Back again from Kitty's website where you can download her song, backed up by all our old Elderly Instrument friends. Here's what she says about her song, its production, and the lyrics:

BACKGROUND STORY

Like many other songwriters around the country, I found myself writing a song about the horrible events that shook the nation on September 11th. I had no particular agenda in writing the song, I just kept thinking "I'm a songwriter, I should write something"...then my next thought was always "there are no words or song that could possibly address this horrible thing", and those words eventually became the song itself.

Joel Mabus and Pat Power (of the Ten Pound Fiddle Coffeehouse in East Lansing, Michigan) organized a benefit concert for the Friday of that week, September 14th, and I performed the song then, singing the words from the paper I had written it on. The audience response was overwhelming and I was urged to record it so, on Thursday, September 20th, about 25 great friends and musicians assembled at Glenn Brown's studio in East Lansing and we put down the entire thing, finishing at about 2:00AM.

Something truly magical happened that night; there was an energy that wouldn't have been there if we had taken a week to plan the session out. Everybody involved donated their voices, time, and expertise and it was a community experience in the best sense of that word.

Any profits that may accrue from the sale of the CD will be donated to the relief efforts in New York City.

PURCHASE CD

(from Elderly Records)

(Download, 5.3megs) (no charge)

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THERE ARE NO WORDS
(Kitty Donohoe, 2001)

there are no words there is no song
there is no balm that can heal these wounds that will last a lifetime long
and when the stars have burned to dust
hand in hand we still will stand because we must

in one single hour in one single day
we were changed forever something taken away
and there is no fire that can melt this heavy stone
that can bring back the voices or the spirits of our own

all the brothers all the lovers all the friends that are gone
all the chairs that will be empty in the lives that will go on
can we ever forgive though we never will forget
can we believe in the milk of human goodness yet

we were forged in freedom we were born in liberty
we came here to stop the twisted arrows cast by tyranny
and we won't bow down we are strong of heart
we are a chain together that won't be pulled apart