1. |
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The sun went silent
today
Closed doors and sealed lips
Collar up looking like rain
Working at the base of the monument
Trying to read some sense into it
Hands up flashlight blinded
While I wait
The sun went silent
today
Dark clouds flying
Unfurled and frayed
Run my fate up the flagpole
Handcuffed to the ground in the cold
Hammer on the gavel
What’s my name?
The sun
went silent today
freedom
woke in darkness
lost and afraid
The moon walks Capitol Hill
Outside the fence in a long black veil
weeping on
judgement day
The sun
went silent today
Handcuffed
and violent
what’s my name?
The sun went silent
The sun went silent
Today
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2. |
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The snowmelt is commencing
Earnestly today
Witch hazel graced with songbirds
Red buds bless the gray
The road that you return on
Is the one you drive away
And I don’t know where you get to
And I don’t know what to say
You come back through the darkness
You come back on borrowed wings
You come back from where you’ve been to
Followed by wild things
The rain will wash the salt down
The streams will overflow
The deer gonna shed their antlers
Southern wind will blow
May those shoes that trace the ridgeline
Be the shoes left by the door
And I won’t ask you any questions
I just don’t care to anymore
CHORUS
Meanwhile, in winter loam, crocuses unwind
Bring back all you’re stubborn heart keeps begging you to find
Meanwhile, the porch roof’s loose and lonely melting sound
Is married to the silence of what’s stirring underground
It’s four miles down the mountain
It’s ten mile into town
Between heaven and Big Indian
Beyond the perfect sound
Of a bobcat’s bleeding hunger
Of worlds best left alone
I don’t know where you get to
Just let it lead you home
CHORUS
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3. |
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The smoke alarm was blinking all night long
I never closed my eyes
How can it be? This snuck up on me
I thought that I was ready for the change
But it feels so strange
Along the way, all 6,000 days
We knew this had to come
Our work is through, there's our Little Boo
Boxing up a life that's just begun
So keen to run
Almost gone, It's all flashing before me
There's still so much I need to say
But the words don't come today
All I can see is the past playing on repeat
But the future's in your eyes
Here we are loading up the car
Trying not to rain on your big day
Bombs away
Almost gone, your arm out the window
A victory song in the air
You've been ready so long
I'm getting there
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4. |
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Yesterday, an educator educated me
A self-directed scholar of the Constitution, he
Understood the founders almost telepathically
They, of course, demanded liberty
Freedom’s just another word for
We will take a stand
Anti-inconvenience
Greater good be damned
No one from the government can tell us what to do
We are not afraid of their apocalyptic flu
We may be, on the other hand, afraid of being told
That we’ve become irrelevant and old
Freedom’s just another word for
Angry men demand
Preferential treatment
Greater good be damned
Mainly, what we talk about throughout the commonwealth
Is how we lived before we went to war with public health
Even in the face of unambiguous research
We will get together in a church
Freedom’s just another word for
I don’t understand
Jesus’s religion
Greater good be damned
Lately, “we the people” are a god-forsaken mess
Genuine Americans refuse to acquiesce
Rather, we repudiate opposing points of view
And I rejoice in terrorizing you
Freedom’s just another word for
Here’s a helping hand
Sorry if it hurts you
Greater good be damned
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5. |
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She’s scattered in her sadness lately
She moves a box of matches daily
The lemon tree is turning lazy
Some weights are hard to bear
She keeps a jar of glycerin out back
Chops the wood and kindling, hands chapped
Whispers into daylight, I’m cracked
Some weights are hard to bear
She washes all the linens
Hangs them up in rows
Tries to shake the image of when
The garden sundial froze
