> Cara > Songs > Blood, Ice and Ashes

Blood, Ice and Ashes

[Kim Edgar, Karine Polwart, Kenny Anderson]

Kim Edgar and Karine Polwart were fed up with Scottish murder ballads where women only had a passive role as cause or victim of the murder. They wanted a woman to get the chance to be the murderer and thus wrote Blood, Ice and Ashes.

Karine Polwart sang Blood, Ice and Ashes in 2010 on the Burns Unit album Side Show and in 2011 on her DVD Here’s Where Tomorrow Starts.

Kim Edgar recorded Blood, Ice and Ashes in 2012 for her solo album The Ornate Lie. In this video, she performed it at Rothbury Roots, Rothbury, Northumberland, on 21 March 2013:

Kim also sang Blood, Ice and Ashes with Gudrun Walther in 2013 on their Cara album Horizon. This video shows Cara at the 35^th Cork Folk Festival on 5 October 2014:

Lyrics

Kim Edgar sings Blood, Ice and Ashes

The night she went looking, there was blood, ice and ashes
A shivering ember that cut up the dark
She had flint in her fingers, eyes sparking with ire
And splinters of other cold nights in her heart

Just a little white rose, a glint in the snow, ice in the bone and she said:
I’ll be right behind you, in the shards of the mirror, I’ll be there, I’ll be there
Just over your shoulder, you won’t see me coming, I’ll be there, I’ll be there

Well she sought him in shadows and in whispers and ditches
She could still taste the bolt of his breath on the wind
Through barbed wire and bracken and broken illusions
She could still taste the salt in the cracks of her skin

Just a little black rose, a thorn in the snow, ash in her veins and she said:
I’ll be right behind you, in the shards of the mirror, I’ll be there, I’ll be there
I’ll follow, I’ll find you, you won’t see me coming, I’ll be there, I’ll be there

When she finally found him asleep in the garden
She flickered just once, and then banished all doubt
She clutched all of her promise and hope in her pocket
Struck steel upon stone, and just let it all out

Just a little red rose, a stain on the snow, blood on her hands and she said:
I’ll be right behind you, in the shards of the mirror, I’ll be there, I’ll be there
I’ll follow, I’ll find you, you won’t see me coming, I’ll be there, I’ll be there

She let it all out