Paper Lanterns

The story

Ellis wrote her wish on the lantern's paper hem — “more songs, braver ones” — and watched it climb until it looked like a slow star. The melody came the next morning on the train home, humming against the window glass so as not to wake anyone. The cello line is the train's rhythm, slowed to half speed.

At album-listening nights, fans write wishes on paper slips that the crew strings across the venue. By the encore the room looks like the sky from that night.

“Paper lanterns up the hill,
every wish is burning still.
Write your name across the flame —
let it rise, never the same.”

Chorus · words & music by Vera Ellis