Long ago in a Mediterranean land

There was a king, only one man

And his crookedest friends, that’s where the story could end.

You worked every day in a field full of stones,

The bounty was laid at the feet of the thrones,

That were mountains away, many days and mountains away

But out of the earth, that never gave you anything free

Came the fruit on the branch from the olive tree.

There’s oil for your lamps, you can read by their light,

I’ll teach you to read, I’ll teach you to write,

Under an olive tree. Under an olive tree.

Aristotle walked away from the walls

Wandered from Plato’s academy halls

He was putting his trust  In the total of all of us,

Out on a peripatetical mission

Challenging all take a position,

A logic of sorts, a way to learn in the back and the forth

And in the heart of the land

From near and from far, you could be one of them,

You’d pick up a black or white stone

And go to the hill, they showed up to vote

Under an olive tree, under an olive tree.

While the self-appointed tyrants try to tear it all apart

The olive tree grows in the light of a bright and constant star,

We’re printing our books, we’re pressing the fruit,

In the light of the sun and coming up from the roots,

It’s ten forty-five and I’m thinking about

Civilization, the moon has come out

For these strangers and friends,

I’m at a party of strangers and friends,

All of these arguments everyone makes,

Discussing the planet, discussing the state

of the government,

All of these strangers and friends,

It’s like we have returned to that hill,

But there are more of us now, and the circle is widening still

In the back and the forth, it’s like we’re holding a trust,

Like we know that we count, like something’s counting on us,

And I hear all these voices rise up like an offering

We’re a part it all, when no one promised us anything,

And this is my world, it’s the air that I breath,

This most enlightened of groves, this most sacred of trees,

California, back in 1913,

Professors came up Berkeley

They’d studied the dirt

Planted olive trees in the earth ,

Collegial friends, hopeful and patient,

No chemicals needed and no irrigation

They were planting their trust

In the future of all of us

As they watered each sapling tree,

They’d stop and look up to see what their children would see

They’d come to the hill, the trees would be here, and

Would continue to grow over one thousand years

Under an olive tree, under an olive tree.

Dan Rieser - drums/percussion

Chris Morrisey - Acoustic bass

Mike Visceglia - Electric bass

Ken Rich - omnichord

Rich Hinman - pedal steel

Bryn Roberts - kee bass, piano, synths

Clara Kennedy - cello

Andrew Sherman - string arrangement

Dar - acoustic guitars/vocals