We’ve updated our Terms of Use to reflect our new entity name and address. You can review the changes here.
We’ve updated our Terms of Use. You can review the changes here.

It's Hard to Know

by Ivy Ross

supported by
shay
shay thumbnail
shay I produce a Story Telling series called Nevertheless, We Persist - Stories by Women. This should be our theme song..... Favorite track: Girls Sit Screaming.
stanioch
stanioch thumbnail
dczumas
dczumas thumbnail
/
1.
Density Change 03:31
info
buy track
2.
As the Days Rolled Back 03:50
info
buy track
3.
It's Hard to Know 04:06
info
buy track
4.
Girls Sit Screaming 03:36
lyrics
buy track
For More Information on the Girls Sit Screaming Movement, please visit www.ivyarts.org looks so easy for the boys to make noise while the girls sit screaming in their seats silently scared to eat why should she feel afraid to take up space take up space and why have we created a place where the girls don't know their own grace? must be nice to think the world is yours Walk right through the open doors and get paid at least what you are worth then run around without a shirt why isn't she getting paid for the work that she made? and why is a mother feeding her babe any cause for her to feel shame? raise your voices in the streets in your home in your own mind re-write the stories that they'll read in libraries in futurekind we were strong in so many ways moments of endless days we were not willing to pay for the debt our fathers made
5.
In The Storm 03:35
info
buy track
6.
Ode to Viktor Frankl 03:37
info
buy track
7.
She Died Laughing 02:32
info
buy track
8.
Mujeres Peligrosas 03:25
info
buy track
9.
Summer Lament 03:34
lyrics
buy track
One foot in front of the other That’s right you can follow, follow your feet One foot in front of the other You know you are where you, where you’re meant to be I have tried to be quiet Oh and play the game nicely But I can not deny it All God’s children STILL ain’t free Now people are dyin Killin each other And we all are cryin For the skeleton key One foot in front of the other That’s right you can follow, follow your feet One foot in front of the other You know you are where you, where you’re meant to be There is no use in silence in the presence of violence We must protect the weary From the elite Prayin for guidance A heart of forgiveness Trouble soon be over For you and for me One foot in front of the other That’s right you can follow, follow your feet One foot in front of the other Until we all march on march on to victory with references to songs by: Johnny Cash; Blind Willie Johnson; and James Weldon Johnson.
10.
Mouthful of Apples 03:43
info
buy track
11.
Oh My Grace 03:07
lyrics
buy track
G “Oh my Grace, I close my eyes C You Bring me home”, I am revived G D Wide awake as your face C G Melts my heartache away Oh my Grace I have flown A cloud in the sky into my own How you’ve grown Let my tears wash your heartache away C A “The part of me that pained the most D also got me out of bed C A without your hope D there would be nothing left” Oh my Grace a cloud can become rain, snow or ice any which one-but not nothing. No, it must turn into something new. Oh my Grace I am not gone I have just changed to a different form I’m the rain let me freefall your heartache away.

about

"'It's Hard to Know' is a smooth ride; full of country style and poetic altruism. Ivy's many years as a songwriter are on display throughout this latest album. The more I listen to 'It's Hard to Know' the more it penetrates as a significant contribution to this time in my life."
~Dylan Provost

"Each song makes you smile for a different reason" ~Alisa Starr


Ivy Ross and Lucky Brown carried their hats and h.o.m.e. (harmony of mind everywhere) around the country with them for five years, the grateful recipients of one residency after another from Washington to Hawaii to Maine to Santa Fe, New Mexico. Then a phenomenon in San Marcos, Texas stopped them in their tracks.

Throughout their time on the road, the one thing that never faltered was their prolific creation of new music. Too often, due to listeners' shortening attention spans and understandable stigmas against the 'singer-songwriter', the songs rarely seemed to be HEARD.

In the hill country of Texas however, songs and the mysterious craft of songwriting seemed to bubble up from the ground. In San Marcos, while taking care of a yoga studio, garden, and 3 extraordinarily relational cats, Ivy & Lucky lived around the corner from a creaky old former cotton gin along the railroad tracks called Cheatham Street Warehouse.  

Every Wednesday evening, they would stroll across the train tracks, over the river, and into the resonant wooden sanctuary often referred to as songwriter's church.

Cheatham Street left an indelible imprint on Ivy's heart of a strong culture among songwriters that revered sharing original songs as a way of creating community and inciting social change. After decades of touring and performing, Ivy finally found herself in a field that she had been dreaming ever since she read about the songs of social change of the '60s when she was a teenager.

In Texas, co-writing songs with other songwriters was encouraged as a way of expanding one's songwriting vocabulary and breaking out of personal and potentially limiting tendencies. For Ivy, the experience of co-writing added another dimension to an intrinsic element of writing powerful songs and poems that entails approaching something familiar and seeing it in a whole new way. Indeed, the seeds of creativity, craft, and collaboration that the venue's founder Kent Finlay had sown in 1974 delivered a renewed sense of the dignity of this medium for Ivy.

Being inside the wooden walls of Cheatham Street felt like being inside of a guitar, and when someone was playing a song, you'd best be quiet - even if you didn't like it. You listen like there's something to learn, because there is.

As a way of honoring the songs that she had been accumulating during the trail of residencies, Ivy began to dream about whose musical voices she would like to hear on her newest work if she could work with anyone at all, near or far.

She invited the following musical inspirations from various eras of her life all over the country:

her childhood friend and band-mate Matt Barrick (The Walkmen);
her spouse Joel Ricci (Lucky Brown);
former bandmate and forever wonder sister Shana Falana in New York;
International Humanitarian Aid Worker Kayla Mueller;
Anna Shelton (Baptist Arms);
Mae Starr (Rollrball);
childhood buddy Nick Stumpf in Los Angeles (The French Kicks);
Dan Lowinger in Portland(Audios Amigos)
Doug Krebs in Colorado;
Ellen O'Meara in Austin;
Dan Kubick in Vermont;
Adam Selzer;
Nate Lumbard;
& Lily Kreutzer.

One by one, they said YES.

This album is full of honest, friendly, and vulnerable tales of transformation.

It is dedicated to the healing of hearts, the freeing of minds, and the benefit of all beings

credits

released September 22, 2017

Tracks 1-8 recorded by Adam Selzer at Type Foundry Studio, Portland, OR.
Drums for tracks 1-8 recorded by Matt Barrick at Dr. Preuss Studios, Los Angeles, CA.
Horns for tracks 7 & 8 recorded by Jason Gray at Blue Mallard Studio, Seattle, WA.
Tracks 9 & 10 recorded by Ben Scaggs & mixed by Austin Sisler at Fire Station Studios, San Marcos, TX.
Track 11 recorded by me at San Marcos School of Yoga under many watchful eyes.
All tracks mastered by none other than Doug Krebs.

license

all rights reserved

tags

about

Ivy Ross image

Ivy Ross

Songwriting has been a refuge for me since I was knee high to a grasshopper. I have had the great fortune of collaborating with marvelous musicians around the planet, and I have also spent many a long period of solitude courting the muse in her many forms. May the fruit from the tree I have watered with time be tasty and nourishing for you, and may your creativity bloom luminous, healthy and free. ... more

contact / help

Contact Ivy Ross

Streaming and
Download help

Redeem code

Report this album or account

If you like Ivy Ross, you may also like:

Bandcamp Daily  your guide to the world of Bandcamp

On Bandcamp Radio

Featuring Riley Pinkerton (aka The Rat Queen) from the theatrical NYC rockers, Castle Rat.
listen now