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  • Compact Disc (CD) + Digital Album

    Comes as a cd/dvd set in double jewel case with matching picture discs. Artwork features Penelope's "activist patch" coat with patches collected from activist campaigns all over the world that Penelope has played for and/or supported in 15 years of touring

    Includes unlimited streaming of Legacy: Two Decades of Topical Writing via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality download in MP3, FLAC and more.
    ships out within 5 days
    Purchasable with gift card

      $35 AUD or more 

     

  • Streaming + Download

    Includes unlimited streaming via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality download in MP3, FLAC and more.
    Purchasable with gift card

      $1.75 AUD  or more

     

  • Buy the Full Digital Album

  • Full Digital Discography

    11
    releases

    Get all 11 Penelope Swales releases available on Bandcamp and save 25%.

    Includes unlimited streaming via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality downloads of Captains of Industry, Legacy: Two Decades of Topical Writing, Skin: Deep, Archive Vol. 2: Songs from the Borderline 1989-1992, Monkey Comfort, 'Archive': Demos, Out-takes and One-offs 1995-2000, Justifying your Longings to the Doctor, Homemade Wine, and 3 more. , and , .

    Purchasable with gift card

      $103.50 AUD or more (25% OFF)

     

lyrics

Black Snake Range
© Penelope Swales 2005

When I’m tight in my heart, and low in my mind
I go out wanderin’ in the Black Snake
I leave my petty dramas and my cares behind
They can’t follow through the twisted tracks of Black Snake
On windy point, the trees say “Shhhh…”
Your troubles are nothing next to ours
At Four Brothers Rocks the stones shrug and say “Patience!”
They’re marking time between glaciers while I fret through my hours
Their eroded surrounds, once a sacred site
Now a place where the white boys unload their trail-bikes
But there’s no two-stroke blaring on a Wednesday night
Up on the ridge in the Black Snake
In the evening dusk in the innocent dawn.
Through the cyclical bushfires ignited by the dry summer storms
Through weekend invasions and Easter incursions
And summer plunderers and occasional pilgrims
Something still feels good and it still feels strong
On the Black Snake Range.
It’s just scruffy state forest that’s seen it all before
Massive stumps, rotten logs on the forest floor.
But away from the weeds on the roadside
A stubborn and muscular peace abides
There are grass-trees, and rare orchids if you know where to look
Balancing boulders, a river that flows right out of a rock
Through Easter invasions and weekend incursions
And summer plunderers and occasional pilgrims
Something still feels good and it still feels strong
On the Black Snake Range.
And suddenly, serenity is shattered by bikes and trucks and grader blades
By weekend warriors out proving their manhood on the tricky tracks of the Black Snake Range
Ah, proving it to who, the bush doesn’t care
And they never see the way that silence rolls in in their wake
Erasing their passing like the rain erases tyre tracks
In the endless amnesia of the Black Snake
In the sinister dusk, in the innocent dawn
Through the cyclical bushfires ignited by the dry summer storms
Through weekend invasions and Easter incursions
And summer plunderers and occasional pilgrims
Something still feels good and it still feels strong
On the Black Snake Range.
Black Snake Range
Ah, look out in the Black Snake
You don’t wanna step on a Black Snake
You’ll know who’s boss if you step on a Black Snake
You’ll know nature doesn’t give a toss if you step on a Black Snake.

credits

from Legacy: Two Decades of Topical Writing, released July 1, 2010

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Penelope Swales Boolarra, Australia

Penelope Swales has been articulating the human condition with passion and humour for 30+ years. She sings about politics, love, friendship, the unbreakable bond between us and dogs and the impact of the Internet on society. She won the 2019 Alistair Hulett Songs for Social Justice Award with “Cambridge Analytica”. “The Ides of March in Christchurch" was short-listed for the same award in 2020. ... more

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