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Colony of Bees

by Beta Radio

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1.
take my photograph my portrait don’t hang it on a wall for me give it up to my mother or to my colony of bees on a ceremony sunday sitting in cemetery trees it is all vanity yet i know there is a little light i still see oh i am arranged oh i am arranging oh i am arranging you to be to be changed i am arranged oh i am arranging oh i am arranging you to be to be changed touch my head upon the water so in light it will now show lay my hand down on the altar for inside a sickness grows i am wasted on the waiting is it right that i would know? lay your hand down on me a term in the garden that you’ve sown oh i am arranged oh i am arranging oh i am arranging you to be to be changed i am arranged oh i am arranging oh i am arranging you to be to be changed to be changed take me sparrow don’t hang it on the wall for me i’m laid in narrow i’m waiting on my colony
2.
are you a meat eater forsaking the plant? i’m here under covers i’m under your trance i saw the flair that shone in your eyes but i have grown older from hearing your lies an old photograph that you took from a plane of the snow covered mountain in my mind remains all snow left that mountain the following spring like you left for all yonder on wings of angels east of tennessee always i’ll be only i am here too far a feast of misery but i just wash it away only i am here too far from you gone is the widow from the window here she married a martyr and contracts were cleared but down in the water she’s washing her kin to show what’s forgotten can be thought of again an old photograph that on my wall still hangs is the one that reminds of a past filled with pain give it to another i want not to see give it up to my mother because soon i’m leaving east of tennessee always i’ll be only i am here too far a feast of misery but i just wash it away only i am here too far spent all your life halfway outside cursing the curtains that caused you to hide who would’ve known i could’ve grown? so i can finally say “i’m absolved” of you
3.
I Am Mine 04:04
“i am mine i am my own” said the ancients years ago apples and pears rotten lie the eulogy itself can write when i heard the man was dead i wondered do i have a hero that’ll stay? he said “i am mine and no others” but i never planned to live that way cradled hands don’t hide your calls i hear them rolling in the walls calling out toward the wind asking how to begin again if you’re strange then i would love to meet you i can’t go on any other way been on my own too long to retreat yeah you’re just getting too old to delay but you say “soon i will be new soon soon soon i will be new soon” and if you’re strange then i would love to meet you i can’t go on any other way been on my own too long to retreat and you’re just getting too old to delay
4.
soon come on make it right once any other night comes with grey and blue choose any other day run i don’t wanna stay once i am loose youth not wanting to waste another way i’ll find and prove all is alright are you alright here watching the night near from your shrine? lay ancient unbroken spend the day soaking sunny rays but stay for an hour longer do not go and wonder all away youth not wanting to waste another way i’ll find and prove all is alright are you alright here watching the night near from your shrine? are you alright here watching the night near from your shrine? are you alright here counting the light years in your mind?
5.
First Began 04:43
i wrote my name in the wall of the bathroom only because i knew one day i would change to give and take away the garden i had planted always i demanded that my own vine grow tall everything will fall everything that stands everything will be brought back where it first began when i was wild i’d invite all i had known when i was real i could feel what i did before you cut off all your hair when they buried your brother there was no one other that you’d always known and shaking tambourines won’t bring you any closer and as you’re growing older all will go away but until then i’ll stay until then i’m sure until then we’ll not remain in this garden anymore everything will fall everything that stands everything will be brought back where it first began when i was wild i’d invite all i had known when i was real i would feel what i did before everything will fall everything that stands everything will be brought back where it first began when i was wild i’d invite all i had known when i was real i could feel what i did before
6.
Vera 01:18
7.
Sitting Room 04:09
in the living room in the sitting room i will wait for you in the hollow i have hewn like a darkened glass or the devil’s past and he is waiting fast to set his own trap too and in a kinder way what did the spirit say? what did the spirit do beneath the waning crescent moon? when you were in the yard where you had worked so hard with one thing to impart one secret said for you you let the moth in and the loser win and you have shaken him you shake you fight you move a nude wrestler so come and wrestle her and see the shaking turn to taking then to soothe and in a kinder way what did the spirit say? what did the spirit do beneath the waning crescent moon? when you were in the yard where you had worked so hard with one thing to impart one secret kept for you i offered you you all for you i offered you you all for you all for you
8.
On the Frame 03:39
can you hear me father john? have you lost what you believe? what’s the matter what’s the meaning when nothing’s as it seems? sit down at the table now there’s reason there’s reprieve (though you never would know it) even those who are yet to come are sharers in your grief because in a little while when all will be over you’re going to say goodbye go and get your closure in a hundred years when you’re just a haze on the water and then when it clears it’s another’s turn to discover but you know they’ll have to let go like you can you hear me caleb? on the morning when you came it was me who wrote onto the wooden door your name it’ll last there longer than in this body i can stay (because we all will be moving) if you ever return again write another’s on the frame because in a little while when all will be over you’re going to say goodbye go and get your closure in a hundred years when you’re just a haze on the water and then when it clears it’s another’s turn to discover but you know they’ll have to let go like you
9.
Kilimanjaro 04:35
on kilimanjaro on fuji i’m waiting come yellow dawn summer’s gone it never was staying seems all is clear waking here above the beaches it leaves turns with years reappears yellow as peaches time will still ring as you bring forward your best man all that was wrong has just gone before it began now your display june to may you’re making me wonder how i could stay in the shade of anything other gone in life i have been carried all the way taught to say if it’s only me i’ll go i didn’t know you are a territorial bird of prey if it’s only me i’ll stay dipping robes into blood watching horses run walking numb if it’s only me i’ll lie all walk by into the war memorial but i won’t go out of kilimanjaro
10.
White Fawn 03:06
a light in the dark split through the trees appearing in part a legend to see born in the dirt nursed in the dawn lying with wolves an american fawn she wanted all that her brain would behold gardens of garland diamonds and gold she wanted all that her guts could digest taking what’s worse and leaving what’s best but i still say oh my white fawn i’m the wild one i’ll find you out of the zoo i’m feasting on you one last time oh my sparrow my heart so narrow for you only i could love you i could love you one last time the day she ran away everybody knew they said “gone is the legend” but the legend just grew out in the world she’s catching drops of rain inside a hive of bees she’s guarding honey with stings if i’d only obeyed my own advice i would’ve never gone to her twice but if i’d obeyed then i’d never have seen her light in the dark that was splitting through the trees oh my white fawn it’s me the wild one i’ll find you out of the zoo i’m feasting on you one last time oh my sparrow my heart so narrow for you only i could love you i could love you for all time
11.
Here Too Far 00:55
12.
Monument 05:18
build your heart let it grow your design can still be known commemorate or bemoan build upon your shoulder bone tiffany (all goes) when you die (to zero) so multiply i admit i know the hollowness of the ever absent soul come and try me now but you can never tell the secret i with you will share break apart your monument you left no space for consequences build a place in your mind to reconstruct your first design benjamin (not all goes) when you die (to zero) but still you try love doesn’t always follow toward the ever longing soul come and try me now but you can never tell the secret i with you will share so close your eyes you my evil twin don’t criticize me when i say “you can begin again”

