Uploaded December 2019 | Updated September 2026, 3 weeks ago
This is a new live recording of a song that originally appeared on Rani's 2007 cd Big Old Life. Recorded at the North East Regional Folk Alliance Conference in Stamford Ct in November 2019.
daisy mayhem are from left to right:
Anand Nayak - guitar
Andrew Kinsey - stand up bass
Scott Kessel - Percussion
Many thanks to the multi-talented Anand Nayak for the outstanding audio mix!
The song Roses is about a real person named Barbara Hohol who lived across the street from Rani's family when she was growing up. Rani comments: "She was a community gardener, craftswoman, and activist, Barbara spent decades gardening our block into a green space — with significant assistance from my mother, who helped her plant bushes of four o’clocks in each tree enclosure, year after year. When Barbara came to our CD release at Joe’s Pub many years ago, I asked her if the song felt true, acknowledging some artistic license with the details. She said, in her inimitable way, “You got it mostly right.” Barbara passed away in 2016, after living many years with breast cancer. Her neighbors still miss her and her dedication to community, beauty, and nature".
Lyrics:
Morning slips in sideways like a cheater on the run
She’s out there on the sidewalk, kneeling at her toil
Pulling weeds for Jesus with her knuckles in the soil
She is no Saint Theresa, she is no paragon
Her fingernails are dirty, her old blue jeans are worn
She doesn’t talk to strangers, she hardly knows you’re there
She doesn’t want your money, she doesn’t want your prayers
Chorus:
Because this is God’s dominion, this is peace on Earth
This is what she’s put here for, this is what she’s worth
Other things that matter have slowly slipped away
Now she grows her roses, she grows her roses
And she grows her roses all-day
She remembers a young woman with hair as fine as gold
She remembers all her lovers, she remembers growing old
She remembers meeting Jesus, she can recall that day
She gave him all her seeds of darkness, he buried him away
Now she coaxes hope from concrete, she coaxes right from wrong
She makes the Spanish ladies break into their Spanish songs
When at night the smell her roses in the streetlamp’s yellow sun
And they dream of summer dresses and the streets of old San Juan
(Chorus)
Lyrics and Music by Rani Arbo (Jinn Mill Music, BMI)
This is a new live recording of a song that originally appeared on Rani's 2007 cd Big Old Life. Recorded at the North East Regional Folk Alliance Conference in Stamford Ct in November 2019.
daisy mayhem are from left to right:
Anand Nayak - guitar
Andrew Kinsey - stand up bass
Scott Kessel - Percussion
Many thanks to the multi-talented Anand Nayak for the outstanding audio mix!
The song Roses is about a real person named Barbara Hohol who lived across the street from Rani's family when she was growing up. Rani comments: "She was a community gardener, craftswoman, and activist, Barbara spent decades gardening our block into a green space — with significant assistance from my mother, who helped her plant bushes of four o’clocks in each tree enclosure, year after year. When Barbara came to our CD release at Joe’s Pub many years ago, I asked her if the song felt true, acknowledging some artistic license with the details. She said, in her inimitable way, “You got it mostly right.” Barbara passed away in 2016, after living many years with breast cancer. Her neighbors still miss her and her dedication to community, beauty, and nature".
Lyrics:
Morning slips in sideways like a cheater on the run
She’s out there on the sidewalk, kneeling at her toil
Pulling weeds for Jesus with her knuckles in the soil
She is no Saint Theresa, she is no paragon
Her fingernails are dirty, her old blue jeans are worn
She doesn’t talk to strangers, she hardly knows you’re there
She doesn’t want your money, she doesn’t want your prayers
Chorus:
Because this is God’s dominion, this is peace on Earth
This is what she’s put here for, this is what she’s worth
Other things that matter have slowly slipped away
Now she grows her roses, she grows her roses
And she grows her roses all-day
She remembers a young woman with hair as fine as gold
She remembers all her lovers, she remembers growing old
She remembers meeting Jesus, she can recall that day
She gave him all her seeds of darkness, he buried him away
Now she coaxes hope from concrete, she coaxes right from wrong
She makes the Spanish ladies break into their Spanish songs
When at night the smell her roses in the streetlamp’s yellow sun
And they dream of summer dresses and the streets of old San Juan
(Chorus)
Lyrics and Music by Rani Arbo (Jinn Mill Music, BMI)
