This song was based on one of my favourite Ray Bradbury short stories, "The Rocket Man" and was included on our Sushi And High Tea live concert CD. Of the songs I've written, this is one of my personal favourites. It's not just about the short story, you see -- it's about love and loss and family.

I've always been a huge Ray Bradbury fan. His autograph had a prominent page in my collection as a teenager: 

You can hear "Homecoming" on my music group's live performance album. I'm playing the rhythm guitar part on this track, Allison Durno plays lead guitar bits and Jodi Krangle sings lead. Allison and I sing some backup during the chorus.

Even before I experienced family loss myself, I was deeply moved by this story and others by Ray Bradbury. His writing affected me in so many ways, and was a major factor in my own desire to be a writer.

 HOMECOMING

Words & music by Debbie Ridpath Ohi

C(add 9)       D/F#          G/B           A7sus
===========    ===========   ===========   ===========
| | | | | |    | | | | | |   | | | | | |   | | | | | |
-----------    -----------   -----------   -----------
| | x | | |    x | | x | |   | x | | | |   | | x | | |
-----------    -----------   -----------   -----------
| x | | x |    | | | | x |   | | | | x |   | | | | x |
-----------    -----------   -----------   -----------
| | | | | |    | | | | | |   | | | | | |   | | | | | |
-----------    -----------   -----------   -----------

Intro:  D   Cadd9  G/B  A7sus

     D/F#                       Cadd9
My mother looks into the sky, I think she hears him coming
D/F#                         Cadd9
but the stars are blinding her so she cannot see
G/B                                    A7sus
"Help me keep him home this time," she says to me.
               D    Cadd9  G/B  A7sus
"He's coming home."

My father walks into the house, we laugh in his embrace
The scent of fire and stardust cling to his hands and face
Already we are waiting for a sign
Will he stay this time?


CHORUS (strummed):
D          Cadd9           G/B        A7sus A7
I hear the stars, they are calling tonight
C                 G/B
Listen, can't you hear them?
D          Cadd9           G/B        A7sus A7
I hear the stars, they are calling tonight
Cadd9
Calling me home
            D   Cadd9 G/B   A7sus
Calling me home.


He takes us to the carnival and swimming in the ocean
We picnic in the mountains, our faces to the sun
Each moment is a gift I take with me
A memory.

My father sits beside me, his laughter ringing true
"What's it like in space?" I ask as I always do
His eyes grow distant and he smiles, but mom...
she looks away.


BRIDGE:
Em           A          Cadd9
Before my father leaves, he takes me aside
    D        Cadd9        G/B               A
He says, "The next I come back, I won't be leaving
D         Cadd9          G/B              A
Tell your mother that I love you both and I am
        D    Cadd9  G/B  A7sus
coming home."

CHORUS

In the fading sunset, the message comes next day
His ship fell into the sun, a blaze of gold and gray
I try to tell Mom but she turns away...
             D    Cadd9  G/B  A7sus  D Cadd9  G/B  A7sus
and goes inside.

My mother looks into the sky, I think she hears him coming
but the stars are blinding her so she cannot see
The winds are cold, I hear them whisper to me
"He's coming home."

CHORUS (twice)

 LIBRARY BOY

Words & music by Debbie Ridpath Ohi / Short URL for sharing: http://bit.ly/LibraryBoy

Here's a home recording with Jodi Krangle on vocals and me on MIDI guitar (if you like Jodi's vocals, do check out her Voiceoversandvocals.com site!). This was a surprise birthday gift from Urban Tapestry to our librarian friend, Rand Bellavia, in April 2002. We don't tend to perform this in public anymore.

I've included chords and lyrics below in case anyone wants to cover this. If you do, I'd love to know!

Jodi's voiceover career has really been taking off, for example! Here's one of her recent projects, doing the voice narration for a Hood Sour Cream commercial:

Saturday:http://allisona.livejournal.com/486257.html

Getting inducted into the Hall Of Fame:http://allisona.livejournal.com/486575.html

Sunday:http://allisona.livejournal.com/486892.html

We had some DVDs left over from our FilKONtario launch, and will be making them available online soon. :-)

In this trailer: Photo stills courtesy Phil Mills, John Hall, Walter Korynkiewicz.

