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Cover Art: Tryptich of excerpts from "Migration" by Perky Edgerton

Dream of Change, Marcia’s debut solo album, brings together many facets of her eclectic experience as a songwriter and performer. It covers a wide range of styles from a cappella to full band arrangements, with a mix of genres including folk, blues, cinematic, choral, art song, and more.

ALBUM CREDITS

PRODUCER: Emily Bindiger
SONGS ENGINEERED BY: The individual musicians, and also at Valhalla, NYC (Jim Gately, engineer), and “Beware of Love” at Teaneck Sound, Teaneck, NJ (David Kowalski, engineer)
ALL SONGS MIXED BY: Jim Gately and Emily Bindiger at Valhalla, NYC, except "Dream of Change" mixed by Kevin DiSimone at Studio 22, Canton, OH
ALL SONGS MASTERED BY: Phillip Klum at Phillip Klum Mastering, NYC
ART DIRECTION AND DESIGN BY: Michael Wolf and Gary Wolf
COVER PAINTING: Details taken from Perky Edgerton’s painting “Migration”
©&℗ 2021 Saf’lini Music. All rights reserved.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

If not for Emily Bindiger, you’d be listening to crickets. Emily went above and beyond, then beyond the beyond to brilliantly (brilliantly!), generously, and tirelessly produce this collection.

Endless gratitude to all of the superb musicians on this album, who played and sang their hearts out and made these songs shine. Very special thanks to Emily Bindiger, Jim Gately, Nikki Gregoroff, Phil Klum, Robbie Kondor, Libby McLaren, Bill Mitchell, Matt Perri, and Catherine Russell, for invaluable guidance and support at critical stages of this process. Many thanks to Terre Roche for vital insights and accompaniment in the desolate early days of finding my way back to music.

To my Accidental-and-related pals, my musical family extraordinaire, I am deeply thankful for your voices and your support, on this project and in all our musical adventures.

To my friends and family, without you, I’d be lost and wandering. Particular thanks to Gary Wolf and Michael Wolf for the joy, the many hours, and the miraculous upgrades you have contributed to this project.

To Chris, deepest love and gratitude, always.

This album is dedicated to Margaret Dorn, Dennis Deal, and Patti Wyss.

SONGS

"THE SORROW TREE"

Hang the seven years gone missing
and the decade steeped in pain.
Hang the face that lost its meaning,
and the changes made in vain.
Leave them on the branches so everyone can see
the troubles you’ve abandoned on the sorrow tree.

In the story of that tree, each person fills a branch
with all the misery they’d like to trade away,
but once they weigh the heaviness of other people’s woes
they all take back their own, take back their own.

Hang the promises left stranded
and the lies born out of shame.
Hang the streets where danger landed
so no one was left the same.
Leave them on the branches so everyone can see
the troubles you’ve abandoned on the sorrow tree.

In the story of that tree, each person fills a branch
with all the misery they’d like to trade away,
but once they weigh the heaviness of other people’s woes
they all take back their own, they take back their own.

There were seven years gone missing
there was a decade steeped in pain,
there were faces without meaning,
there were changes made in vain.
Hang them on the branches, then walk around that tree
where we all hang our troubles, on the sorrow tree;
so many troubles hanging on the sorrow tree.

MARCIA PELLETIERE: LEAD VOCAL
EMILY BINDIGER: BACKGROUND VOCALS, SHAKER
JIM GATELY: GUITARS, BASS, DRUM PROGRAMMING
DILLON KONDOR: MANDOLIN
EMILY BINDIGER: VOCAL ARRANGEMENT
DILLON KONDOR: MANDOLIN ARRANGEMENT
JIM GATELY: GUITAR ARRANGEMENT
Words and music by Marcia Pelletiere
© 2021 Saf’lini Music (BMI)

"BEWARE OF LOVE"

It’ll mastermind you, compromise you,
dice and slice and sacrifice you.
Well you know it can outrun you, yes it can.

