Album Notes

1. The Lions of Ramallah
One night at dinner Basam told the story of the lions in Ramallah square, a place familiar to TV viewers during the two intifadas. The lions were designed by an Italian designer and he was sending the final drawings to the municipality of Ramallah or who ever had commissioned them, and since the payment was late he penciled in a watch on one of the lion's paws as a reminder to send the check. Inadvertently the drawings were sent on to China without anyone thinking to erase the penciled on watch, so when the lions arrived in Palestine, one came complete with wristwatch.
The next day I made the pilgrimage to the square (it's called square on all the maps but it's round). There was the watch on the lion facing north, set permanently at quarter past six. Their tails were cut off by the Israeli soldiers a few years ago and they are covered with graffiti but there is something about a stone lion that just works. The night after I heard the story I wrote this poem and then set it to music and sang it at a concert in Ramallah with accompaniment from Ramzi on Bazouk, Tareq on Arabic percussion and Samuel on marimba.
After the concert Basam comes up to me nodding his head and says "Still, one of them has his wrist watch". "It's not much" I say. "But it's something" he answers.

2. Another Fairy Tale in English - This was composed during a ttrip to Laconia, New Hampshire for hand therapy and on a bus from Derry to Dublin in Ireland.

3. Another Fairy Tale in Dari - This version was recorded live at the 3rd Annual International Music Festival in Mazar e Sharif. The language is Dari, a dialect of Farsi spoken in northern Afghanistan. Recorded March 23, 2006.

4. Another Fairy Tale in Arabic - This story was performed all over Palestine in October, 2005. See front cover.

5. The Saddest Day was written after the attack of 9`/11.

6. The Saddest Day in Dari

7. Mistaken Identity - This is a true story recounted by the woman who witnessed the event and confirmed by an American advisor to the Afghan police force who was consulted on the day in question. The Samarquand Bar is a local ex-pat hangout in Kabul.

8. Song for the Women - Written by poet, Dr. Mohammad Akbar, for International Women's Day, March 8, 2007, sung in Pashtu.

Have you ever drunk water poured through a sieve?
Have you ever counted particles of sand?
Have you weighted the rays of light?
Have you ever nailed down the pleasant morning breeze?
Have you tried playing with swords by bare hands?
If you have done all of the above, then you have understood what a sophisticated and lovely creature a woman is?
The magical code of heavens
Made of the words of beauty and love
But, alas man could read it!!