Recorded as a tribute to Robbie Robertson, October 2023.
TWILIGHT thoughts...
My first contact with this song was Shawn Colvin’s version, on her 1994 Cover Girl album. I carried that CD off to college with me that year, and spent many hours learning most of the songs on that record. Of those songs, this was my favorite. Something about the longing, and the waning light - I could feel it all the way in my little dorm room in upstate New York, looking out at the sun setting over pine trees and missing home.
At the same time, I was also deeply into Bob Dylan’s Planet Waves, and will always associate that record with the northern New York winter that year, when it seemed to snow every day. “There’s new frost on the window glass with each new tender kiss…” Discovering that The Band was the band on that record, was also eye-opening. I just remember falling completely in love with all the strength and soul and spontaneity that they brought to those songs. Robbie Robertson was the overlap between these two records I loved, and that fact has informed a lot of my own musical taste ever since.
After Robbie Robertson died, I listened to several versions of this song. The one that struck me most was the undated solo piano/vocal performance from 2016’s Testimony retrospective. The take is so intimate - it feels like a wee-hours-of-the-night charcoal sketch of a song, like when you're singing but trying not to wake the baby. You can hear all the weariness, his voice so close to the mic that you can hear the intake of breath before each plaintive line. I love the feeling of space in this song, where there is room for the listener to climb in and feel a little less alone.
This was the vibe we were going for, and I believe Kris Delmhorst’s production and instrumentation really captured the spirit. I'm so glad Kris and I were able to work together on this one - such a special song to me, and to so many. Thank you for listening to our tribute to one of the greats.
lyrics
Twilight (Robbie Robertson)
Over by the wildwood
Hot summer night
We lay in the tall grass
Till the mornin' light
If I had my way I'd never
Get the urge to roam
But a young man serves his country
An old man guards the home
Don't send me no silly salutations
Or silly souvenirs from far away
Don't leave me alone in the twilight
'Cause twilight is the loneliest time of day
I never gave it a second thought
It never crossed my mind
What's right and what's not
I'm not the judgin' kind
I can take the darkness, oh
Storms in the skies
But we all got certain trials
Burnin' up inside
Don't put me in a frame upon the mantel
For memories grow dusty old and gray
Don't leave me alone in the twilight
'Cause twilight is the loneliest time of day
And don't leave me alone in the twilight
'Cause twilight is the loneliest time of day
credits
released November 3, 2023
Recorded and mixed by Kris Delmhorst
Mastered by Glenn Barratt at Morningstar Studios in Philadelphia PA
Lisa Bastoni is a 2019 and 2020 Boston Music Award nominee (Folk) , and winner of the 2019 Kerrville New Folk Contest. "Americana of the highest order...along the lines of Gretchen Peters or Patty Griffin." (Maverick-UK). She lives in Northampton, MA.
What a beautiful compilation, John Wesley Harding covered by a variety of popular artists. Well worth the money. It is hard to just pick one song, they are all wonderful writerrb
It takes the pandemic away. "Orpheus with his lute made trees,
And the mountain tops that freeze,
Bow themselves, when he did sing:
To his music plants and flowers
Ever sprung; as sun and showers
There had made a lasting spring.
Every thing that heard him play,
Even the billows of the sea,
Hung their heads, and then lay by.
In sweet music is such art,
Killing care and grief of heart
Fall asleep, or hearing, die.
(Henry VIII, 3.1.4-15) plumberactor
Collaborating remotely with 12 songwriters from all over the world, Kim Edgar emerged with a work of striking art pop. Bandcamp New & Notable Feb 11, 2023