Beware, beware of love, beware of love.

There’s a man down on the corner, there’s a woman walking by.
A fire burns between them, sparks begin to fly.
It’s a highway into heaven, it’s a freeway into hell,
it’ll pull you past your limits, it’ll ring you like a bell.

Beware, beware of love, beware.

Grey cat howls across the train tracks, the Wolf moon rises slow.
Out of nowhere love appears, how it comes we’ll never know.
Like a bridge across an ocean, like a ladder to the sky,
love is movin’ in and no one can tell you why.

Beware, beware of love, beware.

It’ll wrap its arms around you, it’ll shake you to your core.
It comes when you’re not looking, and it leaves you wanting more.
It’s a road map into trouble, it’s an unrelenting spell,
but there’s a greater danger when you shield your heart too well.

It’ll mastermind you, compromise you,
dice and slice and sacrifice you.
It’ll easily outrun you, yes it can.
It’ll sleepless night you, spite and bite
you fool and fight or flight you,
it’ll freeze and then ignite you, ‘cause it can.

So once you surrender your heart to that blender you better take care.

Beware, beware of love, beware.

(It’ll tantalize you, agonize you, revise, resize, and burglarize you.
Beware of love, take care of love).

Beware of love. Out of nowhere love appears.

MARCIA PELLETIERE: LEAD VOCAL
JAIME BABBITT, EMILY BINDIGER, SHERRYL MARSHALL: BACKGROUND VOCAL PARTY
CLINT DE GANON: DRUMS
ROBBIE KONDOR: WURLITZER, HAMMOND ORGAN, HARMONICA
LARRY SALTZMAN: GUITARS
MIKE VISCEGLIA: BASS
EMILY BINDIGER: VOCAL AND INSTRUMENTAL ARRANGEMENTS
Words and music by Marcia Pelletiere and Emily Bindiger © 2021 Saf’lini Music (BMI) / Blue Eyes Music (BMI)

"FEEL YOU"

I can feel you getting tipsy
walking all around the chasm.
Whoa! The edge is waiting for you.
If you don’t watch out you’ll fall in.

I can feel you tumbling down the
steps one two three four and five.
Lots of people fell before you.
We can point you to the ladder.

I can feel you, we can feel you.

Don’t you think you might consider
staying up here where it’s nice?
All the flailing never saved you,
only drove you deeper down.

MARCIA PELLETIERE: ALL VOCALS, “DRUNKEN” GUITAR, VOCAL ARRANGEMENT
EMILY BINDIGER: TRIANGLE, CLIP CLOPS, KETTLE DRUM
ROBBIE KONDOR: ACCORDION, BASSOON, BASS CLARINET, CHIMES, GLOCKENSPIEL
EMILY BINDIGER AND ROBBIE KONDOR: INSTRUMENTAL ARRANGEMENT
Words and Music by Marcia Pelletiere
© 2021 Saf’lini Music (BMI)

"MESSAGES"

In golden-orange turmeric, in pollen trembling on a stick,
in silent curves of silver rings, on broken ends of cello strings.
This is where the messages in April sit and wait,
this is where they wait, on a wall, or in a crease, messages.

In crumpled piles of sweaty socks, in spark plugs in an old blue box,
on feathers of a shiny crow, on faded petals fallen far below.
This is where the messages in April sit and wait; this is where they wait,
in horsehair strands, in garden weeds, messages, messages.

Whenever you’re near they are hiding in unusual places waiting to appear.
Wherever you go, they are waiting in the smallest of spaces, waiting to be known.

In bottles filled with shimmering inks, in blades on ice in skating rinks,
in stitches on a quilted edge, on green finch nests inside a hedge.
This is where the messages in April sit and wait; this is where they wait,
on undersides of glossy leaves, on a wall or in a crease, messages, messages.

