Melanie Dekker’s ‘Distant Star CD’ twists gently and grabs your heart. This vibrant CD album has a more roots music style than her previous albums; this time her banjo playing has been incorporated and her lyrics are deliciously crafted and potent. A lot of the vocal tracks were one take, live off the floor, and sometimes first thing in the morning.
A Distant Star feels as far away and as close as you imagine, and all of the songs have this subjectivity, ambiguity, and sense of light while fumbling in the darkness of life.
Melanie reaches for the stars with her feet on the ground and the sound is both rich in depth and quality. The songs about longing, like “Distant Star” and “Give My Heart A Home”, tug at the heart while uplifting & upbeat numbers like “Worry Gets You Nowhere” and “You’re Powerful” shed sunshine on the listener, by encouraging a release from self-criticism.
- The photoshoot took 2 separate trips to Kamloops, BC. Irene Dekker (Mama), Len Rooney (CD Designer & Photographer), & Chip (the Shitzu) headed up to the desert like bike park and sweat it out. Thank you LeeAnne Bachand for your welcome mat and your home. Thank you to the police officer who gave me a warning at 6am when I deserved a speeding ticket. xo.
(Release date: itunes: Aug. 29, 2013, Europe: Nov. 15, 2013, Canada: Feb. 14, 2014)
Where you can find more
These songs are available for you on iTunes, Spotify, & Melanie’s albums here in her website store.
Lyrics
DISTANT STAR
Melanie Dekker
Acoustic Guitars: Melanie Dekker | Rhodes, Electric Guitar, Percussion: Allan Rodger
I’d like to be yours
I’d like you to say “she’s mine”, all mine
Par for the course
I’ve fallen in love this time, this time
I’d sure love to dance
All over the world with you, I do
Dream of the chance
I’ll be the one you choose
I’m a distant star praying for your heart
For now I watch you from afar
It’s not so bad, no not at all
But at the end of the day
Another day’s faded away
I’d like to find
A path that leads to your door
And leave a sign
That only leaves you wanting more
Of all the saddest words
Of tongue or pen; the saddest I’ve heard
Are: It might have been, it might have been
WORRY GETS YOU NOWHERE
Melanie Dekker / Stefan Rapp / Martin Rose
Banjo: Melanie Dekker | Electric Guitar: David Sinclair | Bass, Drums: Allan Rodger | Accordion: Mike Bell | BG Vocals: Lesley Miller
Sometimes sleep won’t come easy when it’s time for bed
So enjoy the rising sun and listen to what your heart says
There’s no need to toss and turn
Just read the writing on the wall
Worry gets you nowhere gets you nowhere
Gets you nowhere, nowhere nowhere at all
Worry gets you nowhere gets you nowhere
Gets you nowhere, nowhere nowhere at all
Sometimes you get mad for reasons you can’t grasp
It turns out everything’s fine but now you’ve said things you can’t take back
Your mind can waste your time
And throw you down a waterfall
Worry gets you nowhere, nowhere at all
Worry gets you nowhere, nowhere at all
I hope you want to be the one who will say
I led my life before my life led me astray
POWERFUL
Melanie Dekker / David Sinclair
Acoustic Guitar: Melanie Dekker | Bass, Keys, Electric Guitar, Drums, Percussion: Allan Rodger | 12 String Electric Guitar: David Sinclair
She sings her songs like an angel
For occasional applause
It’s there she pours out her heartbreaks
A bar named Little Rock
Working to make some heads turn
A few might discern
They love the voice they can’t take home
But they’ll come back or remember
They’ll come back or remember
You’re powerful when you know
How powerful you are
Your body’s like a live wire
And somewhat like a bumper car
All the things you do
Touch someone beside you
Heart on the line as she pays dues
While a heckler gets blind drunk
Hands her a 5 to play Blue Suede Shoes
She knows then the night’s sunk
He’s bragging now to the bartender
I knew her when
She strummed her songs in that corner
When no one but me was listening
No one but me was listening
GIVE MY HEART A HOME
Melanie Dekker
Acoustic Guitar: Melanie Dekker | Bass, Piano, Percussion: Allan Rodger
So you drove through the night to surprise me
And our hands locked as our feet swayed from the dock
Then we fooled around until the sun came up
Next you wrote me letters beautifully revealing
Patiently waiting while you’ve gone out on a wing
You just knocked me over now I’m like a statue
‘Cause you said I might fall in love with you
Deeper than I know how to dive into I’ve fallen in love with you too
I can’t see the bottom just the unknown
And I’m not very good at this letting go
If I say these words just so
Will you give my heart a home
Give my heart a home
Give my heart a home
Singing songs we love as we stare into the fire
It’s so warm I forget the road for awhile
I’m flirting I like to be on stage in front of you
