INSTRUMENTAL INTRO (Solo fiddle, 16 bars — let it breathe and speak) VERSE 1 (acoustic guitar enters beneath fiddle) There was a woman in the hollow Who knew every song by name She could call the old ones back Like she called the morning rain She taught the children in the autumn Gave the summer all her voice And when the hollow grew too quiet She made silence into choice VERSE 2 (bass enters soft) There were hands that held the stories When the paper couldn't stay Hands that shaped the melody Before the melody had name And we carry them inside us Every note a kind of prayer Every time the fiddle weeps The hollow still is there BRIDGE (female voice enters — wordless first, then these words, barely spoken more than sung) Remember me, remember me In the hollow where the old songs live Remember every hand that played Every note they had to give Remember me, remember me I am in the strings you play Every song worth keeping Keeps the ones who showed the way VERSE 3 (full arrangement now, brushed snare enters) We are standing on the shoulders Of the ones who sang before Every sound we make in darkness Is a light beneath their door And the Appalachian mountains Still remember what they knew Every melody is borrowed From the ones who gave it true FINAL INSTRUMENTAL (fiddle solo, full and singing, the most expressive moment on the album) (female voice returns wordless beneath) (fades to single fiddle note) OUTRO (silence, then barely whispered female voice) Remember.
