music

Skyline

The Starlight Darlins

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With their first official studio EP, Skyline, queer Appalachian folk quartet The Starlight Darlins have introduced themselves as a band that isn’t afraid to dive deep. In shimmering four-part harmony, songwriters Gray Read more

1

Dear Northland 4:37

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2

In Waves 3:24

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3

Watch the Water Rise 3:06

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4

Wide-Open 5:42

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5

Skyline 2:58

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lyrics

Dear Northland

by Sage Christie

dear northland, pretty northland,
can I get to know you better?
are you blue like me, and could we be
a little less alone together?
the strange, slumbering towns
along your highways gleam with danger
and the call of your winding road’s in my heart
saying, don’t be a stranger

well, I parked beside the cafe sign
and I let the wind blow through
me feeling, for a moment, like a prayer flag
with a faded hope for kinship written into me
I went in and sat at the counter
and a woman brought some coffee
there were roses on the porcelain saucer
it was once her mother’s own, that’s what she told me

dear northland, pretty northland,
can I get to know you better?
are you blue like me, and could we be
a little less alone together?
the strange, slumbering towns
along your highways gleam with danger
and the call of your winding road’s in my heart
saying, don’t be a stranger

on the porch behind a bar,
I heard a group of young men talking
pouring alcohol across their burning sorrows
just as television screens have always taught them
and a stranger saw me listening
and he told me they'd been miners
'til the antimony mine closed down
and became a picture-taking point for hikers

dear northland, pretty northland,
can I get to know you better?
are you blue like me, and could we be
a little less alone together?
the strange, slumbering towns
along your highways gleam with danger
and the call of your winding road’s in my heart
saying, don’t be a stranger

I was leaning against the hood of my car
and the sun was sinking slowly
I was breathing in the smell of alder smoke
and in all my life I’d never felt so lonely
but as the sound of country wafted on the wind
somebody was singing
and confessing that he wanted more folks over
been so quiet here since mama went to heaven

dear northland, pretty northland,
can I get to know you better?
are you blue like me, and could we be
a little less alone together?
the strange, slumbering towns
along your highways gleam with danger
and the call of your winding road’s in my heart
saying, don’t be a stranger

“Dear Northland” was inspired by two things: a song prompt in Matt Meighan’s songwriting class, and the loneliness of quarantine. The prompt was to write a song using three randomly assigned words. Mine were “porcelain,” “antimony,” and “hood.” I had no clue what to do, so I went for a drive into the countryside, where I found solace in watching other humans just existing. Then I went home and wrote the song using all three words. Hearing it sung by my fellow Darlins has transformed it for me.

In Waves

by Gray Buchanan

i guess this is a new beginning
what a hell of a place to start
this time i swear that i’ll remember my mistakes
and try my best not to fall apart

but then i’ll clear out all my jars and i’ll burn up forty dollars
gotta leave my mind in better shape than when i found her
oh god this isn’t happening, i wanna take this feeling away

somewhere out there i will wander
walking lonesome on that trail
nowhere to go, no one to follow
no one to help, no one to fail

all of this, it comes and goes in waves
all my sins will follow to my grave

it’d be easier to forget
than to learn from what i’ve done
but if i do that i’ll never
get to be what i’ll become

so i’ll clear out all my jars and i’ll burn up forty dollars
gotta leave my mind in better shape than when i found her
oh god this isn’t happening, i wanna take this feeling away

all of this, it comes and goes in waves
all my sins will follow to my grave
all of this, it comes and goes in waves
all my sins will follow to my grave
all of this, it comes and goes in waves
all my sins will follow to my grave

This song took three years to write, tear apart, rewrite, tear apart again, and finally reconstruct into its final state. It could only be truly completed through the personal growth that “In Waves” spells out as necessary—we must learn to accept that the past is in the past in order to take control of our futures.

Watch the Water Rise

by Emily Johnson-Erday

Something’s coming, would you look at the sky
Getting darker and darker as those clouds roll by
You heard the warnings, you saw the signs,
Your people were shouting, and you called it lies

How long
You gonna sit on the porch and watch the water rise?
Watch it carry us away?
How long
You gonna sit on the porch and watch your people die?
Watch it carry us away?

