Cloud Land Clan

Cloud Land Clan is Skelly Harrington (words, vocals) and Patrick Short (music, sounds, piano).

Bold is the first album release. It’s mastered and out for production. Release in December, 2017. With a span of 11 months from, “Hey! We should do this!” and no songs written to a finished product, this is the fastest album ever from Patrick Short.

Songs:

A Piece of Sun
My Vestigial Twin
To Play At God +
One-Legged Man
Election Night
Low Maintenance
If You’re Hearing This *
Fatale +*
Me Again
You Were Right *
Simple
Beloved

* Mike Short, guitars + Anthony Dyer, violin

To buy the CD or download the album, visit here.

Skelly does art, too. And she’s got a couple of these tracks on individual sale. Visit her site at https://www.skellyharrington.com/

Piggy Back sizing (1)

A Piece of Sun

Sappy love notes written on coffee-shop postcards
A room thick with popcorn garlands strung in the air.
The smell of your skin. The sound of your guitar,
Fixing the back of your cheaply cut hair.

I keep these to remind me that this is what it looks like
This is what it feels like, when love is unkind
‘Cos it’s never simple blackness, in a daytime of darkness
Staring into the smallest piece of the sun can make a girl go blind

Dancing to narration at a nautical museum
Three squeaks in dolphin means “I love you”
You resented my friends, still encouraged me to see them.
When you said you were sorry, I knew it was true.

Long days at the hospital by your mother’s side.
Always a hug hello, always a kiss goodbye.
When you knew something was wrong, the way your eyes grew wide.
You learned to hold me close when I cried.

My Vestigial Twin

I thought we shared
One heart, yours and mine,
But you didn’t share your heart
You were using my spine.

My vestigial twin / Tore myself in two
I thought you part of me / But there’s more me without you.
Who could have guessed
Now that you are gone
Turns out I was whole all along.

I have to wonder
Can you stand up on your own?
Can you take care of yourself
Now that you are alone?

My vestigial twin / Tore myself in two

I thought you part of me / But there’s more me without you.
It’s clear, simple math / I kept the better half
I was whole all all along

One set of footprints in the sand
The legs on which I stand
They carried you,
And carried me, too
Now carry me far away from you.

My vestigial twin / I tore myself in two
I thought you part of me / But there’s more me without you.
I was whole all along

To Play At God

In the time of Moses
God sent plagues of locusts,
Blood and boils, told the Pharaoh
Frogs and fire, let my people go.
Pharaoh, he relented
And would have consented,
But Yahweh hardened the Pharaoh’s heart,
One more plague before we depart.

The lord said kill the babies.
Slaughter every mother’s son.
Every itty bitty firstborn dead and done
God said hear them wailing,
Bloody bodies to their breasts
Now you all will know that your god is the greatest.

In the time of David,
One Bathsheba bathed
While her husband was off at war
David put a baby in her.
More than just a liar,
David killed Uriah,
How to remedy this grievous wrong
The prophet Nathan then came along,

Said, God’s gonna kill your baby,
Slaughter your new mother’s son.
Gonna choke the life from him for what you’ve done.
Bathsheba lost her husband,
Now she’s gonna lose her kid,
Hope you’re feeling awfully bad for what you did.

Like lambs to the slaughter
Every son and every daughter.

In the time of Mary
Sixteen, ordinary
Slept with a fry cook whose name was Paul
Hardly knew her and didn’t call.
It came with such quickness
Dreaded morning sickness
A period that was three weeks late
God, she prayed, can I terminate?

God said, don’t you kill that baby!
While the body isn’t whole
That’s a bloody lump that holds a human soul.
Nothing could be more precious
Than that little tissue wad,
Don’t you know that it’s a sin to play at God?

One-Legged Man

I’m waiting.
Waiting for the other shoe to drop.
Hold your breath. Don’t blink.

What am I missing?
Waiting for the moment
When the loving kindness stops.

This can’t be right. I don’t understand.
What the hell are you, a one-legged man?

Election Night

The room was joyless as a crisper drawer.
None of the music that it held before.
2016.

I introduced you as my mister.
You went outside to call your crying sister.
I brought potato chips.
2016, 2016, Presidential Election

We didn’t stay for the final score
You held my hand, and we ran out the door.
2016.

At your place we watched King of the Hill
You laughed, I cried, we both felt ill.
You kissed my tears.
2016, 2016, Presidential Election.

It’s unbearable
It’s unbearable
It’s unbearable
It only feels like it’s unbearable

Tomorrow, we will comfort our friends.
And struggle with forgiveness.
Tonight, we push tomorrow back.
The world counts but we don’t keep track.
2016.

What a lovely time to fall in love.
What a lovely time to fall in love.

Low Maintenance

Wax and buffing is for cars
Leave the spa days to the stars.
I’m low maintenance, beware,
Bed head, bar soap for my hair.
Why do you like me?
Why do you like me?

If You’re Hearing This

If you’re hearing this, then we are already dead.
And there’s nothing that I want for you to know.
Every word that I had for you has already been said.
And been said so many, many times ago.

