Full album including word and PDF version of album notes and three bonus videos
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about
Steven Clarke’s song of welcoming refugees has become my closing song. As a Scot living in New Zealand Aotearoa it raises all the issues of home and belonging.
I sang the song in Scotland and then found that it was just as relevant in New Zealand. I wrote the last verse for a campaign we had in New Zealand to demand that our Government increase the quota of refugees that we take: New Zealand is so far from anywhere that refugees don’t just turn up at the border we pick and choose which ones to take from refugee camps. The quota has been raised from 750 to 1500, but I’ll keep singing the song until it’s raised to a decent level.
My first memory of hearing this song was by Jimmy and Susan Ross on their fundraising CD for the Glasgow Campaign to Welcome Refugees ‘Arm in Arm’: yep you’ve guessed it I was singing it within hours of hearing it.
And as I always explain at gigs Jock Tamson was a Church of Scotland Minister who referred to his parishioners as his ‘bairns’ ‘children’ and Scots have a phrase ‘we’re all Jock Tamson’s bairns’ meaning we’re all the same all over the world!
lyrics
Put a light in the window
Your brother’s coming home
Set a meal on the table
Your brother’s coming home
He’ll be tired and weary
After all these years alone
He’s coming home, your brother’s coming home
Take the chain from the door,
Your sister’s coming home
Open wide your arms
Your sister’s coming home
Don’t leave her standing there
After all the pain she’s known
She’s coming home, your sister’s coming home
Chorus
Coming home to a place they’ve never been
Coming home to a land they’ve never seen
Coming home to a family they have never known
A’ Jock Tamson’s bairns
Are coming home
He’s been angry and afraid
Your father’s coming home
He’s been hounded and betrayed
Your father’s coming home
And with every act of kindness
A seed of hope is sown
He’s coming home. Your father’s coming home
Chorus
Bring her in from the cold
Your mother’s coming home
Sit her down by the fire
Your mother’s coming home
Make her warm, make her welcome
Before the chance is gone
She’s coming home, your mother’s coming home
Chorus
From Iraq and Zimbabwe,
Your family’s coming home
And from Syria and Palestine
Your family’s coming home
Seeking rest and refuge
They have never known
They’re coming home, Your family’s coming home
Chorus
Open Up the Border,
Our family’s coming home
Increase the quota,
Our family’s coming home
One kin one family
And we all just want a home
They’re coming home our family’s coming home
Chorus
credits
from Bring out the Banners,
released March 11, 2019
Copyright – Steven Clark and Paul Brown (last verse) | Arranged – Al Young and Paul Brown | Guitar – Al Young | Vocals – Paul Brown, Al Young, Ian Bartlett and Jean Reid
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