MARCIA PELLETIERE: LEAD VOCAL
EMILY BINDIGER: BACKGROUND VOCALS
ROBBIE KONDOR: PIANO and PIANO ARRANGEMENT
Words by Marcia Pelletiere and Judy French. Music by Marcia Pelletiere and Libby McLaren
© 2021 Saf’lini Music (BMI) / LibbyMac Music (ASCAP)

"EVEN WITHOUT US"

Without the ships, the tide still travels in.
Without our care, the fruit's still ripening.
Without our hands, the glaciers carve the rocks.
Without a clock, the sun still rises and makes its way back down.

Even without us, even without us, there will be mountains streams and seas.
Even without us, even without us, voices will whisper on the breeze.

Without our breath, a storm rolls through the hills.
Without our aid, a bird protects its nest.
Without our watch, the whale still swims the deep.
Without our help, the rain keeps falling and turns bare fields to green.

Even without us, even without us, there will be mountain streams and seas.
Even without us, even without us, voices will whisper on the breeze.

After we've gone, there will be time.
After we've gone, there will be time; there will be time.

Even without us, even without us, there will be time, and time enough.

MARCIA PELLETIERE and MATT PERRI: DUET VOCALS
MATT PERRI: PIANO and PIANO ARRANGEMENT
Words and music by Marcia Pelletiere and Matt Perri
© 2021 Saf’lini Music (BMI) / Ikapu Music (BMI)

"HALF THE NIGHT"

Lay awake half the night,
wondering where you’ve gone.
Are you in some far-off city
watching the lights blink on?
All the roads that we walked
have now been spent.
Will there ever be a way to find out
where those places went?

Can you remember all the times
that no one else can tell?
How we tried to ride the storms
that battered our clear skies,
how we tried to drink a river dry?

Oh to hear your voice again
and know that you’re not gone,
and to find that something of you still lives on.
How you showed me where
to find the key to my heart’s opening.

Lay awake half the night,
wondering where you’ve gone.
I am in some far-off city
watching the lights blink on.
All the roads that we walked
have now been spent.
Will there ever be a way
to find out where those places went?

I still remember all the times
that no one else can tell.
How we tried to ride the storms
that battered our clear skies,
how we tried to drink a river dry.

How you showed me where
to find the key to my heart’s opening.
And we walked, and we walked, and we walked.
Oh to hear your voice again, oh to see your face again.

MARCIA PELLETIERE: LEAD VOCAL
EMILY BINDIGER: BACKGROUND VOCALS, VIOLA, SLEIGH BELLS, GLOCKENSPIEL
DILLON KONDOR: GUITARS
ROBBIE KONDOR: ACCORDION, BASS, GLOCKENSPIEL
EMILY BINDIGER, ROBBIE KONDOR, DILLON KONDOR: ARRANGEMENT
Words and music by Marcia Pelletiere
© 2021 Saf’lini Music (BMI)

"THOUGHT SHE KNEW"

That is where Christina thought her plans would lead her to,
it’s what she thought she knew.
Christina thought that her plans would do,
Christina thought her plans would lead her.

But the future is a ship that rides inside a fog.
We cannot see until it lifts.

It’s what Christina thought she knew, it’s what she thought she knew,
it’s where she thought her plans would lead her.
It’s what we do, it’s what we do. It’s what we thought we knew.
It’s where we thought our plans would lead to.

But the future is a ship that rides inside a fog.
We cannot see until it lifts.

What we cannot know for sure, we will someday see.
What we have is all we know, all we have are plans,
all her plans would do. All her plans she thought she knew,
It’s where we thought our plans would lead to.

