1. After The Fall
2. Bury Me Alive
3. Gone Devil
4. I Would Lose You Still
5. Mountains Slowly Collapsing
6. The Devil is My Brother
Eddie Keenan - The Driftwood Manor lead man who sings, plays guitars and bouzouki has doe a phenomenal job by artfully crafting this set of songs with a slight touch of appalachian folk and psychdelic background making it sound more austere and gentle at the same time. The timbre of his voice is delivering a woeful mystery. Backed by by Neil Fitzgibbon on fiddle, Anne Marie Hynes on additional vocals, Bean Dolan on double bass and Steve Fanagan on accordion and percussion the story is getting more and more ethereal and un-obvious impervious squeeze of multilayered work assembled at Steve Fangan's home studio.
The texts yet full of thin existential spider's web fit the climax so well. And again Eddie's voice is delivering...
To some extent the material finely packaged in a small stamped envelope is way beyond the labels of folk and avant-pop hugely because of the intimacy you get by listening to it....
Driftwood Manor "Holy Ghost" lyrics...
1. After the Fall
Like moths to a candle flame
Burnt offerings
We are led blindly to the end of all things
Raising a glass
While the silence awaits
Loitering drunk at the cemetery gates
Mourners-in-waiting
Will offer their prayers
After the fall when we are unaware
So order a drink
As the story unfolds
And the memories of love burrow a hole in your soul
Among the deep snows
Where the rocks are revealed
We have tread lightly so that they are revealed
Without causing balance
To give way to pain
Yet knowing the cold earth awaits all the same
Mourners-in-waiting
Will offer their prayers
After the Fall when we are unaware
So order a drink
As the story unfolds
And the memories of love burrow a hole in your soul
2. Bury Me Alive
Won't you bury me alive?
Won't you bury me alive?
Lay a wreath on my grave
Lay a wreath on my grave
Won't you bury me alive?
Won't you bury me alive?
Lay a wreath on my grave
Lay a wreath on my grave
My true lady left me in the waters
Where I swim tonight
Where I swim tonight
My one love, she left me in the waters
Where I swim tonight
Where I swim tonight
3. Gone Devil
There is a sandstorm
that awaits in some words
And a tension in the tragedy
like a flock of dead birds
Yes, I have been often told
that I'm not aware
Of your waves and your motions
and the length of your hair
Gone Devil, gone Devil, gone Devil be gone
Gone Devil, gone Devil, gone Devil be gone
That which was cherished
Was buried in snow
Once again fooled by the Devil you know
Between fire and ice
old regrets reappear
But all that is solid will melt into air
Gone Devil, gone Devil, gone Devil be gone
Gone Devil, gone Devil, gone Devil be gone.
4. I would lose you still
As I wait on spirits
In unearthly hours
A ghost, channelled,
Descends on the room
But no dark ritual
Or ancient power
Can ever prevent its return to the gloom
And I would lose you still
Where your eyes they glistened
On a cold Spring morning
Forever stitched into
the fabric of time
A pagan promise
and a small redemption
Were not enough
to reclaim that as mine
And I would lose you still.
5. Mountains Slowly Collapsing
Listening for that phantom
That always speaks at night
Mountains slowly collapsing
Say, "Old loves never die.
"But time will ease this,
time will ease this again."
This is always as it has been
And will be 'til the end
Mountains slowly collapsing
Like pasts which we defend
But time will ease this,
time will ease this again
Time will ease this,
time will ease this again.
6. The Devil is my Brother
Beyond a row of Sycamores
Childhood ghosts await
And the face trapped in the picture
Seems the solace of our fate
I have known the demons names
I have seen them all
And to toast a drink to darkness
makes it easier to fall
As the sunlight dimmed upon
The streets of Amsterdam
It brought to mind a past life
Let slip weakly from my hands
She said to see me shatter
Was the sight she feared the most
But the Devil is my brother
And she's not the Holy Ghost.
