Walk with me through garlands of fire

[Intro][Style: solo Hammond B3 organ, sustained chord. Piano enters with a tremolo flourish. No drums yet.] [Verse 1][Style: solo voice, intimate, almost spoken — the preacher beginning quietly] There is a fire that does not consume There is a fire that does not burn There is a fire that walks beside you In every desert, at every turn I have seen it on the faces of the dying I have seen it in the eyes of the saved I have seen it dance on the heads of children And rise like a hymn from an open grave [Pre-chorus][Style: choir enters, humming, building. Tambourine on the off-beats.] Oh, will you walk — will you walk — will you walk with me? Through the garlands, through the garlands, through the garlands of the free [Chorus][Style: full choir on response, hand-claps locked in, the room is alive] Walk with me through garlands of fire! (Walk with me!) Walk with me through garlands of flame! (Walk with me!) There is a city the Lord has prepared us And every stone of it knows your name! Walk with me, walk with me, Through the garlands, through the garlands — Walk with me through garlands of fire! And you shall not, you shall not be burned! [Verse 2][Style: lead returns, the conviction rising, melisma starting] They will tell you that the world is godless They will tell you that the sky is closed But I have heard the heavens singing In a tongue that only the loved have known — And the fire that fell on the first apostles Did not consume them, did not consume — It crowned them, child, it crowned them, child, And it crowns the children in this room [Pre-chorus][Style: bigger, organ swelling, the choir is no longer humming, they are singing] Oh, will you walk — will you walk — will you walk with me? Through the garlands, through the garlands, through the garlands of the free! [Chorus][Style: a half-step higher than the first chorus, even though we haven't formally modulated — the song is *lifting* itself] Walk with me through garlands of fire! (Walk with me!) Walk with me through garlands of flame! (Walk with me!) There is a city the Lord has prepared us And every stone of it knows your name! Walk with me, walk with me, Through the garlands, through the garlands — Walk with me through garlands of fire! And you shall not, you shall not be burned! [Bridge][Style: the altar call. The instruments drop to just organ and tambourine. Miriam's voice goes RAW. She is no longer performing. She is preaching.] You — yes, you — sitting in your safety — sitting in your doubt — the fire is not coming for you, the fire is *here*, the fire is *now*, the fire is *asking* And the choir says — [Choir][Style, fortissimo, in the strange open-fifth harmony of Sacred Harp shape-note singing] COME! COME! COME! [Miriam:] And the angels say — [Choir:] COME! COME! COME! [Miriam, building, the melisma now uncontrolled, slipping toward glossolalia] And the Spirit says — oh the Spirit says — oh the Spirit, oh the Spirit, oh the Spirit says — [Style: Thirty-eight seconds of glossolalia — wordless tongues, the choir in full ecstatic response. The EBU will dub over this in post. The studio audience does not know what to do.] [Style: Single tambourine hit. Organ chord. The song re-enters in a new key, up a minor third.] [Final chorus][Style: maximum force. Choir, organ, piano, hand-claps, the room is *gone*] Walk with me through garlands of fire! (Walk with me!) Walk with me through garlands of flame! (Walk with me!) There is a city the Lord has prepared us And every stone of it knows your name! Walk with me, walk with me, Through the garlands, through the garlands — Walk with me through garlands of fire! And you SHALL not, you SHALL not be burned! [Style: choir repeats the final line, getting quieter each time, the Hammond holding under] You shall not be burned… You shall not be burned… You shall not be burned… [Style: A single held organ chord. Miriam, alone, whispered:] …walk with me. [Style: End. No fade. The chord cuts.]