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Last Time I Changed These Strings

by Jeni Hankins

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With gratitude and in honor of Norman H. Cross, Hull Musician, Luthier, and Sound Engineer whose musical career was cut short by Parkinson's and dementia, but whose musical legacy grows in the inspiration and instruments he shares with us.

Jeni writes: Hull musician Norman Cross' Fylde Octave Mandolin and his 1925 Alfred Cammeyer Banjo inspired this song. When my collaborator Alfred John Hickling and I had the opportunity to become the new caretakers of these instruments, we found what we've come to call layers of "Norman Archeology" in the instrument cases including string packets, used and new strings, straps, packing foam, buffing clothes, picks, capos, receipts, articles about the instrument makers, set lists, and some unidentifiable musical mystery items. For us, one of the most poignant and curious things was that Norman made a note on the string packets or, in the case of the Fylde Octave Mandolin, on the tuning peg itself, of the last time he changed each string. We thought "Last Time I Changed These Strings" sounded like a song title. It became one of twelve songs Alfred and I wrote over the course of a month in lockdown honoring Norman Cross whose musical career has been cut short by illness, but who continues to teach us.

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lyrics

There’s music all around me.
There’s music still inside
this old guitar that left these 
poor old fingers far behind.
But in my mind, behind closed eyes
that old guitar still rings 
with all the songs I played for you
last time I changed these strings.

I wouldn’t be as I’ve become
If time left any choice –
a guitar with old rusted strings,
a guitar with no voice.
But deep inside are all the words
of songs I used to sing
and everything I’d say to you 
last time I changed these strings.

Every tune I ever played
dances through my mind
and every murmur in my breast 
is my heartbeat keeping time.
So many things to say to you
if I could only sing.
Remember all the songs we loved
last time I changed these strings .

If there’s one thing that I would change
I know what I would do.
Tune up that guitar one last time.
Play one more song for you.
If old guitars have memories
they echo from within 
with all the songs I played for you
last time I changed these strings.

credits

released March 22, 2021
Written and Performed by Jeni Hankins and Alfred John Hickling.
Instruments played by Alfred John Hickling.
Singing by Jeni Hankins.
Editing, Mixing and Mastering by Jeni Hankins.
©Jeni Hankins & Alfred John Hickling, BMI

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Jeni Hankins London, UK

Jeni Hankins grew up in the coalfields of Appalachian in Southwest Virginia among a family of miners, moonshiners, and journalists. Her writing pulls the grit, gumption, and keen sense of observation out of that heritage like drawing water from her grandmother’s well.

In every song, Jeni’s “true sense of place shines through – old as the hills, but brand new at the same time.”
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