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Mark Shepard Sings

A Life In Song: 4 Decades of Original Music

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296 The Silkie Home Page

Traditional Irish folktales  abound of the shapeshifting magical seals that come to shore, and take off their seal skins to become human. If a human stole or hid their seal skin or “silkie” the Silkie had to stay in human form.

One of my favorite traditional Irish, Scottish, Scandinavian folklore stories, The Silkie is a story song that touches my own soul very deeply. When I perform this for audiences of children and adults I “tell” the story first, Then I sing it. The result is predictable. People of all ages get quiet. Some tear up. There is something deeply healing about a story of a free spirit (like all of us trapped in these bodies) enslaved or “domesticated” in a foreign environment that seems to trigger something in all of us that longs for freedom to truly be ourselves.

Who hasn’t envied seals or dolphins or other sea adapted animals who seem to thrive and be filled with joy at home in the oceans.

Anyway, this song is usually sung unaccompanied with just the Irish low whistle at the beginning and the end and the Bodhran supporting the choruses… but what I do live and where the song COULD go or could be with other instruments is what I explored here.

Enjoy!

Video:

Audio:

 

Previous Audio Releases:
Breathing Underwater CD
Bandcamp:

1998 Song Index

Main Song Index

Lyrics:

The Silkie
Song #296 | Written: 4/10/1998

Once there was a fisherman
on the salty sea
Who felt so very alone
That dreamed of a wife
Who could keep him company
And give to him a child and a happy home

One northern summer day
He was paddling his way
Through the tiny islands not far from home
When what did he espy
To his hunter’s practiced eye
But a maiden dancing on the rocks so while and free

Well the sun was in her eyes
So he caught her by surprise
After he had hidden her sealskin
She was a Silkie you see,
A magic creature of the sea
Who sometimes come ashore to walk in human form

Refrain:
Oh to be a Silkie of the sea
Oh to be a magic creature swimming free
Oh to know the secrets of the foam
Oh to love the ocean and to call it “Home”

She begged to be set free
But he said “No. Come with me.
In seven years your skin I will return…”
So sadly she obeyed and turned her back upon the waves
And took a path that led her to an early grave

In the passing of the days,
She gave birth to a babe
A human son with web between his toes
But she’d begun to fade
And to wither all away
A little more with every single passing day.

But she told the child tales
Of seals and fish and whales
She taught him how to sing and play the drum
She told him of the times
When she was strong and fine
She told him of the drier days that were to come

Refrain:

Six years she’d struggled on
Now she was almost gone
And the fisherman grew silent and grim
And still he did deny the quiet pleading in her eyes
As he told himself that somehow she could change her mind

Then one night the child awoke
To a strange unearthly note
A sound from deep beneath the moonlit waves
It was old grandfather seal
A legend now made real
Calling to his own to bring his daughter home

The boy tripped in the sand
And reaching out his hand
Touched the softness of her lost seal skin
The man had thrown it to the deep
Hoping so his wife to keep
But the Spirit of the sea had washed it in again

Refrain:

Well the boy took it to her
And she slipped into its fur
Once again her eyes were full of life
She was a Silkie you see,
And would have died if not set free
She was never meant to be a human wife

The boy began to cry
As she slipped into the tide
But he could not save her any other way
And on certain moonlit nights
He would sometimes catch her sight
And then they’d swim together in the healing waves

Refrain:

Instrumental:

The boy grew to a man
Who knew the ways of land
As well as the secrets of the sea
And I met him one time
Though he was old and almost blind
And he played the drum and sang this very story…

Refrain:

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Some reviews & testimonials

Love your lyrics!

Love your music! Love your lyrics!

Robin Bridgeford

Total awesomeness!!!

‘Let’s Run’ is MY FAVORITE so far.. I LOVE THIS ONE.. great job.. total awesomeness!!! I thank Jana Stanfield for introducing me to your gifts. I am grateful.

Merril

Brilliant!

Brilliant! I LOVE seeing the words to all these beloved songs, thanks!

Mary F.

Love the “Key To Your Cage” album…

Love the “Key To Your Cage” album. I hear so many different influences and styles woven throughout the songs, really keeps it interesting from start to finish!

Dan Z

Been singing the chorus since the first day I heard it…

I sh*t you not when I say I’ve been singing the chorus to Honest Rock since the first day I heard it. I sing this every single day. Many times a day. Seriously. It’s like a mantra to me. It soothes me:-)

Gene Moore

Your song was just perfect to start my day…

Mark, your song ‘Freedom (It’s Been  Long Road)’ was just perfect to start my day. I LOVE IT!  Thank you, Thank you.  Blessings to you and much gratitude for your musical gift.

Judy

Enjoying your songs so much…

Hello Mark. I am enjoying your songs so much! I’d love to see you play live somewhere.

Marianne

You have put a grown man in tears…

Mark, this song and message really hit home for me today. You have put a grown man in tears. Thank You for what you do. Sometimes I think you sound kind of cheesy, and then others, I think you are a genius, and I’m beginning to realize that you actually care about helping people. So hard to “get out of your own way” sometimes…thanks for the reminder.

Jeremy

I loved the song and listened to it 3 times….

Hi Mark, I just had to tell you this. I emailed my 3 granddaughters the song you wrote who are sisters with the youngest being 11 years old, has cerebral palsy and is very smart, is able to talk, very funny, uses a computer, is able to write, now is learning to play drums, emails me ‘Thanks. I do.’ I loved the song and listened to it 3 times.

Gail Russ

They love (your song) and ask to listen to it, ALWAYS.

My name is Cecile. I teach kindergarten at OMSD. I had the pleasure of using your song Together We Can Change The World to help my students make a difference in this wonderful world! They love it and ask to listen to it, ALWAYS.

Cecile Arvizo

I Love listening to all your songs…

Mark, you really are an amazing songwriter! I Love listening to all your songs and sitting in the creative aura they create!

Cheri

Your lyrics embody everything we hold sacred…

Your lyrics embody everything we hold sacred and dear as a faith community.

Gina Sullivan, Sisters of the Congregation of St. Joseph

For me these songs are transformational lessons in self-love…

Dear Mark, THANK YOU for sending *Spark & Flame*!!!! This CD certainly is a compilation of Conscious Love Songs! As I listen I am transported to memory after memory past, present and future, fulfilled and unfulfilled. I was flooded with many different emotions. I cried, laughed, held my breath and also breathed deep heart-centered breaths of connection to the Divine. I feel joy, grief, sadness, compassion, love, awe, freedom, kindness, gratitude and appreciation. For me these songs are transformational lessons in self-love, releasing, acceptance for what was, what is and who I am. Knowing that I am enough and that I am Divinely Loved.

J

Just awesome…

Your music is taking over my life and it’s awesome!

Eric

You write some great songs!

Hi Mark, You write some great songs! I really enjoyed listening to all of them on Spark and Flame. Thank you for all that you do. Keep up the good work! All the best.

Susan

Never fails to move me…

Your incredible music never fails to move me. Thank you, Mark.

Paula

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