It couldn’t be a year now, too long
It was just a summer day gone wrong
The musket is a long gun, so long
Some weights are hard to bear
She’s scattered in her sadness lately
She moves a box of ashes daily
The lemon fire is burning hazy
Some weights are hard to bear
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6. |
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The heirs of Shangri La
Will not be checking in tonight
The train was late, and on the platform all their bags lie scattered
In the moonlight
Somewhere between the station and the hotel gate
They lost their way, so if you’re staying up it’s sure to be
A long and lonely wait
The heirs of Shangri La
Will not be gazing out to sea
From the crumbling marble folly where the poppy gardens
Used to be
Somewhere between the summer and the falling leaves
They must have had a change of heart, and this is all we’re ever
Likely to receive
The heirs of Shangri La
Are just an echo on the breeze
That whispers through the tangled branches of the last remaining
Olive trees
Somewhere between the morning of the world and now
They left their footprints in the sand for us to follow but we’ve
Never quite learned how
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7. |
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Started as a compliment
Ended as a curse
Useless as a bobby pin
In the bottom of your purse
My good intentions fall apart
Before your x-ray vision heart
All the wild ovations
Of my younger days
Standing invitations
Piles of purple praise
Echo in canyons faint and far apart
Because of your x-ray vision heart
It can’t be easy to see so clearly
But somehow you love me anyway
Living in a glass house
A transparent metaphor
Boy you gotta keep your laundry off the floor
Turning a home into a breathing work of art
Thanks to your x-ray vision heart
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8. |
Hope Dunbar - Tempest
03:16
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Tempest, she’s a funny one
She’s hellbent on destruction
Tempest won’t always announce her plans to pass through.
Tempest won’t let you forget her
She’ll make damn-sure there’s proof that you met her
Busted screens, broken glass and downed trees in the backyard will do
Tempest, it seems, won’t ever be really over you.
She’s lightning and thunder, she’ll have you running for cover unsure of what she’s got planned
She’s less into taking and more about breaking off roots and foundations that stand.
Tempest, it seems, like to believe you won’t weather the crash.
Tempest, you think that you know her
So you watch from the porch as she comes closer
And blots out the blue sky and rattles the cross on the wall
Tempest, it seems, only ever finds relief when rain starts to fall.
She’s lightning and thunder, she’ll have you running for cover unsure of what she’s got planned
She’s less into taking and more about breaking off roots and foundations that stand.
Tempest, it seems, like to believe you won’t weather the crash.
Tempest, it seems, can’t give up the dream that you’ll want her back.
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9. |
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I am back in Paris, dear Marcel
I’m sorry to inform you that your book’s not doing well
I hope you know I’ve done all that I could
Given the current crisis, the outlook isn’t good
You will have to buy them back, they just don’t sell
And I hope your health’s improving, dear Marcel
Thank you for your letter, dear Gaston
I threw it in the fire where at least it keeps me warm
I am losing patience, losing sleep and losing time
And my lungs are filled with suffocating slime, thanks for asking
You can sell the books yourself and leave me here alone
I’ll throw this in the fire too, Gaston
If I don’t die this evening
I’ll throw myself down at your feet
And with nothing left to prove, we’ll go to the Louvre
And I’ve always wanted to travel to India
And I just might
If I don’t die tonight
Did you get my letter, dear Marcel?
I’m happy that I finally have good news to tell
Marcel, you have won the Prix Goncourt
And when the plague has ended, we will celebrate for sure
For tonight, we’ll toast with our finest chablis
To your speedy recovery, mon ami
I’ve been thinking of you, dear Gaston
Do you remember those cold nights in Orleans?