Allison will be posting more in her Livejournal, but here's my personal perspective on the honour.

Photo by Allison Durno

We're delighted to announce the launch of our very first filk DVD to be available commercially:

URBAN TAPESTRY: BEHIND THE MUSIC (A MOCKUMENTARY)

We have printed 100 copies. 25 are already spoken for, going to our contributors and our own copies, but we'll have 75 for sale at FilKONtario this weekend. Our joint launch party with Talis Kimberly, who is debuting her Duckon concert CD, will be in the con suite at 11:15 pm on Friday.

From Debbie...

John, Allison, Jodi and I worked very hard on this project, which has been in progress for about a year. Mega thanks to the brilliant Mark Bernstein, who did the narration.

Huge thanks also to John Durno, who was our producer, director and editor. Do check out John's other video projects and "Like" his page at B.O.T. (Brains On Toast Productions) and visit the Brains On Toast YouTube Channel.

We're also incredibly grateful to our mock video interview contributors, whom we will gradually be interviewing (about themselves, not about us!) for the Urban Tapestry website over the course of the year:

Jeff and Maya Bohnhoff as themselves
Gary Ehrlich as UT's Publicity Manager
Errol Elumir as a UT Fanboy
Beckett Gladney as UT's Costume Designer
Dave Hayman as UT's Business Advisor
Judith Hayman as Allison's Next Door Neighbour
Tom Jeffers as TJ the DJ (Squirrel 104.1FM)
Sue Jeffers as Constance Bowers
Walter Korynkiewicz as Larry Korak
Brooke Lunderville as Jodi's Counsellor at Empty Promises
Sibylle Machat as Hilda Hütchen. Unfortunately Sib's name got mangled in the final credits of the Mockumentary-- humble apologies!
Mark Osier as himself
Mich Sampson as Persephone Finch
Taunya Gren as herself
Amanda Snyder as UT's Personal Assistant
Marilisa Valtazanou as herself

I saw the whole thing for the first time last week, when Allison, Jodi, John and I got together, and was SO SOOOOOOO tickled at how wonderfully it turned out.

Not only did Mark and the contributors do a fantastic job, but John did some brilliant work editing and putting the whole thing together. There are video clips of pseudo-interviews, photo stills and video clips from our very early days as Urban Tapestry (as far back as 1994) and through the years up to the present.

Also included, courtesy Tom Jeffers, John Durno and FilKONtario:

THREE FULL PERFORMANCE BONUS VIDEOS...

1. Our performance of The Seventies Song in 2008 at FKO, with Walter Korynkiewicz as The Seventies Guy. Video courtesy Walter.

2. Our performance of The Neurotic Love Song in 2009 at FKO, with Walter as Jean-Luc. Each time we perform this, I always swear it's going to be THE LAST TIME. If you haven't ever seen us perform this song live, then watch this video to see why. Video courtesy Walter.

3. Our performance of The Question (a Lord of The Rings song) in 2003 when we performed it at a Tolkien convention at the Medieval Times. This song has NEVER BEFORE BEEN RECORDED. I especially like this video because the three of us are dressed up in our medieval costumes, and the backdrop is pretty cool. Filmed & edited by John Durno.

(Above: John filming Walter for a scene in the Mockumentary; John added a backdrop later)

When I was watching the mockumentary for the first time, I was struck by how well John has integrated both our pseudo history and our real history as well as capturing the fun and friendship throughout. And whoa -- he pulled out some reeeeally old concert footage that I hadn't seen in a very long time.

Anyway, please do consider buying this DVD. Price: Cdn $20.

If any are left over after FilKONtario, we'll make some available once we figure out how much to charge for shipping & handling.

Check out the cool hand-stitched bag that local filker Carolyn Brown made for me last year! Allison and Jodi also got personalized bags.

 -- Debbie

We'll gradually be adding back content to this site, so thanks for your patience.

-- Debbie