1. |
A Rude Awake
03:08
|
|||
|
I’m not tired yet, I’m still spry
Got a good idea as to how and why
I've never been married, got no kids
A dog and a guitar are my best friends
Many years have come and gone
The road doesn’t end, so I just stay on
When the winds of change blow strong and true
I get to following the feeling to whatever it do
A rude awake
With no ill will there was a lesson learned
It’s that a bridge is fit for crossing if the bridge isn’t burned
From red-eyed strangers to a nervous bliss
I heard a pop song say that you can tell from a kiss
And so we fell into a foreign place
Didn’t know where we were going, it’s a rookie mistake
On the other hand, it feels good to run
With someone for a little bit, move on when it's done
A rude awake
Last night sitting there I broke down and cried
I wonder how I’m gonna feel when I’m seventy-five
If I never got married, no grandkids
No one there to tell me that I’m loved and I’m missed
So may the mission be to let the light come in
It’s as easy as you let it be, again and again
On a wing and a prayer into the great unknown
I'll see you on the other side free from this flesh and bone
A rude awake
A rude awake
A rude awake
|
||||
2. |
Ghosts Of
02:49
|
|||
|
You’re more like a light
I’m more like the dark
Feeding off and bleeding all
The best things that you are
We were on the prowl
Always on the mend
Dressed in suits of armor
Looking hard for new best friends
Abuelita she just laughed when we said
It’s nothing like you’ve ever seen
As if the sum of all existence lived in
The fever of our wildest dreams
Every night we’d kiss
At exactly ten o’six
Not because we wanted to
Just to say we did
Two had become one
Something had to die
The ego in my appetite
Or the apple in your eye
Tension in our sleep
A stalemate in our bed
It seems like anything I ever touch
Always ends up dead
Ghosts of our Love
Aren’t the vengeant kind
What haunts me is in knowing
All the blame is mine
You’re more like a light
I’m more like the dark
Feeding off and bleeding all
The best things that you are
Feeding off and bleeding all
The best things that you are
|
||||
3. |
A Brother's Lament
04:55
|
|||
|
Lately I’ve been trying to talk to you
You’re so good at everything you do
A bad dream come true
You were destined to
I’ve been working hard to cash these checks
You can do it right on your phone now, what the heck
It’s such a different mess
Than it was when you left
Roads still drive me home
Songs still sing
But it would have been better if you were here for everything
I can still hear you looking for a melody
I remember learning all night long
Early morning versions of heavy metal songs
You said welcome home
Sanitarium
Brandon’s got depression worse than dad
He tried to call it quits and he even failed at that
Is how it probably lands
With a troubled man
Roads still drive me home
Songs still sing
But it would have been better if you were here for everything
I can still hear you looking for a melody
There’s a railroad line that starts where I live
And runs thirty feet north of your grave in Sheridan
One day I’ll hop right in
And see where it ends
Past the river and the prison and the memories
Thru Ottawa all the way to Galilee
Where our family tree
Can grow wild and free
Roads still drive me home
Songs still sing
But it would have been better if you were here for everything
I can still hear you looking for a melody
|
||||
4. |
Bluegrass Cats
03:03
|
|||
|
I can’t pick as fast as those bluegrass cats
I’ve got an apprehensive, slow right-hand
Too many words or maybe not enough nerve
It’s surprising for as blue as I am
O’er yonder stands Little Junie
On a pink ukulele in May
And the way she asks if we can sing another song
Leaves me smiling with nothing to say
Rolling thunder, driving rain
Woke up in the morning to
The sound of you forgetting my first name
Hey hey, roll on
Buddy, I’m still here, but you are gone
Where were you last Friday night
When we were double booked in Bowling Green
I saw myself out and found a spot on the ground
To sing “Paradise” without being seen
Friends came fast like three-legged cats
Hopping fences on Halloween night
Picking and grinning with a litter of kittens
Finding answers in a bottle of rye
Rolling thunder, driving rain
Woke up in the morning to
The sound of you forgetting my first name
Hey hey, roll on
Buddy, I’m still here, but you are gone
Now I’m limping thru the Bible Belt
Anxious as I’ve ever felt
Getting good at questioning myself
I lost my shoes on a riverbank
I never wear ‘em anyway
I know how much these weathered souls can take
But I can’t pick as fast as those bluegrass Cats
I’ve got a contemplate slow right hand
Too many words or maybe not enough nerve
I guess that’s a-just the way that I am
Rolling thunder, driving rain
Woke up in the morning to
The sound of this sweet, sweet refrain
Hey hey, roll on
Buddy, I’m still here
The future is unclear
Buddy, I'm still here
