"I Was An Oak Tree" by Jonathan Byrd

  My friend, band mate, and partner in music David Blackmon, told me of this song recently. When you play music for a living it's easy to forget to listen to other music at times, and to seek inspiration for yourself. David knows my musical mind like no one else, with the exception of my own brother Johnny. This song has an unexplainable vibe and way of communicating something deeper than words. Whenever something touches David, I pay attention as he is one of the most amazing musicians that I have ever had the honor to play with. We have shared thousands of hours on the road listening to songs and talking about music. Nowadays, music is so accessible that it tends to lose its charm and hold on us. We have to work harder to shut down everything else in order to let it in.

   I post this for all of you who still relish in songs, in lyrical content, and in the power that music has to describe the undefinable aspects of life itself. I suggest watching the video while reading the lyrics. I selfishly blog this, so that it may exist in this form long after I'm gone from here. Enjoy. Thanks Jonathan Byrd and thanks David Blackmon

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XeDYtn9iUjA

http://jonathanbyrd.com/music.php

I was an oak tree.

I took a thousand years to grow,

and I've seen kingdoms come and go.

I've seen the losers turn to lords and back again.

I held the rebels when they hung them from my limbs.

When men of fortune cast their futures on the sea,

that's when they came for me.

And I was a slave ship,

under the standard of the cross,

a hallelujah holocaust.

And half were dead before we reached the other shore,

and the captain never saw the coming storm

that swept around the cape and took us by surprise,

and only eight survived.

I was a camp fire, a pile of driftwood in the sand.

The only comfort in this land.

8 hungry sailors roasted acorns that they found,

and left me burning as they stumbled towards the sound

of a church bell ringing out above the ocean's wind,

and I was born again.

And I am an oak tree, out along the wild cape fear,

and there is talk of freedom here.

Where is the kingdom that was here before I came,

where have the people gone who only left their names.

A revolution's just a circle after all,

and every kingdom falls.

I am an oak tree, if it takes a thousand years to grow,

I'll see kingdoms come and go,

I'll see kingdoms come and go.