You never liked the words or the verses I wrote
You said poetry has no place in song
Because, no one’s ever listening, no one’s hearing the words
Well, here’s hoping that I haven’t proved you wrong

So, if you’re hearing this, don’t listen.
If you’re seeing this, don’t watch.
Someone handed me a microphone
And I can’t help but talk.
It’s not fair; you’re only broken.
It’s not kind; you’re still alive.
But my heart can’t go unspoken
I’m not the only one I know who’s tried

I’m a woman with a voice that reaches far-distant lands;
I’ve a hundred thousand faces in the crowd.
I’ve a hundred-thousand hearts within my far-reaching hands.
I haven’t always been, but now I am this loud.

So, if you’re hearing this, then listen.
If you’re seeing this, then watch.
Someone handed me a microphone
And I can’t help but talk.
It’s not fair; they way he used me.
It’s not kind; the way he lied.
But my spirit stayed unbroken now
I’m stronger more than ever, more alive

I cried and cried
But I turned around and tried
To leave his side,
And I turned around cried
I cried and cried
But I turned around and tried.
Couldn’t let that be my life.
His lie died.

So, if you’re hearing this, then listen.
If you’re seeing this, then watch.
Someone handed me a microphone
And it’s my turn to talk.
It’s not fair; they way he used me.
It’s not kind; the way he lied.
But my spirit stayed unbroken now
I’m stronger more than ever, more alive
Alive

Fatale

No heaven in the heavens. No angels hear our prayers
We carve the steps of purgatory leading us nowhere.
‘Our happiness means nothing, Our joy is yet to come,’
But all is said when all is said
And all is done when done.

God fell out and you fell in
Now I’m closer to you than I was to him.
If this is all we get,
Let’s fight for what we have
A greater tragedy than death
If we defer to live.

If god is in the heavens, may he love what we are
Our catastrophic beauty beating in a sea of stars.
Our tiny little hopes, Our bleeding little hearts.
Our something in the nothingness
Touching flames before the dark.

God fell out and you fell in
Now I’m closer to you than I was to him.
If this is all we get,
Let’s fight for what we have
A greater tragedy than death
If we defer to live.

Electric little meat sack. Fragile little bones
Before it rots, I’d gladly make this mortal flesh my home.
The dark is now and coming.
No god inside, no soul.
So hold this body housing me
Make me feel so not alone.

God fell out and you fell in
Now I’m closer to you than I was to him.
If this is all we get,
Let’s fight for what we have
A greater tragedy than death
If we defer to live.

Me Again

Hello.
Good morning.
It’s me.
Don’t die.
Just calling to make sure.
That you’re still alive.
Can’t take
That mourning
In our private lives
So wait until we’re public
So I can mourn in public
When you die.

Hello
It’s lunch time
Please say
You’re real.
Not my imagination
Don’t want no revelations.
Don’t have much time
But I have all the feels.
Don’t pull an Ol’ Kris Kringle
Surprise!
You’re really single
Say you’re real.

Hello.
Good evening.
Please say
You’re mine.
You still feel something for me.
Please say that you adore me.
I know you’ve said it
But say it one more time.
Please promise you’re not lying,
I’d rather hear you’re dying
Than goodbye.

But please don’t die.

[Not yet.
I’ll tell you when it’s

okay.]

You Were Right

You told me I would leave.
Forget and I’d be fine.
You said I would move on,
And be better in time.

You always claimed that you were right.
I swore that I was listening.
You always claimed that you were right.
I swore that I was listening.

I told you that your words
So quickly grown and shorn
Embedded in my heart,
And sunk like heavy thorns

You always claimed that you were right.
I swore that I was listening.
You always claimed that you were right.
I swore that I was listening.

I was listening.

Simple

Will you stay with me?
Will you choose to want to?
Will you say goodbye if I’m not your home?
Will you share your days
If we’re sharing in living.
But don’t give me your life,
If it isn’t your own.

There are worse things than ending
And saying goodbye.
There’s ending.
And not letting go.
But you’re holding on
And I’m holding on with you.
So who knows
How far we can go?

I don’t want your heart,
Your heart on my hands.
Just your hands in my hands,

And one heart.

Beloved

Can a girl be shot with Cupid’s dart?
Can a lover fall without a sound?
If the weapon doesn’t pierce her heart.
If they fall and never hit the ground?

Love is sacrifice and pain.
Love is loss.
Love is giving without gain
At any cost.

Do you have to leave to know it’s real?
Have to break your heart to know it’s true.
Don’t know how to trust the way you feel.
Roses still red when violets aren’t blue.

Love is patience and trust.
Love is kind.
Love is written by us
In our own time

I might dash a dream to disprove bliss.
I can’t break your heart to see it bleed.
Guess I’ll have to live with happiness.
Until happiness can be believed.

Love is patience and trust.
Love is kind.
Love is written by us
In our own time

In our own time

Bold was mastered in November 17 by Rick McMillan at Superdigital. Recorded entirely in 2017 at the top secret studio using Apple Logic, Native Instruments (Retro Machines 2, Studio Horns, Grandeur (piano), Strum Guitar 1 & 2, Kinetic Toys) and Output (Exhale, Substance and Analog Strings). The mic is a Rode NT-1, used for vocals and violin. Loops from Drums on Demand, Zero-G, Producer Loops and Splice were imported and often abused. Mike Short sent his guitar tracks in from Albany, NY. This product was produced in a studio where Autotune 8.1 is present.

Comments are closed.

Patrick Short's Extended Family

Cloud Land Clan

Table O’ Contents

Patrick Short's Extended Family

Cloud Land Clan

Share this:

Like this:

Table O’ Contents