But you are gone
|
||||
5. |
Secret Science
03:20
|
|||
|
Is there a secret science we don’t know about
Is there a secret science we don’t know about
The systematic study of a giant falling down
There’s a sickness spreading, it’s getting everyone I know
There’s a sickness spreading and it’s getting everyone I know
You get louder and prouder the less and less you know
They say every morning is the chance for a brand new start
They say every morning is the chance for a brand new start
Saying it is easy, but doing it is nothing but hard
So I laid down last night on a bed I did not make
I laid down last night on a bed I did not make
I was looking for love, but you just pointed out my mistakes
There’s an echo chamber in an insulated empty room
There’s an echo chamber in an insulated empty room
Nobody ever listens, they just look at you
I saw the President bleeding in a dream I had on Christmas Eve
I saw a resident pleading in a dream I had on Christmas Eve
I ain’t got no tricks, got nothing up my sleeve
Is there a secret science we don’t know about
Is there a secret science we don’t know about
The systematic study of a giant falling down
|
||||
6. |
Sarcophagus
05:27
|
|||
|
I am still living in the tomb of our love
With your spirit and some of your stuff
Around
Still here
This Navajo blanket, your bed and TV
It’s never on, but it watches me
Go down
Again
I don’t regret anything that we did
I do not long for the touch of your skin
No more
Sometimes
I think what gets me is the weight of it all
Falling down from a place so tall
And true
Is hard
You may be alone tonight or not
I feel like a song that time forgot
Repeating on an empty room jukebox
So far from anyone
How can anyone
Be lovers if we’re still not friends
And it’s a long way down
You know
I am still living in the tomb of our love
But your spirit and all of your stuff
Is gone
I’m still here
I got a brand new blanket, I blew up your TV
I’m doing good
As good as I can be
It's not bad
And you may be alone tonight or not
I feel like a song that time forgot
Repeating on an empty room jukebox
So far from anyone
How can anyone
Be lovers if we’re still not friends
|
||||
7. |
Weep Now, America
03:38
|
|||
|
I was born in Illinois
The Midwest is my home
Far away from any terrorist state
Or streets that I would not roam
But if I were to listen to
Some of you and not my heart
I’d bring the cheapest migrant workers in
To build a wall just to keep ‘em out
Weep now, America
A black wind moans
Will those who plant injustice
Reap what they sow
I gave up getting drunk
On weekdays, before dawn
Unless I’m up from the night before
And Shotgun Willie comes on
But my mind is still clearer than
What it is we’re all fighting about
I see a government with an eagerness
To kick the little peasants around
Weep now, America
A black wind moans
Will those who plant injustice
Reap what they sow
I like Ike
And Willie Mays
Old radio with real DJs
And I know everything
Wasn’t always peaches and cream
But, Mama, I’m too scared to American dream
If I die in Illinois
Send me down to New Orleans
And prop me up on a barstool
At any joint down on Frenchmen Street
So when the waters rise and take the Big Easy back
I’ll be washed out clear to sea
It’s too late now to do this planet proud
We’ll be drowning as we sing
Weep now, America
A black wind moans
Will those who plant injustice
Reap what they sow
Will those who face injustice
Start throwing stones
|
||||
8. |
||||
|
I got high for the very first time
At fifteen with my friends
And ate some kind of veg-a-table
That’s been elusive to me since
The joint was the size of a cucumber
With an ounce of weed or more
We lit up at five to noon
And the damn thing burned ‘til four
I didn’t think I even felt that much
Until I stood up off the couch
And floated up them basement stairs
Into the heat of a dragon’s mouth
We fell back to my Mama’s house
Weary-eyed and slow
That’s where I was chowing down
When my dear old Mama come home
You never seen two stoners run so fast
Thru the backdoor, quick on our feet
Huffing and puffing like we stole something
Being anything but discreet
But we survived and high high-fived
I bought a Zebra Cake up the way
Walked around ‘til we came down
It was nothing but an innocent day
So lay off the grass
Lay off the weed
It’s not a Class One
It’s a flower from a seed
And I love flowers
Everybody does
I think of dirty pharmaceuticals
When I think of drugs
(I think about it)
I got high for the thousandth time
At twenty-five with my band
And rode around for all these years
Singing songs wearing funny hats
I’ve met a lot people suffering from all kinds of things
Hanging on by a thread
And I can relate so we would stay up late
And spend a little time out of our heads
Again and again, the best medicine
From lawyers up to hotel maids
Give an epileptic kid a little cannabis
Put some butter in a birthday cake
So lay off the grass
Lay off the weed
It’s not a mortal sin
