Odes to Georgia · Track 22 · closer
Georgia Cultural Pillars
Georgia cultural institutions — the High Museum of Art Renzo Piano expansion, Atlanta Symphony Orchestra at Symphony Hall, Alliance Theater at the Woodruff, Atlanta Opera at Cobb Energy, SCAD Savannah College of Art and Design, Telfair Museums Savannah, Georgia Aquarium one of the largest, Center for Civil and Human Rights, Allman Brothers Band Museum at the Big House, Hammonds House African American art, Center for Puppetry Arts, the Georgia Music Hall of Fame in Macon, the Carter Presidential Library and Museum, the Booth Western Art Museum Cartersville
Lyrics
[Intro] [Verse 1] You, old Steinway in Symphony Hall, keys worn from Robert Spano's hands in 2001, that May evening when the Woodruff lights dimmed. Your ivory teeth remember the hush, the air thick with polished brass and coffee from the cafe downstairs. I lean close, whisper to your strings, how they carried gospel to Ray Charles in Albany, echoed in the Big House where Duane's Gibson slept. [Chorus] Oh, pillar of notes, you hold Georgia's breath, from Renzo Piano's white atrium spirals in 2005, to the Jepson Center's marble cool on a July afternoon. You vibrate with the puppet strings at the Center, Big Bird's feathers dusted in that quiet room off Spring Street. We are intimate here, you and I, in the blue glow of the Aquarium's tank at 4 PM, whale shark gliding like a forgotten score. [Verse 2] Remember the Alliance stage, Coca-Cola lights in 2007, costumes stitched in the back, threads pulling stories from Hammonds House walls. Your lid lifts to SCAD's charcoal dust in Arnold Hall, live oaks whispering outside, Telfair's old wood scent mingling. Carter's library plaque from October 1, 1986, papers yellowed, Camp David ink still sharp. Booth's bronzes in Cartersville, Remington's paint dry since the West was wild. [Bridge] And in Macon's Hall of Fame, though doors closed now, your echo lingers, gaps in the records like missing names, artisans unnamed in Jepson logs from 2006. But you, Steinway, you fill them, with the hum of filters in the Ocean Voyager, the temperature drop in Savannah's haze. [Chorus] Oh, pillar of notes, you hold Georgia's breath, from the High's Banjo Lesson strokes in 1896, to the Civil Rights Center's shadowed halls. You vibrate with opera at Cobb Energy's glass in 2007, auditorium warm, audience perfume faint. We are intimate here, you and I, in the endurance of granite from Stone Mountain's dome. [Outro] Rest now, old friend, in this reflective light, Georgia's cultural spine, unbroken.