It scares me just a little, but it’s the perfect view
NOTHING BUT TIME
Melanie Dekker / Irene Dekker
Acoustic Guitar: Melanie Dekker | Bass, Keys, Electric Guitar, Drums, BG Vocals: Allan Rodger
You’re real and you’re a dream
So I might as well keep pretending
Your eyes intoxicate me
And I fall for what could be
Get over here Into my life
Get over here I’ve been waiting all night
I’m in your blind spot
But for you I’ve got Nothing but time
I’m not half drunk or stoned
It’s as sober a moment can get
‘Cause I will wake up alone
The stars line up on their own
I have a good time here in my mind
Howl at the moon you’ll be here soon
Though you will not ever show up
My mind will steer ‘n pretend that you’re here
BLACK SWAN
Melanie Dekker
Acoustic Guitar: Melanie Dekker | Bass, Keys, Piano, Drums, Percussion: Allan Rodger | Woodwinds: Tom Keenlyside
The Cabernet stains have faded
Yesterday’s scent sedated
Close my eyes and I go back there
To the hottest love affair
Stars did not line up for long
Hard to say what went wrong
Change one thing and I can’t help but wonder
How differently it could have gone
Got to choose one thing over another
When logic has got holes & love’s a black swan
My choice was made I loved you
We seemed to dance a pas de deux
Tangled in webs somewhat fragile
And believing all the while
That nothing could get in the way
But that was then and now is fate
BOOMERANG
Melanie Dekker
Acoustic Guitar: Melanie Dekker | Bass, Wurlitzer, Drums: Allan Rodger | BG Vocals: Lesley Miller
He calls it love when he’s seeing her again
Though many times he’s told
Everybody he’s leavin’
I’ve gotta work so hard to stay neutral
Cause when he probes me for my ideas
I just want to say she’s evil
Boom boom boomerang, he goes back
Boom boom boomerang, round the bend
Boom boom boomerang, he goes back
Boom boom boomerang, again
It’s hard to watch from where I’m sitting
The details gory and close
But he doesn’t see them
When he seems to hate her I hide my smile
Cause I love that he comes to me
If only for a while
A Snake And Ladders game that keeps on going around
Nobody really wins ‘Til they’re sick of the ups and downs
LIKE ROSES
Melanie Dekker / Allan Rodger
Acoustic Guitar: Melanie Dekker | Bass, Piano, Percussion: Allan Rodger | Violin: Elyse Jacobson | Electric Guitar: David Sinclair
I’m messed up today
Tripping over everything
The sum of your parts is in my way
It’s your lips your eyes your fingertips
That are keeping me captive
Seems to be no escape I’m all out of phase
and it’s your fault
Like roses reaching for rain drops I need you
But when petals are falling I have doubts
The ‘he loves me, he loves me not‘ kind
My heart will obey
Like a puppet on a string
So lay me down easy if our love gets frayed
When I’m up I don’t think of such things
But bad habits sneak on in
Like the time you proposed in a dream and I froze
And then you’re gone
Uncertainty might fly, fly away if I just give it time
Am I thinking too hard, when everything’s fine
AT THE JUNKYARD
Melanie Dekker / Allan Rodger
Acoustic Guitar: Melanie Dekker | Bass, Piano, Drums: Allan Rodger
This shirt I am wearing, seems much prettier now
Than when you gave it to me, oh how it makes me lonely
Our love’s at the junkyard
In the back of our old car
Our love’s standing on the corner
Where we kissed a thousand times or more
Sold out of everything, we once once had it all
Still seems messy and weird, close my eyes to bring you near
Good memories are a keepsake; like brilliant colours that never fade
Frames where pictures had been, songs I no longer sing
Are in tears left on your shoulder, I couldn’t change that you love’d her
THE PRICE YOU PAY
Melanie Dekker
Acoustic Guitar: Melanie Dekker | Bass, Piano, Drums, BG Vocals: Allan Rodger
Battle hard times almost lose your mind
Turn into your own slave
A slave to the problems measured in tears
Somehow get used to the pain
Maybe it’s time to check out the price you pay
Consequences sneak up every minute of the day
I don’t want to, I don’t want to see you this way
The cost of living isn’t worth dying for
It makes a seeing man blind
With taxing irony you run out of time
Freedom now sidelined
SILVER MOON
Melanie Dekker / David C Pickell
Electric Guitar: Melanie Dekker | Bass, Piano, Drums: Allan Rodger | Flute: Tom Keenlyside
We draw our lines in the sand
The water rushes over
The winds of time change our plans
They say it makes us stronger
Silver moon and golden sun
Trading places in the sky
Hearts that bond and come undone
Heal as days go by
Our spirit learns to fly
The dreamer dreams, the weaver weaves
And each life leaves its traces
All headed for an open door
The answers lie between us
We take our turn each one to learn
What only love can teach us
What only love can teach us