It’s a flower from a seed
And I love flowers
Everybody does
I think of dirty pharmaceuticals
Overpriced medicinals
Escaping from a hospital
When I think of drugs
|
||||
9. |
Mariclaire
04:45
|
|||
|
She was far from perfect
But perfect all the same
“A rose is still a rose” we’re told
By any other name
How she graced this Earth
You’ll never know if you weren’t there
Words alone just don’t suffice
Describing Mariclaire
Dancing through a cheated life
It’s said the good die young
She left with all her words unsaid
And all her songs unsung
If I had to guess I know
She’d do it all again
She lived more life in just one day
Than most will live in ten
She held your heart
She touched your soul
And though the world
Has long grown cold
She came along
And filled the air
With warmth and love
Sweet Mariclaire
Sister, can you hear me now
Across the starry miles
I see your face, I hear your voice
Come back to us awhile
Your baby girls have grown up strong
With all their mother’s flare
And in their light you’re shining thru
We miss you Mariclaire
We are far from perfect
What’s perfect, anyway
We’re born, we struggle
Just to die another day
Why must it be so hard to learn
What she knew all along
What matters most is how we live
And love before we’re gone
She held your heart
She touched your soul
And though the world
Has long grown cold
She came along
And filled the air
With warmth and love
Sweet Mariclaire
And now it’s years
And years ago
Those she left
Have all grown old
She will remain
Forever faire
Forever young
Sweet Mariclaire
She will remain
Forever faire
Forever young
Sweet Mariclaire
|
||||
10. |
Covington
02:05
|
|||
|
Take a day for yourself
Only you, no one else
No one wants to hold you like I do
I’ll come down to Covington
When you’re ready, let me in
I ain’t ever known a girl like you
We’ll dance all the time
You came down with bad news
On the very day we met
Sleeping in a bookstore feels alone
We decree that magic
And the idea that to grab it
Is to trust in something else to get you home
We’ll dance all the time
We’ll dance all the time
Please forgive my darkest thoughts
The ones I wish you hadn’t saw
Don’t know why I do the things I do
Chaos is the dance we learn
Take my hand, let it burn
I ain’t ever known a girl like you
We’ll dance all the time
You flew south to Ecuador
To open up a brand new door
And find a way to let love win again
A Phoenix has to burn to grow
Not to say I told you so
But home is just a place we’ve never been
We’ll dance all the time
We’ll dance all the time
We’ll dance all the time
|
||||
11. |
Anchor Chains
03:45
|
|||
|
I like the sound of anchor chains
The whistle of a train
Something in the humming
Of a single-engine plane
Going somewhere
But nowhere fast
When morning takes the nighttime
With syllables and soft rhyme
That old cold comfort crazy bright
As any light in my mind
I can see the future
As it lie
Time flies like a sparrow
Being chased by death
Fruit flies like the flesh
Of rotting peaches
When they taste their best
I used to write love letters
To the villain in my dreams
Never heavy-handed
Always firm, but short and sweet
Sometimes even bad guys
Know they are
Only for the chorus
Would she ever sing along
Her saddest childhood memory
Was her favorite country song
Nothing else could make her feel
So tall
Time flies like a sparrow
Being chased by death
Fruit flies like the flesh
Of rotting peaches
When they taste their best
When you're down at the bottom
Of your last empty pocket
Or your higher than your hopes have ever been
I’ve laid down a lot when
The only bed to sleep in
Was on fire or too cold to call a friend
I like the sound of feeling strange
The turning of a page
Something in the humming
Of a single-engine plane
Going somewhere
But nowhere fast
I’m going somewhere
But nowhere fast
|
||||
If you like Songs Still Sing, you may also like:
In the Key of Grey
by Matt Dorrien
Nilsson and Newman meet in Matt Dorrien’s deeply-felt piano-driven barroom ballads.
go to album
Sweet Old Religion
by Pharis & Jason Romero
Sweet harmonies & strummed melodies; the duo delve into decades-old folk, jazz, and country to find a timeless kind of love and connection.
go to album
Dakota Blue Moon
by Jackson Harden
Gorgeous acoustic Americana from North Carolina, stripped-back and sublime.
go to album
All New
by Tom Paxton, Cathy Fink & Marcy Marxer
The sound of classic country music abounds on the latest from Grammy-winners Cathy Fink & Marcy Marxer.
go to album
Old Habits
by Kat Wallace and David Sasso
This New Haven duo write bright and emotionally resonant folk music where sweeping strings elevate gorgeous melodies.
go to album
Papa Bear Sings Baby Bear a Lullaby in a Bearhouse
by Hige Kuma
Raucous jams from this Austin artist with hooks so immediate, they bury themselves in your brain.
go to album
Breathtakingly beautiful Americana bolstered by an assured sense of melody and razor-sharp lyrics.
go to album
