This is Regina Strayhorn, one of the Bandits. You Are Not A Ghost is a conversation between me and my ancestors - particularly with Isaac Strayhorn, my great grandfather. Isaac, an outspoken Black man, was lynched in rural Eastern North Carolina in the 1940s. He was known as the town poet. I like to think that Isaac occasionally whispers lines he didn’t get to write in his own time into my ear.
This song is a wrestling match between feelings of deep sadness, tendencies toward self abandonment, limiting patterns, deep self love, and the awareness that to live freely in the here and now is my birthright and gift to enjoy. This is true for us all.
As Bandits, all of our songs start with a seed of a big feeling from one of us and are nurtured and grown and supported by the group. This song is no exception, it’s a collaboration between me and my best friends and bandmates Sydney Torin Shepherd and Adrian Blake Enscoe. It’s a diary entry. It’s an attempt to hear family members calling to us from the past, and it’s a love letter to our future selves. Unlike the people before you - you are not a ghost. (Not yet.) And while you’re here there is always an opportunity to start again at the basics, with blood and poetry. Sometimes we all need that reminder.
In this video we Bandits are joined by Les Strayhorn Jr. - my wonderful father and Isaac’s Grandson - as well as by our dear friend and frequent collaborator Sienna Sears. This performance was shot and edited by Paul Emile, recorded by Carl Bespolka, and mixed by William Garrett and Carl Bespolka. It was filmed at MCC Theater, one of our favorite theaters in New York City. Thank you to everyone at MCC for generously providing us with space to film our tenth (yes you heard us, TENTH!) NPR Tiny Desk Contest Entry.Thank you to NPR for providing the impetus to share new music with our fans behind a tiny desk every year. It's our honor and privilege.
LYRICS:
Frustrated by the form
Those four familiar walls
Will you break the form?
Will you break the form?
Running in the patterns again
Look up “How to know you’re suicidal”
Reading emails from an ex boyfriend
How many trails, how many trials?
You are not a ghost
And there is no machine
To get a broader view
You are not a ghost
You’re blood and poetry
Is that enough for me?
Is that enough for you?
You want to be the one
I take care in my home
Will you walk alone?
Do you know the way home love?
Running towards the spotlight again
Look up “how to worship a false idol”
Celebrities pretend
But the empire is falling! The emperor has failed!
Oh and you are not a ghost
And there is no machine
To get a broader view
Yes, You are not a ghost
You’re blood and poetry
Is that enough for me?
Is that enough for you?
Isaac in the forties
Was thrown into a pond
Cement tied to his feet
I feel him in my hands
He asks me to be free
To stop the spinning wheel
Be big enough to feel
Be big enough to feel
That you are not a ghost
And there is no machine
To get a broader view
You not a ghost
You’re blood and poetry
Is that enough for me?
Is that enough for you?
You are not a ghost.
7 сен 2024
