nobody sees her

A few years ago I had an opportunity to visit California, a land of extremes. I expected the wealth—that's the illusion we are fed in movies and TV—but I didn't expect all the poverty. When I returned, I wrote this song about a fictitious street person. Mary is not your clichZ� street person, however. She isn't physically and mentally derelict because she grew up with poverty, drugs, and severe abuse. Instead she suffers from the most insidious injury of all—neglect. No amount of privilege and wealth can protect from the silent horror of a cold, loveless childhood.

People are not genetically flawed with emotional dysfunction (which is the prevalent medi-scientific dogma), they are twisted into that shape by neglect and abuse. People like Mary are the uncomfortable symptoms of an illness that is rampant in many of us. They stand "like a statue for what we all hide." A lack of love and care creates this nightmare, and if there is any chance at all, love and care is the way to wake them—and us—up.

For this stark emotional landscape I used one voice and one acoustic guitar. Jesse's fretless bass creates a low rumble like distant thunder, and Drew's piano creates the wistful sadness of a beautiful life thrown away. The occasional melodic voicings of the fretless in its upper register—especially the sliding harmonics—urge us to feel what we do not want to see.

Sam Turton: vocal, acoustic rhythm guitar
Jesse Turton: fretless bass guitar
Drew McIvor: acoustic piano