1. |
to theoda
03:40
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cold in the kitchen you looked for the key to your dirty and dark attic door a dusty piece of my history you did hold my great gradad's banjo and asked me to please play a song for me and my sister Mary I won't keep you long just one before you go
cold in the room where they took you to live your last day before the day you passed I came to say hello and goodbye we did sing don't sit under the apple tree with anyone else but me until I do come on marching home memory filled your eyes and nearly killed my soul
I'm going to make a bad mistake and turn away cause it don't help to pray
cold under the sun preacher spoke all in rhyme about the holy and divine I did not hear him cause he can't tell me the truth there's only ashes left of you that I did place in the ground where you'll lie next to your husband waiting many years for you to come on marching home I said Theoda goodbye as I knelt down in sorrow now I don't feel so sad I just feel all alone
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2. |
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heaven's blue shore lay covered in dark storms and your dreams don't show what you look for and you don't know your name been buried away some where long ago you don't feel the same went looking for change got more than you hoped the bright gold of your guardian's halo has faded to a dim and you wandered down a path where the rocks roll and soon they're going mow you down you're feeling alone and so afraid your sense your grave not far down the road can't get back where you came further down the way is the only way to go
A raven lay dead in your doorway you placed him in the grass by the highway and left your only home wondering in an omen was trying to be shown not ten years on your own you see broken wings when your feeling down low through small town big city with your dream running on empty no longer do they show you how to feel free or what it really means to love red roses are all that's in your mind in a field far away somewhere down the line it's where the raven flies it's where you can live it's where you can die
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3. |
calling of the crows
06:20
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rain on the window falling steady and slow a room more like a tomb than a place to call home a song playing softly floats from the radio and I feel pain each note a flame burning down the road I came where weeping willows hung Kathrine looked far from young with salt I have sown in all I have known so and so I'm nowhere
leaning in the doorway at the dark end of the day listening to crows call picking wheat inside the rain scarecrow looks to friendly to frighten them away they gather round weight him down crooked face bowed to the ground I too am leaning low and I'm damned if I don't feel more alone than I've ever known so and so I'm nowhere
you told me not to darken your door if I returned summer sun was hanging on by threads that burned shadow fell on your face scarlet lips unsure of what words to sound to strike me down your silent silhouette I found round each turn of the road when I ran it followed now it's got my cornered and in my bones I know I know I'm nowhere
oh but I won't be returning to anything I've known can't comb the past for artifacts and re-earth broken broken bones when will the dust settle when with petals unfold so I can't stand right where I am without your ghost or crows that land round me black as coal the calling of the crow seems to be sung for those on the run it goes it goes I'm nowhere
but I don't mind the rain I find it finer than when dry sit behind the window with a cup of whiskey rye no cars on the highway an old scarecrow outside leaning back and forth wind from the north whispering winter I'm shore the leaves are falling down the field is turning brown Kathrine all I can say I found is this is this I'm nowhere
so the sun goes drowning down below the field and then it will be sometime before it's light hits me again music only plays to remind me of my friends and you Kathrine can I make amends eyes of night Katie to her friends the cold and the wind blow outside and within the sky colored ash I'm looking back into the past from nowhere
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4. |
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beneath the lilac tree in your white dress that's the clearest way I remember you and all the rest seems so sad and hazy but lovely nonetheless
took me through your father's farm behind the hill down to st. peter's cemetery yard for your mother we brought flowers in a jar
I could be much better than I am
I could be much better than I am
and I know that to be true for I was when I was young and still with you
and though I never saw you lose one tear I recall you distant you seemed so wise and without fear I guess death did age you far beyond your years and I'd be hypnotized when you sang or spoke for your voice was haunted believed in witches believed in ghosts when the night sighs and wind cries I still do I suppose
I could be much better than I am
I could be much better than I am
and I know that you'd agree for I was when you were young and still with me
beneath the lilac tree your picture old and it soon will fade to black where all the sunken stones of memory lay to deep for me to go but I see the way the golden road above the gate a sight reads welcome all your weary souls I passed it by I don't know why I did not go
I could be much better than I am
I could be much better than I am
and I know that to be true and I know that you'd agree I was young and still with you you were younger still with me
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5. |
waking up the dead
05:30
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open up the window let the autumn air inside dead leaves are somewhere burning soon south the birds will fly silence of the songbird sets in when winter sky call out to your sorrows soon they'll freeze in your mind carry round dead weight to remind you of what has fallen behind you of what still ahead of you lies
