We felt like perpetual searchers, going from one field to another, collecting experiences and learning along the way.

As long as we could remember, we were driven, always striving after one thing or another. Perhaps it was simply a natural expression of being young and adventurous—we didn’t know. In any case, we found ourselves moving from one thing to another, enjoying our lives, but constantly ambitious and restless.

We wrote this song as a way to consider the question: are we still “hunters” after all these years, centuries, millennia? Or, are we hunters who are finally beginning to learn how to become “still” after so many years of searching? And if we aren’t hunters and gatherers anymore— then what have we become?

Lyrics

Just before daybreak
Lone hunter walks
Quiet and unnoticed
By the grazing prey he stalks
He is hungry, empty, alone
Searching, so far away from home

Fresh tracks to follow
All senses meet
Instinct and nature
Determine if he eats
He is hungry, empty, alone
Searching, so far away from home

Every valley, the lay of the land
Living, thriving by his own hand
Every hillside, the river bend
He learns

Every day is just the same, the game
Nightfall brings time to reflect and collect
All the wanderings, wonderings
Justified grounds for the hunt

Long after sunset
Gathering grain
Lamenting losses
Taken by the rain
He is hungry, empty, alone
Searching, so far away from home

Knowing the harvest
Chaff from the wheat
Instinct and nature
Determine if he eats
He is hungry, empty, alone
Searching, so far away from home

Every valley, the lay of the land
Living, thriving by his own hand
Every hillside, the river bend
He learns

Gather, harvest, hunters still?
We learn

Credits

From Swinging Statues, track released 01 January 2004
Cheryl Martlage – Lyrics and vocals
Emerson Martlage – Music, guitar and vocals
Tom Tomasello – Producer/Arranger
Jim Bruno – Vocal producer
Mr Toad’s San Francisco – Mastering