Catch some Cherry Blossom by the river
Blowing through the flowing of my heart
If you see me somewhere down the river
Come and stand beside me its alright
Come to me
Stay with me
Say you’ll be a friend to me
Love oh everlasting love
Lives forever and a day
Catch some Cherry Blossom by the river
Blowing through the flowing of my heart
You can catch me somewhere down the river
Come and stand beside me its alright
Fall for me
Long for me
Say you’ll be a friend to me
Love oh an enchanted love
Lives forever and a day
Catch some Cherry Blossom by the river
Blowing through the flowing of my heart
Hope to see you somewhere down the river
Come and stand beside me its alright
Just an ol’ fashioned kiss
Makes me hot even in Winter
How can I resist
Oh how you tease me
A simple kiss upon my cheek
Makes my knees a little weaker
Your lips are like Spring
Morning dew on a red rose
Kiss me quick
Kiss me hard
Make it slow
Make it hard
Cheek to cheek
Palm to palm
Just as long as you keep me close
Caress me in the park
Smooch me up in the back seat
And those lingering hugs
You got me in Paradise
And I’m feeling love
So much love
Give me those lips
And don’t ever stop
Kiss me quick
Kiss me hard
Make it slow
Make it hard
Cheek to cheek
Palm to palm
Just as long as you keep me close
Bed prepared and candles glow
Flowers blooming by the door
Powdered scented skin for baby
Come Come Come to me
Ooo lets press some lips to ears
Words for only you to hear
Have no fear my precious baby
Come come come to me
Come come come to me
Come come come to me
Precious baby Im your need
Come come come to me
Ahhhhhhhh
Trust in me my precious baby
Come come come to me
Ahhhhhhh
Eversaking Im your need
Come come come to me
Suddenly Im woken by
A vision of your blue eyes
So lovely
Suddenly you’re back with me
Over hills and valleys deep
You find me
Oh the nights seem long
And the days carry on
In spite of how I long for you
And the stars up above are invited to fall
Into these arms of mine
Suddenly I fear the worst
Have we been doomed to die
Suddenly have I been cursed
To live alone this lie
I am waiting all on my own
Im waiting for you to come home
Im waiting, waiting for you
Still the nights seem long
And the days carry on
In spite of how I long for you
And the stars up above are invited to fall
Into these arms of mine
Suddenly I hear your voice
It sounds just like a lullaby
Suddenly I see your smile
For a while, for a while
Could it be
Can it be
You embrace me
Hand in hand
Innocently
You have my heart
And my word
implicitly
If only we could be
One heart
One love
One soul
I can sense
You are torn
Evidently
You love me
And another
This I know
Its strange how love found me
But life has many changes
So maybe one day we’ll make it to be
One heart
One love
One soul
You brought roses and wine
Then ran out of time
Where you going to
Said you'd be back at nine
A comfort to my mind
Am I a fool
Do you really care
My lover my friend
Then stay with me till the bitter end
Or is this out last goodbye
No more roses and wine with you
Doom da Dooms
Have you made your bed
Sweet lover dear friend
Confusing me
With your uncertain head
Or is this our last goodbye
No more roses and wine with you
And where you gonna lead me
I'm lost can you find me
You promised you would save me
So why am I sad and lonely
Believe me this aint easy
This tired game of teasing
So please release me
I'm begging you to stop
You return just after nine
With more roses and wine
And some candy too
Go give them to your wife
Keep her satisfied
Cause she loves you
And you love her
And you love me
And I love you
We agreed to end this love affair
To erase ever word that you said
That set me free
We agreed to part in harmony
But I think I may live to regret being cooperative
Though I can’t see no moon
Darkness at noon
And will the sun shine soon
Darkness at noon
I gave you my loving and I rose like the rising sun
Now I feel nothing
For without you there is no love
Oh my heart shines bright for you
Through Darkness at noon
We agreed that its just no use in loving me
We agreed to never meet again
We agreed a life of misery, misery, misery
I gave you my loving and I rose like the rising sun
Now I feel nothing
For without you there is no love
Oh my heart shines bright for you
Through Darkness at noon
If we never ever meet again
I’ll remember kissing you
Will you remember kisses too
And if we never ever meet again
Then the memory of love will see us through
When you left my heart was drowned in tears
So much I cried
But the a little voice spoke to my heart
And told me I would be just fine
For if we never ever meet again
I’ll remember kissing you
Will you remember kisses too
And if we never ever meet again
Then I’ll remember
Will you remember
Oh I’ll remember loving you
Someone left me all alone
I am far away from home
Scared to be wild and free
I could be an Eskimo
Sleeping cold out in the snow
Even they find a nose to kiss
Have no care ‘bout the clothes you wear
If your feet are bare just keep on dancing
I found my way to the river bay
In the silence of the night
It came to me
That no matter how tough this life
I’ll face it
Every little thing is all right
Yes all the will be, will be
Cause the tide it flows
Like life keeps changing
Every little thing is all right with me
Cause we all go to the river
We all go down to the river
Have no care ‘bout the way you swing
Or the way you sway
Just keep on dancing
I found my way to the river bay
In the silence of the night
It came to me
That no matter how tough this life
I’ll face it
Every little thing is all right
Yes all the will be, will be
Cause the tide it flows
Like life keeps changing
Every little thing is all right with me
Cause we all go to the river
We all go down to the river
Cause we all go to the river
We all go down to the river
When you're lost and feeling lonely
Take a breath to ease out the day
For every seeds got to fall
To give life to the soil
It's a circle that's never the same
Dream of golden riches
Don't quit when rocks graze your hands
For seeds will grow
Come sun rain or snow
It's a circle that's never the same
So just face it
Take a stand
Hold you future
In your hands
For in springtime
You'll be laughing
As you run through fields of gold
To Graceland
So lets start believing in dreaming
Hear what the hearts got to say
For it will guide you through the dark
And relieve all your fears
So close your eyes
Hold on tight
Cause you're in for a ride
On the circle that's never the same
Recorded by Jonathan Tams at Owl Studios, London
& Stephen Sedgwick at Studio 13, London
Mixed by Stephen Sedgwick at Studio 13, London
Mastered by Huntsmen Music at The Premises, London
ALA.NI - Lead vocals, backing vocals, steel pan, percussion, hohner guitaret
Rob Updegraff - Guitar, bass guitar
Joao Caetano - Percussion
Maria Christina Harper - harp
James Welland - Piano
Graeme Flowers - Flugel Horn
Written And Produced By ALA.NI
(P) 2016 Ala.Ni (C) 2016 Nø Førmat!
