The album Mellow Mood was recorded composed between 2004 and 2007, and recorded over a period of a couple of weeks the summer of 2007 in Silverlake, California. Alisha performed all vocal and guitar tracks live and simultaneously, one take at a time. The tightly interlocking backing harmonies sung by her sisters were also recorded live and simultaneously, onto one track. Bass, organ and percussion was then recorded by Davin Givhan (a talented songwriter and musician), who also mixed the album. The exception is the track Be For, recorded and mixed in Long Beach in 2007 by Jim Schwartz of Innaway and Gang Violets.
Alisha started with piano lessons in 1985 and picked up the guitar in 1991, but it wasn’t until 1998 that she would begin writing original songs. She began performing her originals to an audience in 2001. The guitar has become her sole method of composing. In 2004, she and two of her sisters, Nikki and Ninah Jackson, began performing as Mellow Mood.
In 2005, she met the legendary late Shane Gooding, a singer/songwriter/guitarist who compelled her to take her compositions and guitar skills to a higher level. They performed together in venues in Long Beach and Orange County. Shane’s quick and shocking passing from cancer in 2007 compelled her to give up her status as a California girl and seek out a creative future in New York, then return home to St. Croix, Virgin Islands.
She has a B.A. in Literature from UC Santa Barbara, and has won several scholarships and fellowships for her poetry. She has sung on projects for Steve Aoki, 60 Watt Kid, Shane Gooding, 2Mex, Ikey Owens, Foreign Capitals and Misha.
She was born in 1979 on the Caribbean island of St. Croix, and is the sole child of her parents, who met on St. Croix in the 70's. Her father, Llewellyn Westerman, is a Calypsonian performer, sailboat captain and father of five daughters. Her mother, Janet Rapaport, is a devout reader, craftsperson and mother of four daughters and one son.
Mellow Mood Lyrics
© 2007
1-This Beat
She come to live on my floor
Always pushing for a little much more
And I give her all my leaves
She want every branch she sees
I got this
We lay on the riverbed
Crown spirits in our head
And the juju up our sleeves
Forgetting how to breathe
I got this beat
She come running when I call
She watch me grow so small
Turn me out into the clouds
Where my heart beats love so loud
I got this beat
She keep me in her ear
To lick up all her tears
To warm her belly at night
To keep her rhythms tight
I got this beat
2-Casual Sex
Walking down the street giving girls the eye
Smiling to yourself when they say hi
How many secrets can you keep
Nothing beats the right call late at night
Or the priceless pain of a thing done right
Pinwheels pillows cameras
There’s no such thing as casual sex
And if you have it all the time it’s all in your mind
It’s an age old mystery never solved
Someone’s heart always gets involved
Cannon ball diaries never fail
To top the lists in terms of sales
If all are cured our system fails
Take a trip to another land
You’ll find these premises still stand
St. Croix Brixton California
There’s no such thing as casual sex
And if you have it all the time it’s all in your mind
It’s an age-old mystery never solved
Someone’s heart always gets involved
I’ve straightened things out on the other side
I’ve straightened things out on the other side
I’ve straightened things out on the other side
I’ve straightened things out on the other side
There’s no such thing as casual sex
It’s all in your mind
There’s no such thing as casual sex
It’s all in your mind
He said I’ve given you all I’ve got to give
I’ve got no reason left to live
I said love has made you quite a blind one
Get out in the world and find one
