naked as we came

(Special note for Bunny Watson: That song made me teary too, the first time I heard it.)

J's grandfather died on Friday, and I won't talk too much about it out of respect for his family -- it's not my story to tell. But as I was driving back from the funeral tonight, I was Thinking Many Thoughts About Life And Mortality etc. etc. and listening to Antje Duvekot's new CD, The Near Demise of the Highwire Dancer.

(Detour for shameless plug: A lot of us have been listening to Antje ever since she was just Alissa's cool roommate who played music, but this CD feels to me like it should be her big break. She has totally come into her own. Maybe it has something to do with production value or fancy music-producer things? All I know is that the album is amazing.)

Anyway. A few of the songs on it are songs she'd released on previous albums from live concerts, and wow why is it taking me so long to get to the point here, I was driving and it was dusk and the sun was setting over the Catskills and it looked something like this... Thanks to flickr user lillergy.

... but with huge mountains up so close to the road, bracing the left side of the whole drive. And then, in the middle of what may be my favorite-ever song from Antje (and in the running for my favorite-ever song from anyone in the history of time), came the lyric, "You can ask the mountain/ The mountain doesn't care." And it was perfect, and it seemed just like life: beautiful, heartbreaking, everything in between.

North Montana was so cold
She keeps her secrets frozen
Under glaciers way up north
People have got lost up there
In the home of the grizzly bear
And you can ask the mountain
The mountain doesn't care

And it's a long way to Delaware and back
And it's a long way
'Cause it's a long way, with clouds upon our backs
And it's a long, long, long, long way.