Stormcloak Trail
A brooding viking country ballad of trudging home through Highland passes. Feature baritone vocals, banjo, bowed fiddle, marching toms, bass drone, and Nordic horn accents. Lyrics center on hunger, cold, loss, and endurance.
Lyrics
[Verse 1]
I came back through the pass at dawn
Boots torn thin by the stone
One sack left and half a rind
And the frost bit deep to the bone
The heather lay black under ice
The burn ran hard and mean
I named your name to the wind
It gave me nothing clean
[Pre-Chorus]
My hands were red to the wrist
My mouth was all but ash
Still I kept one foot moving
Through the sleet and the slash
[Chorus]
I go on, I go on
Through the rime on the pass
I go on, I go on
Till the cold lets go at last
Hunger knows my face
Loss walks close behind
I go on, I go on
With the hard road under mine
(go on, go on)
[Verse 2]
At the cairn by the split pine tree
I set down a cracked bone cup
No fire waited in that fold
Just snow piling slow and up
I saw your shawl in my sleep
Your laugh in a kettle’s steam
Now I carry your last bright word
Like a coal in a sack of dream
[Pre-Chorus]
My knees went weak on the rise
My breath came short and white
But grief can teach a man
How to keep his head in the night
[Chorus]
I go on, I go on
Through the rime on the pass
I go on, I go on
Till the cold lets go at last
Hunger knows my face
Loss walks close behind
I go on, I go on
With the hard road under mine
(go on, go on)
[Bridge]
If the hall is dark when I reach it
If the hearth is just a spark
I’ll kneel by the door in silence
And thank the road for the dark
For it took my fear in pieces
And left me bone and breath
A man can learn to endure
With a wolf's step toward death
[Chorus]
I go on, I go on
Through the rime on the pass
I go on, I go on
Till the cold lets go at last
Hunger knows my face
Loss walks close behind
I go on, I go on
With the hard road under mine
(go on, go on)