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The Bluja Project

About

"The Bluja Project" is the first CD from Hazel O'Connor, Clare Hirst and Sarah Fisher. Featuring the three voices, saxophone and piano, augmented by a rhythm section this is a stylish collection of originals alongside jazz classics such as "Summertime", "Stormy Weather", "My Funny Valentine" and "God Bless The Child". This cd contains many of the tunes that have become a staple of their live shows including "Will You" and their hauntingly beautiful version of "Chasing Cars".

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Info

Format: CD Album
Label: HalfStep
Catalogue No: HSCD852
Country: UK
Released: 30th August 2010

Hazel O'Connor - Lead Vocals
Clare Hirst - Saxophones and Vocals
Sarah Fisher - Keyboards and Vocals
Phillip Richardson - Bass
Andrea Trillo - Percussion
Recorded by Grant Strang at Bakehouse Studios London
Mixed by Phillip Richardson
Photography by Juliette Harrison
Cover Design Malc Bagley

Lyrics

Tracklist Lyrics
01 - My Funny Valentine Lyrics

My Funny Valentine
(© Rogers and Hart)

My funny Valentine
Sweet comic Valentine
You make me smile with my heart
Your looks are laughable
Unphotographable
Yet you're my favourite work of art

Is your figure less than Greek
Is your mouth a little weak
When you open it to speak
Are you smart?

But don't change a hair for me
Not if you care for me
Stay little Valentine stay
Each day is Valentine's day

Is your figure less than Greek
Is your mouth a little weak
When you open it to speak
Are you smart?

But don't change a hair for me
Not if you care for me
Stay little Valentine stay
Each day is Valentine's day
02 - If Only Lyrics

If Only
(© Hazel O'Connor)

What do you do when they turn on the light?
You guard your heart, so they steal your sight
You reach out in blindness, touch the alone
Its icicle fingers chill you to the bone

What do you do when the cat gets ya tongue?
No way to tell it's all going wrong
Mouth out the words on the telephone
Nobody answers, nobody's home...

(Chorus)
What's done has been done, and I won't be the one
Who despairs in the wheelchair, resigned to ''If only''
No, I'll stand up again and I'll run
I'll jump up till I touch the sun
Because I won't be the one to be bound
By the sound of ''If only, if only, if only''

Well, I reach out in blindness now, but what do I care?
I'll walk into walls and I'll stumble downstairs
I'll laugh like a fishwife, I'll cry like a clown
Up is the only way to go when you're down

When I reach a mountain top, then I start to climb
I'll walk on the water, I'll turn water to wine
Hope is the one thing we got on our side
Hope can be salvaged when all else has died

(Chorus)

(Chorus)
03 - God Bless The Child Lyrics

God Bless The Child
(© Arthur Herzog / Billie Holiday)

Them that's got shall get
Them that's not shall lose
So the Bible said and it still is news
Mama may have, Papa may have
But God bless the child who's got his own
Who's got his own

Yes, the strong gets more
While the weak ones fade
Empty pockets don't ever make the grade
Mama may have, Papa may have
But God bless the child who's got his own
Who's got his own

Money, you've got lots of friends
Hanging round your door
Then it's gone, and the money ends
They don't come around no more
Rich relations give
Crust of bread and such
You can help yourself baby
Oh don't you take too much
Mama may have, Papa may have
But God bless the child who's got his own
Who's got his own

Money, you've got lots of friends
Hanging round your door
Then it's gone, and the money ends
They don't come around no more
Rich relations give
Crust of bread and such
You can help yourself baby
Oh don't you take too much
Mama may have, Papa may have
But God bless the child who's got his own
04 - Driftwood Lyrics

Driftwood
(© Hazel O'Connor)

Sitting on the sunny shoreline,
see some driftwood come to rest
worn out by the tides
born up by its endless rides
never free, just a bit like me.
I've been that piece of wood
I've been tossed about
Upon the ocean of illusion, confusion.
Bitter and twisted like waves lashing out at the rock.

Well I now know I just gotta find
that shore line oh yeah, that little peace of mind
and let the sun shine on me

I swam the sea of passion, jealousy and pain,
ignorance pretends to drown, grabs for your hands
again, drags you down again.
Yeah, but my soul cries out just to break those chains,
Well listen you who've travelled all these jungles
concrete and the other kind, you know there's more
you got your own key the door, go on open it open it up

Well I now know I just gotta find
that shore line oh yeah, that little peace of mind
and let the sun shine on me

Been a long time from my home and I want
to get back there,
but most of my memories got washed away with the tide
a friend waits for me at the edge of the sea
my soul is your lover I cry

Oh beloved wipe away these tears from my eyes
of my illusion, my confusion.
Brittle and twisted like waves lashing out at the rock

Well I now know I just gotta find
that shore line oh yeah, that little peace of mind
and let the sun shine on me...
05 - Blackman Lyrics

Blackman
(© Hazel O'Connor)

I am the blackman and you are the white
I am the deviant and you're always right
I am the darkness and you are the light
I am the blackman, you're the white
Yeah you are the good little holier
Than thou, hide your head in your hand
You hear no, see no, speak no no no no
Understand

(Chorus)
I am the blackness, I am the dark
I am the alcoholic pissed in the park
I am the girl who sold her body to the dark
I am the truth of it, you are the hypocrite

I am the dirty and you are the clean
I live in places where you've never been
I eat the garbage and you eat the cream
I am the dirty, you're the clean
You give me the first degree for being different to thee
You hit me, kick me, tell me you're what I should be

(Chorus)

I am the whiteman and I paint you black
I am the traitor, but I put you on the rack
I am the coward and I shoot you in the back
I am the white man, I paint you black
Yeah I am are the good little holier
Than thou hide my head in my hands
I hear no, see no, speak no no no no
Understand

(Chorus)

(Chorus)

Blackman!
06 - Chasing Cars Lyrics

Chasing Cars
(© Snow Patrol)

We'll do it all
Everything
On our own

We don't need
Anything
Or anyone

If I lay here
If I just lay here
Would you lie with me and just forget the world?