3-Move On
Green eyed, wide mouthed, head in the clouds
Feet in the shabbiest shoes
Finger on the pulses of a million things
Dreaming your way to school
Deep black backdrop asleep in the earth
Covered in ancient perfume
High on the green of a faraway land
Trapped in the world of your room
Move on, child
Move on, child
Bareboned braniac tied to the wind
Information highway chase
Voice in the closet and a frog in your throat
Investigating your own case
Rag-headed, lizard-tongued, deaf to the world
Nose in beautiful books
Penning long letters to the powers that read
Worried that you’re losing your looks
Move on, child
Move on, child
Move on, child
Move on, child
4-Stolen Melody
I know better than to wish that you were here
In your voice it’s very clear
I know better than to wish that you were here
In your voice
Music always sounding when you whisper in my ear
Music always sounding when you whisper
Music always sounding when you whisper in my ear
Music always
I hope to recognize you next time you are here
In your eyes
I hope to recognize you next time you are here
In your eyes
Nothing leaves our lives unless we make it disappear
Nothing leaves our lives unless we make it
Nothing leaves our lives unless we make it disappear
Nothing leaves
The best told stories are written with our tears
In this life that’s very clear
The best told stories are written with our tears
In this life
5-Reference Points
You don’t tell jokes like you used to
I laugh just the same
You don’t sing out like you used to
I listen just the same
If this your new version of music
Then give it a new name
Don’t tell stories like you used to
I picture just the same
If this is your new version of vision
Then give it a new name
Encyclopedioptic dictionaryisms
Whatever works for your thesaurus theorem
According to you
You don’t see me like you used to
I look just the same
If this your new version of the future
Then give it a new name
Encyclopedioptic dictionaryisms
Whatever works for your thesaurus theorem
According to you
You don’t see me like you used to
I look just the same
If this your new version of the future
Then give it a new name
Encyclopedioptic dictionaryisms
Whatever works for your thesaurus theorem
According to you
Go on, be creative, I won’t hate you
If you explain this I won’t hate you
For saying goodbye
6-Bone
We’re so credulous, you tricked the both of us
And how was this not a waste of timing our hearts
To synch without some phony internetronome
The fact that you don’t want my hate
Is the last bone left on my plate
You’re so knavish, almost mastered the slavish thing in me
Have mercy on you if you believe Jesus saves
Use your head now, he’s long dead now
The fact that you don’t want my hate
Is the last bone left on my plate
I’ll suck all of its marrow
And leave my view of you narrow
I’ll leave my view of you narrow
you acted like you knew just what you didn’t want
didn’t want
didn’t want
Egotistic sniffing at my orgiastic bliss
Betraying me with each regressive kiss
If I had known
If I had known
If I had known
The fact that you don’t want my hate
Is the last bone on my plate
I’ll suck all of its marrow
And leave my view of you arrow
I’ll leave my view of you narrow
View of you a narrow arrow
7-No Baby
No junkie monkey jumping on my back
No wishes on my list
Late nights cooking up a pot of free
It might just taste like this
No punch clock, no blows to block
No alarm rings, save your sighs
If you board the next boat shipping off the dock
Would it really be goodbye?
Full house and an empty belly
Don’t need no baby
Full house and an empty belly
Don’t need no baby
Whiplash weeks and years in streaks
My my, how the ticker flies
With a tattooed wrist and swearing off the kiss
Would you stay the apple of my eye?