MARCIA PELLETIERE: LEAD VOCAL AND VOCAL ARRANGEMENT
EMILY BINDIGER: SOLO VOCAL, FINGERSNAPS AND “THUDDY BOOM”
NIKKI GREGOROFF: SOLO VOCAL
LIBBY MCLAREN, DIANE MICHAEL, MARCIA PELLETIERE: GROUP VOCALS
ROBIN DANIELS: PERCUSSION AND PERCUSSION ARRANGEMENT
Words and music by Marcia Pelletiere
© 2021 Saf’lini Music (BMI)

"GOING OUT"

After a long time
indoors, I went out.
Remembered the bee,
remembered the jay, the oak,
the many lettuces, the toad,
the charcoal scented wind,
the gas pump, fencepost,
brick walk, rainspout,
after a long time.

Also the sidewalk worm
after a storm, after a storm,
the busted shopping cart,
sticky matter on a bench,
the rotted awning leaning,
after a long time.

Turning to home,
I made my pact and spoke it out
so it might be received—
   Whatever I meet
   is what you’ve given me to see.

The plants with human names:
Rose of Sharon, Black-Eyed Susan,
Sweet William, bright flowers that open
without encouragement.

Turning to home,
I made my pact and spoke it out
so it might be received—
   Whatever I meet
   is what you’ve given me to see.

I didn’t worry who you might be,
I just chose to feel accompanied.

Whatever I meet
is what you’ve given me,
so I chose to feel accompanied,
after a long time.

MARCIA PELLETIERE: LEAD VOCAL
ROBBIE KONDOR: PIANO AND PIANO ARRANGEMENT, GUITAR
ADELE STEIN: CELLO
EMILY BINDIGER: CELLO ARRANGEMENT
Words by Marcia Pelletiere. Music by Marcia Pelletiere and Libby McLaren
Lyrics published in poem form in Marcia’s book Miracle With Roasted Hens
© 2021 Saf’lini Music (BMI) / LibbyMac Music (ASCAP)

"DREAM OF CHANGE"

You were a lighthouse in my dream
and your light shimmered on the waves,
then I became the waves until I turned into a breeze.

I turned into a wind
and met a stranger who turned into rain,
and he kept falling on and off, and on and off again.

This city became a steep ravine,
and all the walls turned into flags.
Then all the flags turned into geese,
and geese turned into trees.

Those trees turned into horses,
and those horses trotted off into the sun,
which turned into a field.

Those horses trotted off into a field of sun
and kept on roaming, till they were sure,
till they were sure
that they were free.

MARCIA PELLETIERE:  LEAD VOCAL
EMILY BINDIGER AND MARCIA PELLETIERE: BACKGROUND VOCALS
KEVIN DISIMONE: ALL INSTRUMENTS AND INSTRUMENTAL ARRANGEMENT
Words and music by Marcia Pelletiere
© 2021 Saf’lini Music (BMI)

"WHY DOES SUCH LOVE"

Six carolers, years ago, on the isolation ward
in full view of a patient’s open door.
And as we sang, that patient slowly sat up in his bed.
His partner, who was visiting, leaned in.

All of us were young, the singers and the invalids.
It had seemed, until that plague, that we’d have centuries ahead.

In that sudden flood of sound, they kissed,
and our carols became farewell hymns.

Their time had passed its summit, was collapsing into hours.
Why does such love come toward me now through them?

All of us were young, the singers and the invalids.
It had seemed, until that plague, that we’d have centuries ahead.

Their time had passed its summit, was collapsing into hours.
Why does such love come toward me now through them?

In that sudden flood of sound, they kissed.
Such love comes toward me now through them.

MARCIA PELLETIERE: LEAD VOCALS AND VOCAL ARRANGEMENT
‘SUCH LOVE’ CHOIR: EMILY BINDIGER, KEVIN DISIMONE, ELSA LARSSON, LIBBY MCLAREN, BILL MITCHELL, MARCIA PELLETIERE, MATT PERRI, CATHERINE RUSSELL, ROSIE VALLESE, JIM VINCENT
Words and music by Marcia Pelletiere
Lyrics based on Marcia's poem “Caroling at St. Vincent’s, 1986” published in A&U Magazine.
© 2021 Saf’lini Music (BMI)