The Swannanoa rose and swallowed up the ground
Left the young ones to shelter what was left of their town
That old French Broad took Asheville in her banks
Homes and roads and souls, only wreckage in her wake

How long
You gonna sit on the porch and watch the water rise?
Watch it carry us away?
How long
You gonna sit on the porch and watch your people die?
Watch it carry us away?

Where you gonna go
There’s nowhere left for running
And everybody knows
Another storm is coming

Another storm is coming, another storm is coming
Another storm is coming, another storm is coming
Watch the water rise —

How long
You gonna sit on the porch and watch the water rise?
Watch it carry us away?
How long
You gonna sit on the porch and watch your people die?
Watch it carry us away?

The day before Hurricane Helene decimated Appalachia in late September 2024, I was on the phone with my mom, telling her I missed North Carolina, missed my family and my music community, and wanted to be there more often. The next day, I couldn’t reach her, or my brother in Asheville, or Sage in Weaverville. I sat alone in my Brooklyn bedroom most of the night watching water pull apart buildings on the news, til I turned it off and made myself write.

One lesson I took from our songwriting class with John McCutcheon is to strive for your songs to be useful. What are they doing? Mulling this over, I started second guessing the direction I was going. Does the world even need my anger right now? I reached out to John, who texted me, “Sometimes anger is a disguise. Strip it back and see what else is there.” I sat with that until fear and a sense of betrayal emerged, followed by a whole heap of guilt. We were told our region was a haven! But knowing that my home being a haven means nothing when any other place isn’t – that brought me back to anger.

We’ve known about climate change for decades. Why have our systems let us down like this? Why were we told our home was a climate haven if it wasn’t true, and why did we accept that we’d need one at all?

Wide-Open

by Lauren Oxford

your life is covered up with blankets
in the backseat of your car
just enough to travel easy:
some clothes and your guitar
left behind your loves, your house, your friends
the world you’d built so far
does the light of where you’re going
cast a shadow where you are?

you’ve got wide-open eyes
to hope, to seek, to find
wide-open hands
cradling all your plans
a wide-open mind
always asking why
a wide-open heart
the well that feeds your art

soon you’ll be smiling at the colors
that paint the masterpiece of fall
and in the winter, you’ll be happy
when the trees stand bare and tall
‘cause when you get to where you’re going
you will be answering the call
of the music that always felt like home
and the place that holds you in its thrall

with its wide-open eyes
to hope, to seek, to find
wide-open hands
cradling all your plans
wide-open minds
never asking why
wide-open heart
the well that feeds your art

your life is snuggling under blankets
in the backseat of a car
with too much stuff to travel easy:
banjo, fiddle, drum, guitar
‘cause the light of where you’re going now
is joined by three more shining stars
and every mile is a promise:
wherever you go, here we are

with our wide-open eyes
to hope, to seek, to find
wide-open hands
cradling all our plans
wide-open minds answering your whys
wide-open hearts
the headlights in the dark

This song was the result of our final assignment for John McCutcheon’s masterclass songwriting camp in 2023: everybody put their name in a hat, drew, and then had to write a song for that person. There were ten of us total, and I was hoping to get anyone but a Darlin! For me at least, writing for someone you know intimately is somehow harder than writing for someone you just met. Of course, I drew Sage’s name—the person I knew best out of everyone—but I am SO GLAD that’s what ended up happening.

During the two weeks we had after camp to write our songs, Sage started their move from the Pacific Northwest all the way to their new home in Appalachia. “Wide-Open” is many things—an exploration of the excitement & trepidation of moving, a love letter to a dear friend & the region they chose to make their home, and a promise that our friendship and love for each other will always be there, no matter what. It’s also the first song I wrote FOR the Darlins, and it wasn’t truly finished until the four of us sat down and worked out the harmonies and instrumental bits together.

Skyline

by Emily Johnson-Erday

There are bright days ahead my love
Keep your eyes on the skyline
There are bright days ahead my love
For the weather’s bound to turn in time
For the weather’s bound to turn

There are clear skies ahead my love
Keep your eyes on the skyline
There are clear skies ahead my love
For the weather’s bound to turn in time
For the weather’s bound to turn

There are still nights ahead my love
Keep your eyes on the skyline
There are still nights ahead my love
For the weather’s bound to turn in time
For the weather’s bound to turn

There are bright days ahead my love
Keep your eyes on the skyline
There are bright days ahead my love
For the weather’s bound to turn in time
For the weather’s bound to turn