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Tea with Shadows

by Abby Ahmad

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  • Streaming + Download

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

    With the album download, you will also receive a 16-page Tea with Shadows PDF Booklet with lyrics, liner notes, and photography.

    + EXCLUSIVE BONUS 55-page ILLUSTRATED PDF BOOKLET and VIDEO! "Bee with Shadows: An Illustrated Look Bee-hind The Scenes" (by Abby Ahmad)
    Purchasable with gift card

      $10 USD  or more

     

  • Compact Disc (CD) + Digital Album

    Comes in a lovely light wallet case, with 6-page lyric insert.

    Includes unlimited streaming of Tea with Shadows via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality download in MP3, FLAC and more.
    ships out within 5 days
    Purchasable with gift card

      $20 USD or more 

     

  • Full Digital Discography

    Get all 8 Abby Ahmad releases available on Bandcamp and save 10%.

    Includes unlimited streaming via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality downloads of Heart Sounds, Tea with Shadows, Bully, High Diving, Because, The Drone, Curriculum, and The Rearview. , and , .

    Purchasable with gift card

      $57.60 USD or more (10% OFF)

     

1.
Find Out 03:56
Hush now child I’m always with you Wrapped inside And round the issue Tucked behind The bone and tissue Stand beside Is what I wish you Is what I wish you Is what I wish you It’s what I wish you would do Rest now child The tale, It is true Self-subside My aim is to kiss you Don’t you find The more we do collide The less we mind The side that runs And hides out And we find out What we find out Oh what things we find When we uncover We discover What we Find out And we find out And we find out…
2.
Bully 03:20
Bow out before the one Who made you run Run Give up the ghost The host The choke hold Before your way is won Your kingdom done come Who knows how bold It will all unfold Fold... Oh oh, Oh oh Bow down before the one Whose seam’s come undone Give up your post The roast The joke told Before your day is done You done played your own pun The rock, it rolled Just as the bell tolled Told Told you so So? Oh oh, Oh oh
3.
Because 04:43
First the pride Then the pain Growing shelter Growing shame What’s the wax, Without the wane? Why’s the answer always out of range? All this fire All this flame Throwing punches Throwing blame Feel the crunch But never the change We wonder why things seem to stay the same When we learn to let it go Then we earn the space to grow The more we feel the need to know The more the complications show Trouble is as trouble does The bubble bursts Just because But you and I will rise above We’ll rise, my love Trouble is as trouble does The rubble hurts Just because Trouble is as trouble does But you and I We rise
4.
Counterfeit 02:36
Shut it down That’s the end of it Call it out It’s a counterfeit Had me fooled When the fraction fit Gave my whole To be part of it Fiction’s fact Yeah the fight is fixed Coward’s crutch Crooked confidence Who knew lies When they’re dressed up right Could charm even the most suspect mind It’s unkind Got to trade up the trick To be more than it Spotlight Starbright That’s the pitch Make ‘em swoon Wait, but there’s a hitch! Shoot the moon See it fall to shit To just be, not become That’s the bitch The glitch Don’t scratch the itch Got to trade up the trick To be more than it Yeah it tugs a bit That counter fit And we take take take take Take the hit Make it don’t fake it Make it don’t fake it Take it then break it
5.
Oh my Give it a try Give it a go Honey, gimme a smile Cause who knows Where it all goes Where it all lies On the inside There’s crime creeping up Through the center of me Would you open me up? Tell me what it is you see Cause I can’t decide What’s the matter with me And the old looking glass been shattered See? Do you read me? Come in please See, I’m made Of belly & heart Not a bad start But incomplete I hurt you Now you hurt me Rinse and repeat Call it defeat There’s crime creeping up Through the center of me Would you open me up? Tell me what it is you see Cause I can’t decide What’s the matter with me And the old canvas been splattered See? Do you read me? Come in please Do you read me? Come in please Do you read me? Come in please...
6.
The Count 02:40
Now is negated Never’s the vibe Self-suffocated Panic prescribed Holds me under the water Death says that daughter can’t hide Fret is my fodder Best served when eaten alive I’m separated Arced and archived Each foe and failure Tabbed, ticked, and transcribed Print and press for the blotter, “Sheep to the slaughter!” Am I? Cold is the cotter And she’s set to skin me alive So don’t count on counting I’m down for the count A dead head for mounting Just name the amount Oh, the dread of doubting One cannot account I’m gonna go down shouting, “Just name the amount!”