Published By Downtown Music Publishing
Under License A+Lso, A Division Of Sony Music Entertainment
True artists are lonely people. And the most precious and rarest ones of all are even more lonely than the others. They shine like diamonds in the dark. Or, like stars in the sky, generously spread their light over an ungrateful world that takes their great humanity and talent for granted. These genuine artists deserve the best and the purest of treatment and surrounding. They don’t need overstated strings arrangements to glow, just as they dont need a full box of colours to paint. A single shade will do : blue. And a single flower : a rose, the prettiest. Natural elegance and sophistication are all they require.
ALA.NI is one such performer. Once you see her on stage, you can only fall instantly in love. She doesn’t use the weapons others singers do to conquer her audience. Neither power nor force, although she’s brave enough to stand, alone, courageously exposing herself in all her difference and uniqueness. Nor even seduction, even if her figure and her fascinating long arms, stretched out, add a most delicate charm to her vivid love songs. At times, she closes her eyes. She can, as the sincereness in her voice says it all. The kind of voice that appears only once in a blue moon. Silky, warm, melancholic, modulated, powerful. The voice of a perfectly trained soprano, beautifully altered by the smoky touch of a jazz diva. Yes, the kind of voice that imposes silence and maybe shines a light on each member of the audience’s most secret thoughts and feelings, drawing discreet tears from their eyes. But above all, a voice that projects a thrill, most often one of absolute joy.
In another life, this Londoner, born from Grenadian parents, was a child performer. From the age of five, she learned how to dance, sing and act at the Sylvia Young Theatre School, just like Amy Winehouse did. Both her parents, her father, a professional bass player in reggae-calypso bands, and her mother, a couture seamstress, were naturally supportive of her dancing and singing skills after witnessing her love at first sight for music, when she performed « Over the rainbow » in a church during ballet lessons at the age of three. By the age of seven, she could be away from home for months on end, working on commercials, musicals, pop videos or Jim Henson broadcasts. Discipline became part of her life, at the same time as learning to express her deepest emotions, including… cruelty.
« A child performer’s psychology is very peculiar, as one has seen with Michael Jackson or Britney Spears. Because not only are you programmed to show off, you’re also taught how to deal to rejection that comes with auctions and castings. Children can be very cruel to each other. And some of them who worked a lot when they’re small and cute lose work when puberty kicks in. It’s almost as savage as a battle. I was lucky, as an only child who remained a silent observer, I was accepted by different groups. »
Like after any fight, you need to recover. Emerging from such an unusual childhood, ALA.NI had no choice than to live her life, this time for real. By singing backing vocals for Damon Albarn (Blur) or Mary J. Blige. By studying film editing, working for a while in brand marketing and presenting her first collection at The 2011 London Fashion Week. By falling, several times, in and out of love. Most of all, by taking her time. To question her art and let her inspiration grow.
For her, revelation came, like in classic tragedy, in three acts. First, she met a friendly ghost in the guise of Leslie Hutchinson, nicknamed « Hutch », her great uncle, who happened to be one of the most famous cabaret stars during the 1920’s and 30’s, as well as Cole Porter’s lover. ALA.NI was present, in 2012, on the day British officials put up a commemorative plaque outside his former London home. « When I realized what he’d achieved back in the 30’s - he was the only black man more or less accepted in high society -, I felt determined to learn more about his story in order to build from it. »
Next, about two months later, she composed her first song, Cherry Blossom, in Grenada, where her grandparents live. The rest of the songs from her album, wrote and produced by herself, whilst hiding away in an artist studio in Shepherd’s Bush or at the Boronali Hotel in Paris, came naturally in it’s stride. Finally, she figured out that simplicity, as opposed to overdoing everything like she was trained to do in her childhood, was the only way to be true to herself. Truth appears, just like a photograph dipped into a developer bath, when you rid yourself from all the tricksand gimmicks you’ve learned. Then, only the heart and the soul remain. That’s why ALA.NI’s stunning songs touch us deeper than most others. Timeless, concise, arranged and orchestrated with infinite delicacy, they reinvent feelings of love, heartbreak, a first kiss or sorrow, like we were encountering them for the first time. With the grace of musical haïkus, a touch of innocence and naivety, they are the perfect setting for her mesmerizing vocal performances. Like in the best of Broadway musicals, they possess the magical power to sublimate reality. The rest, as they say, will soon be history.
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