CAFƒ
ANTARSIA ENSEMBLE
Songs of
the Table
Innova 684
Nikos
Brisco: vocals,
gypsy guitar, Greek bouzouki, baglama, Cretan laouto, & bass
Ruth
Margraff: lyrics, vocals,
accordion
Ron
Riley: guitar,
tzouras, vocals
Rami
El-Aasser: darbukah,
riq, frame drum, bells, ashiko, vocals
album time:
38:59
Produced, Engineered, Mixed
& Mastered by Kevin Johnson at Prosonic Audio (Pagosa Springs, Colorado) Summer 2006.
CD cover
& portraits by J.R. Delia, back cover & inside jewel box by David
Little Smith
With special thanks to Dan Prall (Dallas & Istanbul), Wild Blooms
(Austin, Texas), Carol Turner for time, talent, energy & expertise, Barb
Riley, Cristian Amigo, Philip Blackburn & Innova Records, New Dramatists, EuroAmerica
Records, Elyse Singer/Hourglass Group (NYC), Fulbright Foundation (Greece), Dah
Teatar, Max ManicÕ & family, Dragan
Ristic/Amala School & KAL (Serbia) www.VoiceofRoma.com,
Yiannis Bizas/Hotel Argo (Paros), Athens Centre, Aristotle University of
Thessaloniki, University of Athens, ITI/Hellenic Centre (Greece), JR Delia
& Jess Haynie, JoeÕs Pub/New York Gypsy Festival, Montreal Guitar Trio,
Xenofontas @ Melodia FM (Athens, Greece), the Kardasi, Lapata, Brisco & Margraff
families, Bob Ferrante, Joanne Jacobson, Roxana Cruz & David Little-Smith,
Cheri Magid, Panos Venzelous, Bobby Jack Pack, Susan Schulman, Nikos
Kazantzakis, Milorad Pavic, Townes Van Zandt, Markos Vamvakaris, Saban
Bajramovic, Les Tziganes Ivanovitch, CafŽ Noir (Dallas, Texas), Fred Cohen & Kate Duffy, Fred Ho,
Dear friends at Steve Brown, Marcy Arlin, TCG, TWB, MTC, TMUNY, AEK Athens,
Rakija, Magges (NYC), Raquy, Catalin O. Jurim, Liron Peled, Maria Hnaraki, Pearl
at the overlook, Bill Hicks, the Dude, the Ba, Chris Crenshaw, Steve Taylor,
Blue & Carrie, London Egg (NYC), the dervish Karem Hanine. Nikos Brisco uses handmade acoustic instruments made by
luthiers: Dio Dinos, Maurice
Dupont, David Enesa, Nikos Rompogianakis, Tasos Theodorakis, Athanasios
Mitrentsis, Karlos Tsakirian & Ioannis Alexandris. Lyrics deeply
inspired by wandering the streets, cafŽs and taverns of Sarajevo, Belgrade,
Valjevo, Sibiu, Istanbul, Thessaloniki, Athens, Crete and Astoria,
ÒNayis-Tumenge sorro le volime Rroma anda lasho muzika! Yiassou Michales!!Ó
www.NikosBrisco.com www.RuthMargraff.com
www.myspace.com/cafeantarsiaensemble
1. WHITE TORTOISE LUTE (Margraff/Brisco)
Trampled puddles
of wine color
Are his shallow
weary eyes
Sleep the sister
of his death
Born of poets,
bred by thieves
He
holds no shadow
Only fingers ten
and tail
For devils
riding devils
In the welted
tortoise shell
If
we leave behind
Our
lutes of lovely tortoise shell
WeÕll walk once
more as tortoises
Upon the
Blackest Sea
If
we roar like bulls,
The
blood of heaven. Will flood the graves
That
weÕve forgottenÉ
In
the dead we canÕt remember of before
Spread
like dung across the darkness
Red the cobweb
hooves of mourning
Blind with
night, the thunder crying
Triple-breasted
beast of hell
Wing of falcon
swiftly swelling
ÔTil we stand
still in the felling
Stain of angels
in the well
We
donÕt know and we wonÕt know
Sang the lute
beneath his hand
ÔTil the devils
come by forest
And the rifles
turn to brothers
And
the widows dip their apples
In the table of
the wine
2. THREE GRACES (Margraff/Brisco)
In the hour of
the doorsÉ
Where we had
worn three peepholes
Pressing our
faces for the three of us
Three
graces. We longed for
evening.