7.
Wind 05:38
Sometimes my mouth can’t speak for itself Sometimes it don’t translate Sometimes the house has a hold on my health Sometimes the mute is my mate Sometimes the sound’s got nothing to say Sometimes the wind’s a wheeze Inside my chest, something’s making a mess Sometimes it gets harder to breathe Breathe… Breathe… Breathe in Sip in the sound and begin Breathe out Deflate the droning And drown any old doubt Breathe in Breathe out Grieve And face about Or go without And be without Sometimes my mind just presses rewind Sometimes the slate won’t clean Sometimes resigned to a future defined By two lungs that will run out of steam Sometimes I swear I’m gasping for air Sometimes the wind just weighs Somewhere on the trail of the in and exhale I somehow have lost my way Stay… Stay... And breathe in Sip in the sound and begin Breathe out Deflate the droning And drown any old doubt Breathe in Breathe out Grieve And face about Or go without And be without You can’t live without Can’t live without
8.
I am not a twist in fate Nor am I the treasure underneath the weight And I am not the black inside the blue Nor am I the rosy color dressed as truth Somewhere in between is how I do Somewhere off of me and onto you I am not a lost to be found Nor am I the foot that lands on solid ground And I am not the open road ahead Nor am I the monster underneath the bed Somewhere in between is where I tread Following the path that’s better led Underneath the breath that’s better said Will it be a yes or no? (Uh huh) Will we find the way to go? (Aha) Wonder how the wind will blow (Ha ha) Do we ever know? Do we ever know? (Oh no) I am not the dawn of time Nor will I be waiting at the end of the line Somewhere in between I call it mine Somewhere in between...
9.
Little Lies 03:19
Why do we fall apart? Predict the end Never the start Try to see Light through dark Impossible When head beats heart In a flash Life comes crashing down Why do we pick apart Our souls Our cells It’s off the chart Fallacy We do impart What’s possible If we got smart? In the past Time has smacked you around Shadow cast The path is yet to be found Can never gauge your flight In someone else’s sky Why question why From distance so high Oh, we house it deep inside The imbalance of pride Fly to find Fly to find Fly to fight Those little lies Seek and ye shall find The lies They’re sly
10.
High Diving 04:40
Imagine yourself Tip of the top Distance so high Your ears would pop One slip of a step Is a fast fall from grace One second you’re golden Next flat on your face To dare to look down The dip of the drop To rise to renown Or flip like a flop Would you fasten yourself? Just in case? Come teeter the tightrope Rally your pride Straddle that steep slope Lengthen your stride Cause time’s of the essence Click goes the clock Paralyzed in its presence You’re ticked by the tock Are you up for the mission? In for the ride? Confounding conditions But yours to decide What you stand for What do you stand for? Stand up Stand up Stand upright Stand up Stand up Stand up right
11.
Nice Try 02:23
It’s coming faster now Not the no But the know-how Bright light between the brows No running past it now Not the sum But the somehow Can’t spell or sell it out Wide awake I’m awake By mistake It cracked enough to break Stumbling about it now Not the tune But the turnaround Back is front And upside, Down And it’s humming louder now Not to go But to get out Of the path that fear allows Get out alive Nice try Never you mind Nice try Nice try It’s coming faster now Not just to know But to know how
12.
Wherever we land Whatever it takes Whenever the plan Blows sideways in a hurricane No chain of command No foot on the brake But wherever we stand Would you say that one thing remains? When the carbon from the fire Makes it harder now to breathe When the jargon from the liars Got us rolling up our sleeves In the sickness Through the sirens And the stark reality Amidst blindness There is kindness Come on and tell me that you see Say you believe Say you believe Say you believe Say you believe When the carbon from the fire Makes it harder now to breathe When the jargon from the liars Got us tossing in our sleep In the sadness Through the silence Of this stark reality Something timeless There is kindness Go on and tell me that you see Say you believe Say you believe Say you believe Say you believe Say it to me Say it to me Say it to me now
13.
Every voice that haunts you Every ghost that hovers in the hall Every choice that taunts you Invite them in Let them in Every voice that mocks you Every specter wailing through the wall Every choice that stalks you now Invite them in Let them in The monsters in your head Invite them to your bed Divorce the fear you’ve wed And try some love instead For doubts, you see Are sad foes They know not what the heart knows Play hostess to the shadows And let them in Let them in…

