December Songs 31 (2017)

It's New Years Eve! Time for a final December Songs 2017. And I am so very glad I found a recording of Devon Sproule's new song, "Turn Back to Love." The first time I heard her sing this––I believe it was at a recent show at the Batesville Market––I found tears streaming down my face and had to choke back audible sobs.   

I’ve got someone new, you may have heard.

She’s hanging on my every word.

I’m becoming the master decoder.

So much to see, so much to show her.

Are you making it safe and OK?

Are you shrugging and turning away?

She wrote it after the events of our Charlottesville Summer and every word of it goes straight to the heart: as a mother, as a community member who was present at the events of July 8 & August 12, as a citizen striving for systemic change, as a human who loves. 

What am I gonna say, when she asks what I did?

Devon is so generous, not only can you listen to her new song here, you can also download it. There is no video as of yet, just her beautiful voice and deeply moving lyrics. I take these words and this experience into 2018, knowing that all that has passed in 2017 is a dangerous, frightening, but enlightening springboard toward change. May 2018 be a very different year for all of us, where we "turn back to love."

Turn Back to Love, by Devon Sproule

Stuck under the northern border,

Why did I let my passport run out?

That clean air is a foggy memory

Getting burnt off in the south.

I thought this was this optional hobby

Before the Nazis came to my town,

Are you quiet or crying it out loud?

I’ve got someone new, you may have heard.

She’s hanging on my every word.

I’m becoming the master decoder.

So much to see, so much to show her.

Are you making it safe and OK?

Are you shrugging and turning away?

Turn back to us.

Turn back to love.

Faster and funnier, you hate 2 lose.

Doubling down on those dangerous views.

I can’t begin to know what you’re thinking.

But I get a whiff of the koolaid you’re drinking.

Are you sneaking beneath your own mind?

Do you really believe he’s a great guy?

That’s not your voice, that isn’t you.

I know because I’ve lost mine too.

I’m terrified to get specific.

What am I gonna say, when she asks what I did?

Are you trying it on for a day?

Are you shrugging and turning away?

Turn back to us.

Turn back to love.

Overnight, overyear,

This little life is long, I hear,

Long enough that I can see a time,

That's quiet enough to listen to the pines.

And while you're here, check out this awesome Wes Swing video (another magical musician I saw for the first time this year) with a cameo by Devon Sproule.