To name
everything a name
From which it
would never shake free
Chorus:
In the
bloodwings passing over
Tables
set with the ash of Crete
In the scatter
of our fathers on the sea
That tore the
tears across our cheeks
If
his hand had never broken
Where he brushed
against the PashaÕs horse
Hot and wet, its
bosom heaving
From a crest of
Ayia Sofia jewels
We know all the
riddles of the streetsÉ(Chorus)
If
we push against the graves
To bury one more
iron angel
Loose the snakes
to swallow
Golden wings and
flaming sword
Black with the
powder of the rebel
Where his roots
were cutÉ(Chorus)
If
we drag the last embrace
To fell another
shrieking widow
Wrestling Charos
in the bloodwings
Black and wet
upon the stones
It was the PashaÕs
horse that called to Michales
ÉMore than the
crested letter
3. KILL ME STANDING (Margraff/Brisco)
Sometimes I die
where I am standing
Look down at my
soul that cannot break me
Throw my limbs
into the river
I take root and goÉ toÉ sleepÉ
I
was a girl who cleaned the trains
And wouldnÕt
dance
Thought IÕd
someday catch on fire
Burn slow as IÔm
burning
Sometimes
when you follow me
I throw my hair
into the fountains
On my wingŽd
horse, across the smiting sun
Hearths and
homes are for the others
I
will never danceÉ
Unless I catch
on fireÉ
Where I am
flyingÉ
Look down as IÕm
burning
Sometimes
the mountains mock us
Snap the
minarets with me
Let the blood
rise higher than the horseÕs belly
Take life and
thenÉ goÉ freeÉ
I
am a girl who cleans the trains
And I wonÕt
dance
If I ever catch
on fire
Burn you as IÕm
burningÉ(Repeat)
(Let
me die in the air,
Let
me die in the flame
Let me soar to
the heavens,
An arrow of
grace)
4. DJELEM – ROMANI/GYPSY INTRO (Bajramovic arr. Brisco/Riley)
5. JASMINÕS VEIL (Margraff/Brisco)
Where is her
copper jar?
Where is the
woman at the well? It can't be Jasmin.
Without that
little black lamb at her feet
YouÕd be damn'd Romani
jealous
Of Jasmin's
Ottoman boutique
Jasmin's
veil is spinning slow
Across the
burning windows
She sings a girl
with roses in her tears
Rolls her curse
of bulls that lay there dying
Jasmin draws the
demons to the wine
Jasmin's
veil is lifting slow
With ghost viola
fingers
Silt is rising
from the Dead Sea on its back
Red sky hanging
flatter than a curtain
Jasmin calls the
black lambs to the Vine
Thick-as-a-man's-waist-tall-as-a-house-by-morning!
I've-been–feeling-strangely-toward-you-for-some-time!
Jasmin's
lace is growing thick
Across the
burned out windows.
Ghosts still
flung across the marketplace
And blood still
rushing in the bookstore
Flood these
graves to keep us Byzantine
Thick-as-a-man's-waist-tall-as-a-house-by-morning!
I've-been–feeling-strangely-toward-you-for-some-time!
Jasmin's
lace is growing thick
Across the blown
out windows
Sabers rushing
birds torn in the air
Jasmin's
planting all the boots with roses
Jasmin's dragging
slit lambs to the wine
Jasmin's
veil is growing thick
Across the
burned out windows
Ghosts still
flung across the marketplace
And blood still
rushing in the bookstore
Flood her grave
to keep us Byzantine
6. BLACK SHEEP DAUGHTER (Margraff/Brisco)
As if her Daddy's
black lung
Choked down on
her song
And called up
bullfrogs in her throat
So she kept
sighinÕ there and clawinÕ
At the covers
all night long
For some velvet
she could treasure
In her ribcage
iron skillet
She'd keep
stokinÕ like a stovepipe
ÔTil the crack
of every dawn
As
if her Daddy's whiskey sour
Sunset was
standing still
Against the
tracks across the hills
Where the trains
would pressure down
On the faces of
the pennies
And the fossil
of a girl
Straining at the
feast of families
To keep the
blackberries from her gown
And
she would press so many four-leaf clovers
In the Bibles
that he later had to burn.