about

The foundation of Ahmad's new album Tea with Shadows was seeded in the singer-songwriter's childhood home in rural Pennsylvania. She refers to the experience -- immersing herself in her past and history -- as “greenhousing." With the support of her partner in music and in life, Mark Marshall, Ahmad laid down half the album’s tracks surrounded by nature, cultivating her ideas and giving them room to properly grow. This organic experiment blossomed into her unique species of genre-bending poetry, resulting in Tea with Shadows.

The album was recorded in all three homes in which Ahmad has lived or is deeply bound up with -- the empty spirit-filled house of her recently passed grandparents, her spacious childhood discovery den with a pond view, and her compressed and boisterous live/work Brooklyn apartment, which she and Marshall have called home for the last ten years. Is there something special about transforming a home into a recording studio and can music document life lived in a home? The intimacy of Ahmad’s output answers both questions with a resounding yes. Besides, the kind of work that she produced, ever so thoughtfully over time, is work that could not have contained itself in a weekend white-box studio session. Tea with Shadows needed time and the right space to germinate and, in turn, asks listeners to spend time -- with the lyrics, the sonic textures, and emotions unearthed by the earnest content explored in the powerful range of tracks.

Nothing is standard nor off-limits to Ahmad, as illuminated in the lead track to the album, “Find Out”. A prologue to the 13-track tangled narrative traversed by this soulful singer-songwriter, the song explores the compassionate part of one’s psyche: "Rest now, child / The tale, it is true / Self-subside / My aim is to kiss you." It embodies the cyclical nature of one’s own questions and thoughts, with a noticeable reverence for Kirtan chants and Arabic/South Asian classical music, in its repetitive refrain: "And we find out / And we find out." Ahmad boldly, yet tenderly, announces her desire to root and grow with listeners, as each song sprouts from its intimate core -- the exploration of the self and its shadow.

The first half of the album launches with the taunting ode “Bully”, followed by “Because”, “Counterfeit” “Belly and Heart” and “The Count" -- suggesting personal, yet universal, struggles with vulnerability, fears, anxiety and perception. These tunes push listeners just off-kilter enough to contemplate the weight of their message but are buoyed up by Ahmad’s intoxicating voice. “Wind”, “Somewhere In Between”, “Little Lies”, “High Diving” and “Nice Try” attempt to restore balance, clarity and compassion -- a reconciliation with one’s darkness.

“Say You Believe”, a second half standout, is Ahmad’s hopeful reflection on the time in which we’re living, where empathy is absolutely crucial during global crises. She considers herself a believer and urges listeners to believe -- in the capacity for understanding ourselves and one another. The album concludes with the title track "Tea with Shadows": "The monsters in your head / Invite them to your bed / Divorce the fear you’ve wed / And try some love instead." Ahmad whispers, lulling listeners into an unmistakable trance -- two lullabys bookend this profound work requiring listeners to, indeed, “sleep on it” and digest slowly, patiently, in the same spirit this collection of songs was created.

credits

released July 16, 2021

All music and lyrics by Abby Ahmad
© 2021 Detour Music (ASCAP)

Produced by Mark Marshall & Abby Ahmad
Engineered & Mixed by Mark Marshall
Recorded at The Haive (Brooklyn, NY) and Family Tree Studios (Dallas, PA)

Additional engineering by Todd Caldwell (High Diving-organ), Nick Oddy (Because-synths), Adam Minkoff & Elizabeth Ziman (The Count-backing vocals)

Additional mixing by Bob Stander @ Parcheesi Studios (Bully, High Diving) and Geoff Sanoff (Because)

Mastered by Alan Silverman (Aerial Sound, LLC)

Album Cover Design by Tyler Morgan
Additional Design by Martin Rivas
Photography by Abby Ahmad & Mark Marshall

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Abby Ahmad Brooklyn, New York

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