’t know when and I don’t know how, I only need to show it      
I want to thank you thank you thank you      
I want to Thank you thank you thank you      

I remember how I used to make you smile      
And I remember how we laughed once in a while      
You were never quick to judge or to condemn      
And I love you as much now as I did then      

The days turned into years and now I miss those tender moments      
I don’t know when and I don’t know why, I only need to show it      
I want to thank you thank you thank you I want to Thank you thank you thank you      
Thank you for always believing in me,      
Mother I thank you, you gave me the freedom to be me      

and I know that you were cruel to be kind      
Mother I know that you were trying to grow my mind      
I’d like to thank you for all the joy and pain      
Thank you for all the pleasure      
And though it wasn’t always paradise, you gave me hope far beyond measure      
You gave me joy far beyond measure, you gave me love far beyond measure      

Mother I thank you thank you thank you, I want to Thank you thank you thank you    

copyright Ⓒ Sandra Sutter 2018

 

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