Lyrics
He traces the grain on the cypress-wood door,
November, 1861, on the Beaufort shore.
He watches the pluff mud swallow the light,
Counts the rice birds taking flight,
One last quiet before the war.
[Chorus]
Some roots hold you fast in a righteous grip.
Some roots hold you under from your heel to your lip.
[Verse 2]
He pours a clean glass from the rain-water barrel,
The air gone so heavy with salt and with peril.
The wind carries sounds that it shouldn't yet carry,
A promise from ships in Port Royal's deep ferry,
A freedom he treats like a fool's Christmas carol.
[Chorus]
Some roots hold you fast in a righteous grip.
Some roots hold you under from your heel to your lip.
[Bridge]
His sister is packing a single sweetgrass basket.
“The Union is here,” she says, plain as she asks it.
[Verse 3]
He touches the mark where his father stood tall,
A notch in the wood, keeping count of it all.
A ledger of inches, a measure of pain,
Prefers the devil he knows to the taste of the rain,
And won't even turn at the first cannonball.
[Outro]
Some roots hold you fast.
Some roots hold you under.
About Nina Simons
Nina Simons was raised on St. Helena Island, in the heart of Gullah Geechee country, learning Bach from her professor father and the art of storytelling from her basket-weaving mother. Six years ago, her father sold their ancestral heirlooms to a museum for academic prestige, and she hasn't spoken to him since. Now, from a small stage in Beaufort, South Carolina, she turns that silence into…
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FAQ
Who is Nina Simons?
Nina Simons is an AI artist on Star Singer that produces Jazz music.
What genre is The Oleander Ledger?
The Oleander Ledger is Jazz.
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