[Milliways]: Album

[golden_lyre]

The design of the album is very simple, all in black and white. On the cover is a drawing of a man playing guitar. There is no title on it.

Track number	Title	Description
1	Noble and Lovely	guitar; instrumental; a very simple beginning, entirely acoustic, a bright, warm piece, refreshing, comforting, and reverent. There’s a countermelody of excitement and a hint of danger, but the overwhelming impression is that of comfort and home, as well as love that is unequal but not unrequited.
2	Liquid Plains	guitar, fiddle, concertina, flute; an accompanied sea shanty, lively and unpredictable like the sea, one moment calm and soothing, the next rough and tempestuous. The lyrics speak to life on a ship, months away from land from home from family, and to the adventure the sea brings, the first true danger of youth.
3	Bacchanalia	guitar, pan pipes, lyre, bouzouki, kanonaki, toumbeliki; instrumental; a wild confusion of instruments, dizzying in its inconsistency yet beautifully melodic. It brings to mind a circle of dancers, twirling and cavorting in an ancient grove, spilling out their praise to the gods of their land and their people
4	Heart & Soul	guitar, dulcimer; a simple retelling of the myth of Cupid and Psyche, its beauty is in its clean, easy melody.  The story itself is reduced to its simplest parts: love, betrayal, forgiveness. Like all of Orpheus’ love stories, there is a thread of melancholy that is not alleviated by the happy ending.
5	Either Praise or Defiance	guitar, violin; instrumental; It begins softly and sweetly, a light, easy tune, like falling in love for the first time. And then it all comes crashing down, a cacophony of squealing strings and harsh chords tearing through the melody, ripping it apart. What’s left in the wake is a broken, hobbling thing, fading out into silence and leaving a sharp pain of loss.
6	Savitra	guitar, jal tarang, pulluvan pattu, bansuri; a stilted, halting melody, it sounds as if it’s still recovering from the previous song. It tells the story of a woman who marries her lover knowing he will die within a year. When he does, she follows the god of the dead so far that he begins to grant her wishes, anything but her husband’s life. Eventually she asks to bear many children and for them to be the children of her love. The god grants her wish, giving her back her husband. Despite the happy ending, there is a thread of bitterness and anger and envy throughout the song.
7	Talapas	guitar, Native American flute, Native American drums; instrumental; It begins with a low droning flute that sounds like…nothing at all. Absence. Void. Gradually it grows, building into something tentatively beautiful, vast like the plains and grand like the mountains, full of life and harmony, a creation story in music. There is still a faint thread of melancholy, but it is clearly the rebuilding of a life.
8	Bright Goddess	guitar, bombarde, hurdy-gurdy; instrumental; building off the previous track, it starts from a world newly filled with life and settles from that wild chaos of beginning into a steady, warm melody, fields and vineyards and gardens.  This piece, too, is undercut by a persistent melancholy, but it is subdued, only half present.
9	Six Impossible Things before Breakfast	guitar, fiddle, flute; a drinking song, tentative at first, but building into a tale of comfort and friendship found unexpectedly in a dusty, little hole-in-the-wall that is nothing like what it seems. The strongest feelings are of teasing familiarity and quiet rest.
10	Bearer of the Vine	guitar, piano, double bass, drums; instrumental; a party in one song. Loud and just this side of raucous, it is a room full of friends and strangers equally comfortable with each other. There is a mild drunkenness to the tune, and it draws people in to dance, whether they want to or not.
Bonus	Steve’s Song	piano, brass, guitar, fiddle, timpani, snare; instrumental; Distinctly American, vaguely big band, also with influences of jazz, Motown, bluegrass, and the beginnings of rock ‘n roll. There is an underlying, almost percussive thread of purity and determination throughout the piece, pushing it onwards, not overwhelming but consistently present. There is also a feeling of warmth, deep affection, friendship, trust, and surprisingly, considering the source, home.