gotta get away from waking up the dead rising from their graves every time your head bows to the ground waiting light to shed everything gone come back again
sleep until the sun goes wake with the moonlight loneliness is easy when nobody's in sight quiet and commanding full of faded lover's lies walk the town's dark roads around find yourself inside a dirty old dive here's to keeping the dead alive one for now two for old times three for watching the world pass by
gotta get away from waking up the dead rising from their grave every time your head looking at the bottom of an empty glass just to fill another line them up so fast
lost leaning on a crutch made out of a song and drinking too much trying come across daylight in the dark keep counting the loss of falling stars
Watch the valley shadow roll slowly on by see the train come through the rain hear the lonesome cry wish you had the money or nerve enough to try to take a ride to the ol' west side make your way earning nickles and dimes try to stay ahead of the times either way trouble still finds you if you run or if you do hide
gotta get away from waking up the dead rising from their grave every time you head trying to get away to a place instead of this home that you roam and the tears you shed
lost leaning on a crutch made out of a song and drinking to much trying to come across daylight in the dark keep counting the loss of falling starts
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6. |
just a light
05:47
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across my grave a black wind blows snow and ice blanket my bones won't you tell me I'm alive Annie won't you come and tell me a lie lay me down just like you did with your voice soft and singing sweeter than dew on the vine Annie won't you come and tell me a lie
Annie we were children once before the night time showed a moon red as blood spring time came upon your kiss winter made me old and took me to my death I grew more cruel than the wind that blew across the ice of lake Michigan in a fit of foolish rage I did curse your love for the queen of spades
I'm drinking wine one more glass or nine I'm goona drown it out forget all about stare down the sky tell my maker I can hear him laughing now
it's alright I'm just a light gone out
Annie won't you come to me I know too late you are a diamond kind of queen and I'm a cold ghost of myself your lover's song I know you sing to someone else don't you take your sorrow down town tonight to find yourself a lie a drunken man to treat you sweet when the morning comes you'll be back on the street
and if I see red goona shoot him dead and meet the devil down where I know I'm bound oh but I lie I would break and cry turn around and I'd go back into the night where I'll be somewhere someday see you around maybe neath the lilac tree if I don't find you down the line well you will still be mine
I know that's a lie
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7. |
static on the radio
04:34
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dream dream me away upon a boat to row silver sea to sail stars and the moon to show me to the land I had in mind when I set out when I was a younger man before my soul felt broken down
she comes quiet to the door come to tell me goodbye said she could take it no more forgive me baby goodbye please don't do it like that for the bad and the good we knew after all this time I only know myself by you
evening find a fight and I'm dodging my own blows tied a knot in my mind and I filled my lungs with smoke on the radio a static only show I'm too tired to turn the dial I just let it go
cold cold everybody knows you can tell by the window pane two pigeons upon the sill to wake me at the break of day it don't bother me none when the day and the night confuse save my life again and give the dark a light in dreams of you
open up the radiator valve and let a little heat on in your don't ever come around and I get cold thinking this will be the way that I'll live out my days thinking I might take to praying you're okay
dream dream me away upon a boat I row silver sea to sail stars and the moon to show me to the land I had in mind when I set out when I was a young man before my soul felt broken down
evening calls a heaviness falls I feel it in my chest I want a warm body but my body knows yours best nothing else will do it's the sad and lonesome truth static on the radio feels just like the blues
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8. |
mostly everything
07:28
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I turn to the night the road below my feet
round the bend it goes
a catacomb beneath
every stone that lay another aching memory
I'm wincing when I walk
I'm shaking like a leaf
out upon the roof top when the night wind blew
poison down the hatch a shadow round me grew
camera sent a flash
I was blinded I was blue
for the ties that bind my love to you came loose
I'm in a hell I never knew
since I laid my poor head upon the ground by you
on the clover in a cloud of evening dew
I can see your skin painted silver by the moon
oh what I have I done to you
I saw in the dust that swam in the sunlight
the ghost of your face
the tears I gave your eyes
came a cloud of rain to take the day down to die
your ghost went away but the pain stayed the night
now it's you that I run from
it's you that I
love within my bones
I hate within my mind
come to my window but it's a trick of light
or nothing but a humming bird passing by
it seems
I'm in a hell I've never seen
since I laid my poor eyes upon the diamond queen
hair in golden light
quiet eyes of green
every night you come around and terrorize my dreams
oh what have you done to me
so grab yourself a broom and let us start to sweep
sing yourself a tune to make the silence sweet
and if you find an old and forgotten melody
sing it for you and sing it for me
sing it for the night that cannot help to be
sing it for the day that follows hopefully
sing for it's always been a lovely song to sing
I hear it on the wind and mostly everything
I'm in a hell that's come to be
cold upon my skin
upon my back heavy
I let the devil in
I needed company
I wanted something true
I wanted something to believe
what I have I done to you
what have you done to me
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