I suppose it must have been quite difficult for some
But all I recall’s your heartbeat, like a military drum
And your uniform, your cape and your cigar
I’m tired now, dear Gaston, au revoir
If I don’t die this evening
I’ll throw myself down at your feet
And with nothing left to prove, we’ll go to the Louvre
And I’ve always wanted to travel to India
And I just might
If I don’t die tonight
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10. |
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Through the fall, rain and snow, we were headed for spring
And when the trees were all fuzzy as the freeze
wore off, we realized the blow -
We’re not high on love but rather
some electric fuzz of life
keeps us buzzing through the night
and the sunlight brings us back
And when the myth doesn't fit through the door
the lock is engaged: we got no breadth anymore
Realize: the wall’d grown thickened with vine
And coffee and wine aren't enough
Are we high on love or rather
that electric fuzz of life
Higher and higher climbs a trouble and strife
“husband and wife” no longer
grows stronger~
And now this song of longing is
Breaking its belonging from my open door,
through the broken lock of my heart
We have the boy who brings us so much joy
And his gifts flow in like a tide
Oh yes he grows to be taller than you
and -he goes into a cave, too
Oh the broken door of my mythic fort
Heaves and buckles to the ground
And still the walls coming crumbling down
And rubbles fill the fields
tho rainbows and the peels
of laughter above looking down they laugh with love
~No one extends a hand to lift us up
And yet we rise
Wahoooooe, whahooooee
Yeah, we rise
~Rise through the rubble
through an open door,
past the broken-lock open-heart
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11. |
Jim Allen - For Maggie
03:40
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I’ve cried for Maggie all night, but I can’t feel a thing
I turn over and turn out the light when I hear the bells ring
My head’s worn a hole in the wall, it’s the least I could do
But my heart’s grown too hollow to truly be swallowed in blue
Even the arms of the earth appear weary and wan
But with or without weeping, the reaping will go on and on
I mumble a prayer and I cover a window in black
Sometimes being gone means that you’ll never be coming back
I’ve cried for Maggie all night, but it’s not like I mind
My eyes needed something to do and it beats going blind
If her picture falls off of the wall from the thunderstorm’s force
It just means the sky’s been plugged in to the wrong power source
Now the night and day meet to the second-line beat of my bones
As they drum out the difference between lonely and being alone
I can drown in a crowd and still feel like I’m on my own
I can call her all night but no one’s gonna pick up the phone
I’ve cried for Maggie all night, but I can’t feel a thing
I turn over and turn out the light when I hear the bells ring
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12. |
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Toby is a wonder dog / Smarter than the others
You learn to use your noggin’ / When a sheepdog is your mother
Nancy is his owner / A clever girl and bright
Takes Toby to the pub / Where he tells fortunes every night
Toby speaks no English / And very seldom barks
His fortune telling method / Is a most peculiar art
If you have a burning question / That you’re dying to find out
You buy the dog 2 beers / A pint of ale, a pint of stout
Toby, Toby, Yes or No
Tell us what the future holds
When Toby answers “Yes” / He very briskly wags his tail
Then puts his paw upon the bar / To indicate the ale
But if the answer’s “No” / beyond a shadow of a doubt
His little tail droops / While pointing sadly to the stout
Toby, Toby, Yes or No
Tell us what the future holds
Toby Toby, whatcha think?
Perhaps you need another drink
Will Joseph ever marry? / It’s anybody’s guess!
A great hurrah erupts / As Toby quickly answers YES
Will Nancy ever kiss me? / Asks Patrick with a grin
Two paws on the bar / Ah that means NO and NO again
Toby, Toby, Yes or No
Tell us what the future holds
If the answer isn’t clear
Then buy the dog another beer
It’s question after question / Until they all run out
Then Nancy drinks the ale / while Toby slobbers down the stout
Yes, Toby is a wonder dog / Drunker than the others
You learn to wet your whistle / When a sheepdog is your mother
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13. |
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Sunset like a bruise
A quiet walk avoiding the news
Water mirrors sky
Clouds float by
Clouds float by
Meet me on the span
A place without a need to plan
Open-ended sky
Clouds float by
Clouds float by
Startled by a greeting
Reunited with the flock
How long were we apart
Ooh…
Clouds float by
Clouds float by and by
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More Songs About...
13 singer/songwriters plus one pandemic equals a lot of downtime. That's why the baker's dozen heard here started convening via Zoom once a week to share new songs with each other in the spring of 2020. Many were friends beforehand and some were strangers to each other. But gathering online each week, everyone became intimately acquainted pretty quickly, evolving into an extended musical family. ... more
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