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about
The Heron is about longing for home, a home that’s lost to time but lives on in your heart, in your DNA, in your stories.
This song wouldn’t exist without Jon Corneal, the originator of “country rock” who lives just down the road from me in Auburndale.
For a long time Jon was simply an older and very unmistakable gentleman(resplendent in turquoise, layers of bolo ties, boots and seminole tokens gifted to him by the local community) who would sit behind the drums, guitar in hand at the local coffee shop on Fridays where I’d run to get a little air between my own writing sessions.
When I came across an article in a local magazine called “Haven” & realized that the very first drummer to coin the term country rock was sitting behind the drums every week at Hillcrest coffee shop I was floored!
I’d always felt drawn to him & wanted to somehow learn from him.
We became friends and Jon agreed to play drums on two songs on OBC for me.
Like all originators of a genre, Jon does what he does like no one else. His drumming is so unique that I had to rewrite most of the other parts of the two songs he appears on to center around what he did.
He plays like a heartbeat, but an exotic, irregular one.
Writing Heron, I was thinking of him and the ghosts that live with me all the time. My heritage of song, sprung from the soil of lower Alabama and into old Florida.
For this track I reached out to Elizabeth Cook through a friend of mine. She didn’t owe me a damn thing, I’ve never met her. But, I asked her if she’d like to sing on this track with me. She said yes! I cannot think of a better, more appropriate, artist to feature on this song than Elizabeth and I’m humbled to have her.
Herons don’t owe anybody anything.
They’re the ageless, timeless high priests of earth and sky.
They fear nothing
On their gorgeous purpley gray blue wings, they soar across the skies
They’re as much a part of Florida as Jon Corneal, Elizabeth Cook, Tom Petty, myself and alligators. This song to me feels like flying across time and finding a landing; safe at home.
lyrics
The Heron
Verse one:
The soul of country rocknroll lives
Down the street from me
Do ya feel that swaying kick drum
Pulsing on the heat?
The mighty heron soars ‘cross
lines of gold & blue
Close your eyes
Let your hands keep time
To the sky kings wingin’ beat
Chorus:
Take me back
to the cold spring water
Flowers on the highway
An engineers daughter
alligators snap
And the kite bird sings
Fiddle on deck
steel banjo strings
we sang safe at home
On the Suwannee River
ragtime Ann
W/ an Alabama quiver
long hot days
with the bluegrass band
comin’ up young
In the Seminole's land
Verse 2:
those ghosts are always with me
I hope they never leave
that little White House in the oak trees
a band that don’t ever sleep
I filled my arms with highway phlox
My heart burst into song
Picked up my fiddle
Standin in the middle
I learned to play along
Chorus:
Take me back
to the cold spring water
Flowers on the highway
An engineers daughter
alligators snap
And the kite bird sings
Fiddle on deck
steel banjo strings
we sang safe at home
On the Suwannee River
ragtime Ann
W/ an Alabama quiver
long hot days
with the bluegrass band
comin’ up young
in the Seminole's land
Verse 3:
I’ve been up and down this highland scrub
for a couple decades now
trying to see what I’ve been missin’
fit my bones into the mission
So I rode along the A1A
looking for a hint to come my way
A billboard I could stand on
A rock these boots could dance on
Chorus:
Take me back
to the cold spring water
Flowers on the highway
An engineers daughter
alligators snap
And the kite bird sings
Fiddle on deck
steel banjo strings
we sang safe at home
On the Suwannee River
ragtime Ann
W/ an Alabama quiver
long hot days
with the bluegrass band
comin’ up young
In the Seminole's land
credits
released July 21, 2023
The Heron
Van Plating - acoustic guitars, fiddle, lead vocals
John Lum - drums
Will Payne Harrison - Bass
CJ Mask- electric guitars
Scott Halliday - Mandolin, pistachio shaker, tambourine, additional percussion
Adam “Ditch” Kurtz - pedal steel
Elizabeth Cook - Featured vocals
Produced by Van Plating
Mixed by Scott Halliday
Mastered by Kim Rosen
Critically acclaimed indie americana artist and multi-instrumentalist Van Plating has a rugged vulnerability uniquely hers ─ fermented in the orange groves and hot verdant summers of the sunshine state.
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