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about

I hadn't really noticed the song of the Cicada until Chris and I drove across country one summer. In Hershey, Pennsylvania, the heat and humidity were remarkable and the soundtrack was the cicada's silver wire. It dominated everything.

When I read about the cicada life cycle, I was moved by it as a metaphor for recovery. Cicadas spend most of their first stage of life completely underground, digging tunnels and nibbling on tree roots, and later (sometimes many years later) burst up out of the ground, climb a tree, fix their little beetle claws onto the bark and slowly, under their translucent shell, become a mysterious looking flying creature. When ready, the back of the carapace splits open slowly and the cicada, formerly blind and wingless, backs carefully out of her beetle-self form. Many species have ruby red eyes, and they all have beautiful delicate transparent wings. In this new form, they live to fly, mate, and sing.

The stringed instrument you hear is a 10-stringed Bolivian instrument of Quechua origin, called the Charango. It's small, but don't call it a ukelele!

David's pedal steel work here is unearthly - shimmering! I love the way the instrument enters the song, with a wide, low wavering hum.

lyrics

Cicada
Cicada
Floating on the shimmering air
wings of isinglass
the ground is broken open
where you have left the past

Cicada
Cicada
Slipping off the coat you wore
in the longest night
Blind and silent nevermore -
The world tilts in your ruby eye

Cicada
Cicada
Cicada, sing a silver wire
Mineralize the air
Mute, you dreamt it underground
Now you let it flare!

Cicada
Cicada
Cicada with your jeweled eyes
Let me in your thoughts!
Can you look straight at the sun
And see what we cannot?

credits

from Nothing But Stars - 5 songs, track released July 26, 2014
charango: jane selkye
bass: chris kee
pedal steel: david phillips

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Springhouse California

Music from the Americana Borderlands - from artsong to the roadhouse and places in between:
Chris Kee and Jane Selkye met in the San Francisco band Me Jane, and have played with David Phillips in various
groups for the last twenty years. ... more

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