Full house and an empty belly
Don’t need no baby
Full house and an empty belly
Don’t need no baby
I’ll cross that bridge if it wants across
I’ll cross that bridge if it wants across
I’ll cross that bridge if it wants across
But I’m not rushing to the necropolis
Now, a loveless life was fine with me
Or so the moon did say
Twenty four more and my heart got sore
And I’m begging you to stay, seeing things your way
Full house and an empty belly
Don’t need no baby
Full house and an empty belly
Empty belly, empty belly
8-Burn
Well I can’t stand the new governor
Rumor has it his win was a fraud
He’s got the prisoners all busy
Answering phone lines and rattling their bars
The police are so full of fear
That they’re scaring everyone else
And the landlords are unhappy
They don’t want to die by themselves like this
The women are dissatisfied
In their underclothes, in their homes
And the men are out busy proving things
Shedding blood and throwing stones
The girls are apathetic
They’re drinking quarts of milk at a time
And the boys are making bad music
Bad music will be their decline
Someone set the fields aglow, I stretch out a hand
I feel the fire on either side in this blessed, cursed land (America)
Someone set the fields aglow, I stretch out a hand
I feel the fire on either side in this blessed, cursed land (the USA)
Weapons are disappearing
From museums on either coast
In preparation for an ancient war
That should have been won a long time ago
The horizon and the waterline
Become distorted as they arrive
One fifty million native ghosts
Coming forward to take what’s theirs
Don’t blame me; I didn’t found this catastrophe
I won’t blame you if you’re just passing through
And if you don’t crown the beast
And if you don’t bow and kiss its feet
You’d better look out
Someone set the fields aglow, I stretch out a hand
I feel the fire on either side in this blessed, cursed land (America)
Someone set the fields aglow, I stretch out a hand
I feel the fire on either side in this blessed, cursed land (the USA)
9-Forecast
Crows caw coal on a milk bright sky
Fill in the blank blown in by the wind
Good chance of strawberry rain
Fair chance of love and champagne
Nobody knows you how somebody did
But who needs reruns of those things
When each new thread is another naked song
Or another way to hate yourself
For wanting to belong
Wanting to belong (don’t hate yourself for)
Wanting to belong (don’t hate yourself for)
Wanting to belong (don’t hate yourself for)
Wanting to belong
Scary little cat with a tap who’s a faucet
Draw a map back to Eden, in a second who’s lost it
Spellbound spendthrift, diligent wordsmith
Pound for pound getting down to James Brown
Getting down to James Brown (just watch yourself)
I was the one who touched you, who knew you
Who heard you, who feel you
Who learn you, who see you
Who can’t help but be you
Who got a premonition of me with
Who got a nice long story in a body of glory
A new edition of a real handy emotion
Who will sail this way and swallow up the ocean
Who will sail this way and swallow up the ocean
Crows caw coal on a milk bright sky
Fill in the blank blown in by the wind
Good chance of strawberry rain
Fair chance of love and champagne
10-Honey
Honey
From the carcass
Of the lion
The lion
Tasted honey
From the carcass
Of the lion
The lion
From the eater
Something to eat
From the strong
Something sweet
From the eater
Something to eat
From the strong
Something sweet
Something
I’ve taken something
From the ribcage
Of my lover
My lover
Taken something
From the ribcage
Of my lover
My lover
My lover
My lover
The lion
11-The Mean Song
This ditty may sound average but actually it’s mean
The midpoint ‘tween the smallest and the largest quantity
If you start out really high then drop down very low
Down is the direction your statistics got to go
If I lived in the ocean and you lived on a mountain
And we got ourselves a map and got around to really counting
We could meet halfway between the forest and the sea
And it would be appropriate to title that the mean
This song is mean, oh yes it’s mean
It seems average but it’s really mean
If you go to two extremes that you just can’t seem to figure
I assure that ignoring such a difference makes it bigger
You must isolate the factors you’re gonna need to solve it
I’d be happy to assist you; I’m a whiz at word problems
How to calculate how to circumvent the aftermath
How’d you figure?
If you were a stranger at my local cornerstore
Speculating on the reasons you had ended up therefore
I’d point up at number seven, the ones not far behind
Help you understand the very magic number nine
This song is mean, oh yes it’s mean
It seems average but it’s really mean
12-Be For
The earth weeps for days that I can’t keep
The sun knows that you are not going far
The earth she say none can love me your way
The sun knows all the world’s love is mine
Remember, my friend, how lonely you were
Before you decided to make me your cure
Remember, remember, remember
Before, before, before
The earth think she have to write you down
The sun simply shine and lift you up
The sun drink deeply from a brimming cup
While the earth thirsts for all your little sounds
And remembers, my friend, how lonely you were
Before you decided to make me your cure
Remember, remember, remember
Before, before, before
Before, before, before
Before, before, before
The earth is hunting little blue birds
The sun can call them hither with one word
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