I don't quite know
How to say
How I feel

Those three words
Are said too much
They're not enough

If I lay here
If I just lay here
Would you lie with me and just forget the world?

Forget what we're told
Before we get too old
Show me your garden that's bursting into life

Let's waste time
Chasing cars
Around our heads

I need your grace
To remind me
To find my own

If I lay here
If I just lay here
Would you lie with me and just forget the world?

Forget what we’re told
Before we get too old
Show me a garden that's bursting into life

All that I am
All that I ever was
Is here in your perfect eyes, they're all I can see

I don't know where
Confused about how as well
Just know that these things will never change for us at all

If I lay here
If I just lay here
Would you lie with me and just forget the world?
07 - Stormy Weather Lyrics

Stormy Weather
(© Harold Arlen / Ted Koehler)

Don't know why
There's no sun up in the sky
Stormy weather
Since my man and I ain't been together
It's been raining all the time

Life is bare
Gloom and misery everywhere
Stormy weather
Just don't seem to get my poor self together
Its been raining all the time, the time

Since he went away
The blues walked in and met me
If he stays away, old rocking chair will get me
I just hope and pray
The lord above will let me
Walk in the sun once more

Can't go on
Everything I had is gone
Stormy weather
Since my man and I ain't been together
Its been raining all the time, the time

Since he went away
The blues walked in and met me
If he stays away, old rocking chair will get me
I just hope and pray
The lord above will let me
Walk in the sun once more

Can't go on
Everything I had is gone
Stormy weather
Since my man and I ain't been together
I sang its raining all the time
It's raining all the time
It's raining
It's pouring
The old man is snoring
It's raining all the time
It's raining all the time
08 - Will You Lyrics

Will You
(© Hazel O'Connor / Wesley Magoogan)

You drink your coffee and I sip my tea
And we're sitting here playing so cool, thinking ''What will be, will be''
But it's getting kind of late now
Oh I wonder if you'll stay now, stay now, stay now, stay now
Or will you just politely say goodnight?

I move a little closer to you, not knowing quite what to do
And I'm feeling all fingers and thumbs, I spill my tea, oh silly me!
But it's getting kind of late now
I wonder if you'll stay now, stay now, stay now, stay now
Or will you just politely say goodnight?

And then we touch much too much
This moment has been waiting for a long long time
Makes me shiver, it makes me quiver
This moment I'm so unsure
This moment I've waited for
Is it something you've been waiting for, waiting for too?

Take off your eyes, bare your soul
Gather me to you and make me whole
Tell me your secrets, sing me the song
Sing it to me in the silent tongue
But it's getting kind of late now
I wonder if you'll stay now, stay now, stay now, stay now
Or will you just politely say goodnight?
09 - Summertime Lyrics

Summertime
(© George Gershwin / DuBose/ Dorothy Heyward)

Do, dah do, dah do, dah do
Do, dah do, dah do, dah do

Summertime,
And the livin' is easy
Fish are jumpin'
And the cotton is high

Your daddy's rich
And your ma she's so good lookin'
So hush little baby
Don't you cry
In the Summertime
Don't you cry

One of these mornings
You're going to rise up singing
You're gonna spread your wings
And you'll take to the sky
Take to the sky

But till that morning
There's nothin', nothin' gonna harm you
With momma and daddy standing by
In the Summertime
Don't you cry

Summertime,
And the livin' is easy
Fish are jumpin'
And the cotton is high

Your daddy's rich
And your ma she's so good lookin'
So hush little baby
Don't you cry
In the Summertime
Don't you cry
In the Summertime
Said don't you cry
In the Summertime
Yeah don't you cry
In the Summertime
Yeah don't you cry
10 - Time After Time Lyrics

Time After Time
(© Hazel O'Connor / Major Black)

Time after time I will follow you
I lay myself on the line
I'd always try for you

Because you
You are my inspiration
You
You are my destination that's why
Time after time I choose you

Night after night I have dreamed of you
I see your smile, see your face
How could I ever hide from you

Because you
You are my inspiration
You
You are my destination that's why
Time after time I choose you

Time after time I'll choose you, time after time
Time after time I'll choose you, time after time

Time after time I will follow you
I'll lay myself on the line
I'd even die for you

Because you
You are my inspiration
You
You are my destination that's why
Time after time I choose you

Time after time I choose you, time after time
Time after time I choose you, time after time

Because you
You are my inspiration
You
You are my destination that's why
Time after time I choose you

Time after time I'll choose you, time after time
Time after time I'll choose you, time after time