about

Colony of Bees is Beta Radio’s first full length recording in over four years. It marks a subtle departure in style from their celebrated debut Seven Sisters – a record without label support and whose grassroots success was built largely on the back of internet radio stations Pandora and Spotify. The more layered and at times ethereal offerings on Colony Of Bees tread into new territory, but at the same time manage to effortlessly keep one foot firmly rooted in the Americana/folk arena that they have called home for many years.

credits

released November 18, 2014

Benjamin Mabry: vocals, acoustic guitar, piano/keys, glockenspiel, harmonium.
Brent Holloman: acoustic guitar, banjo, electric guitar, bass, vocals, piano/keys, glockenspiel, harmonium

Colony of Bees was recorded between January 2013 to August 2014.

All music, lyrics and arrangements written, performed, and produced by Beta Radio and recorded in their home studios.

Amanda Holloman: vocals and piano
Theo Milojevich: drums
Rob Moose: violin and viola
Jeremy Turner: cello
Anna Stanfill: trumpet
Andy Stanfill: trumpet, trombone and euphonium
Alex Hall: background vocals
Amanda Hinson: flute

All string arrangements by Rob Moose. Drums recorded by Lee Hester at Logan Manor Studio (Wilmington, NC). Additional drums recorded by Worth Weaver at Red Room Recording (Leland, NC). Strings recorded by Dawn Landes at Saltlands (Brooklyn, NY).

Mixed by Lee Hester at Logan Manor Studio (Wilmington, NC). Mastered by Jeff Lipton at Peerless Mastering (Boston, MA). Assistant mastering engineer Maria Rice.

Art direction by Beta Radio. Album art by Brent Holloman at Brent Holloman Design (Wilmington, NC). Photography by Millie Holloman at Millie Holloman Photography (Wilmington, NC). Additional photography by Margaret Craycraft.

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Beta Radio Wilmington, North Carolina

Beta Radio’s Americana-folk sound is the result of a decade-long collaboration between Ben Mabry and Brent Holloman. Their sound is rooted in vocal harmonies, with guitar, banjo and an eclectic range of additional instrumentation and soulful arrangements. ... more

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