And
he showed her how the sun could turn
And burst its
liquor open still and rise again,
How to lift her
hair up from the dew
Of prehistoric
promises so green
With weeping
willows and fatted calves and feasting
As
if we never would see lava coming down
In rock hard
feathers all across the sky
Turn the yellow
cake to smoke
And gold to
liquor. As if we'd always find him
Putting out the
fleece again tonight
Waiting for his black
sheep daughter
To cross his
mindÉ
And
Daddy I know I should've crossed your sepulcher
WearinÕ timbrels
every time it thundered
I should've
poured you somethinÕ sweeter
Than the day far
spent in the slate
I wanted my own
way then. But now my will is brokenÉ
Can I please
come in? And stay in the extra room?
ExtraÉExtra
roomÉ
As
if the same old whiskey sour
Sunset was
standing still
In the fossil
printed darkness
Pressin' into
peacock diamonds
In the rough
...for you to believe
7. BOOK OF TEA (Margraff/Brisco)
When heaven
struck its head
On the vaulted
twilight
Split the blue
dome jade to stars
And the moon was
flung across the night
There
Ôrose a grace upon the sea
With horns and
dragon-tail that spun
Dark rainbows in
her cauldron
And she told me
when she built the sky
She
left two crevices undone
For
the rolling of lovers
For the rolling
of hope
For the rolling
of teaÉ. (Repeat)
8.
LEMON BLOSSOMS (Margraff/Brisco)
Is this the
Crete / This is the Crete
My father
watered with his blood
Was
I born to crush the blossoms
Of these lemons
in the window
Was I born to
toast the Pashas
And the tainted
henna hands
Was
I born to seize the lions
By the loins of
rotting gallows
And cursing ChristÉAnd
curse Mohammad
As the dead sink
down within a man
ThereÕs
no room in my house
For my swollen
soul tonight
And thereÕs no
room in my Raki glass
To break it with
my knife
ThereÕs
no room on the lemon tree
To hang another
broken face
ThereÕs no room
in the mountain sage
For all the
devilsÉAman, Aman, Aman
Is
this the Crete / This is the Crete
My mother
watered with her tears
Was
I born to Samsons springing
From the worms
of milk abounding
To work the
pestle, work the mortar
Work the scorn
of threshing floors
IÕm
not a man to let the fly
Run up and down
the saber (Repeat)
ThereÕs
no room in my house
For my swollen
soul tonight
And thereÕs no
room in my Raki glass
To crush it with
my knife
ThereÕs
no more room on the lemon tree
To hang another
broken face
ThereÕs no room
in the mountain sage
For all the
devilsÉAman, Aman, AmanÉ
9. CORCODUCE (Brisco) meaning Òunripe plumsÓ in
Romanian
10. 1000 TIMES – IÕVE SEEN YOUR
GHOST (Margraff/Brisco/Riley/El-Aasser)
What
madness! How can it be!
What horror, oh
what horror
This...a
stranger's voice
A bell struck
hard too many times
A bell with
voices in it...ringing
I was a small
boy / A baby's cry
A thousand times
I've seen your ghost
A thousand times
I've seen your ghostÉ(Repeat)
What
madness has befallen
Every generation
/ Oh what madness!
For I am the son
who yielded
To the Rose Torment
/ Oh my beloved!
I am the bedouin
who wanders
In the
wilderness afar / My love, my love!
From my beloved
/ I have searched for you
In every marketplace
/ Every vineyard
Every garden / Every
grave
A thousand times
I've seen your ghost
A thousand times
I've seen your ghostÉ(Repeat)
11. CROWS & ANGELS (Brisco)
Oh woe is me how
will she ever respect me?
IÕm just a
wayward bramble my law is my guitar
The only thing I
see is whatever is before me
One day I stole
into her eyes, now I see nothing more
Oh
woe is me when I hear the road a-calling
When I feel the
ocean rolling its tide in my bones
She says sheÕll
go there with me but oh I have no money
She says it
doesnÕt matter, she says our love is strong
What
I failed to mention is my loveÕs a Gypsy princess
And when she
plays her accordion crows and angels sing in key
From the forests
of Romania they say her father slept with witches
That her mother
died in birth, speaking an ancient tongue
Oh
woe is me IÕm just a wayward Christian
Far from my little village where my
mother prays for me
Oh
woe is me everywhere I go the birds paint her face with melody
The
moon lights my way back home
Here I am
tonight in a field drinking wine
Living an
ancient riddle, singing an ancient rhyme
Into
her arms I find me running like a child
And between her
legs I find the songs that from youth once drove me wild
And
the crows and the angelsÉ have all been good to me
Six strings on
my guitar now six children call me father
12. RAKIJA WALTZ (Brisco)