1. |
Sisters (2010)
05:59
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There's a trembling in my throat so frail & thirsty
You hang on every note, you're a spring born memory
Then you string me along these haunted melodies
and I find my voice again in your sweet relief
When I lay down my song tonight
Please sister help me make it sound alright
Despite my belief that we are not helpless here
Those who follow me rise through the Cascade air
There the North sheds the blood to protect the Southern song
and in the Middle of it all a new hope dawns
When I lay down my head tonight
Sisters watch over this heavy heart
Sister carry me...
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2. |
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Everybody's crying for ya don't ya know
Dying for a part in your motion picture show
Some just wanna dance while others wanna fly
in skies where no one else ever has survived
And I just sit and watch as they crash and burn
another jet down, will they ever learn
that there's no use in following your script
All of the big guns shoot it from the hip
We all rise and fall on the biggest stage of all
Everybody's singing for your precious time
ringing in your ear and wringing all of their lines
in and out of key, sometimes it's hard to tell
but you make them all believe the lies they try to sell
And I just sit and watch as the gavel drops
another man guilty, not knowing when to stop
If you wanna be a rebel and bend a rule or two
The all time greats know how to work the tune
We all rise and fall on the biggest stage of all
Everybody's fighting, stepping in your ring
taking your best shot and missing everything
caught off-guard by the hex in your eyes
one by one, dropping like flies
And I just sit and watch as you stand tall
but sooner or later every champ falls
'cause I'm the underdog you've never heard of
with nothing to lose, I'm taking off my gloves
We all rise and fall on the biggest stage of all.
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3. |
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Always one to show for your curtain calls
I really like your song, weary-hearted girl...
Never one to know, discretion or bare bones
courage served up cold, not sure how this one goes...
And I will wait for the turn
to disengage and raze every wall
that every stopped me from trying
to kill the ghost
One more puzzle piece spills onto the floor
A slippery place to be, enigma to the world...
Now it's gone too far, the joke is lost on me
sweep up my shattered bones, weary-hearted girl...
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4. |
The Rapture (2011)
03:26
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High beams bend the traces
Then scale the canyon walls
Twisting around the words
To all of our favorite songs
I would turn around tonight
If I could shake these goddam nightmares
And find the words to say
I'm not a man of volition
I often get so scared
Now they're talking of the rapture
On the radio again
There's a killer on the loose
There's a tremor in the sky
I know it's no excuse
When just one scene remains
where you stood behind your sister's gate
and the last frame to play
Is your eclipse ...
It's too late...
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5. |
Astoria (Live) (2009)
06:32
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Soiled bottles of rust becoming torrential
eventually creating a void where my head once fell
So I held out my tongue and inherited wishes
to finish out his reign over Western Montana
Rifle through the hills and tear out the pages
A wage placed to the cur all tender and gristle
Oh whistler, you don't ring as true when summer has gone
The swan will sing just for you when I no longer hear it
I trudged through swamps of black ash until the awakening
and hunted the great horned owl across the badlands
until all of my labors were sunk with the shadows behind me
At the end of Mercury's pass lies a new life's blood
The flood is released to the chill of Astoria's white mist
A kiss placed only to life over dead pines and trenches
so wretched and worn the names that I once belonged to
I trudged through swamps of black ash until the awakening
and hunted the great horned owl across the badlands
until all of my labors were sunk with the shadows behind me
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6. |
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7. |
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8. |
Jay Stielstra (2010)
03:47
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I'm seeking refuge from the past
leaving smoke and dust to hide my tracks
but the sun has stained you to my mirror
Now it's never been more clear
When these lake winds start to blow
they rip my heart in two
and every line that maps this hand leads back to you
Old Jay he told me, when he raised his glass
Said, "You don't know it now, but you'll be back"
I said "Jay, that's crazy. I'm gettin' out of here"
Now it's never been more clear
When these lake winds start to blow
his voice comes ringing through
and every word that leaves his lips comes back to you
Though tonight I sleep under western skies
I'll dream of thunderstorms and fireflies.
3,000 miles, barely a year
Now it's never been more clear.
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9. |
Strand of Gold (2008)
03:15
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A glimpse of hope that shadows me
drowning in a blazing stream
Rescued by a light not known
and held within a strand of gold
Down where she breathes no ponds run dry
The seeds of spring hang from the sky
They fall then rise from beneath her feet
to wrap her in a lace of green
When I take my final rest
to the one that I love best
May the very last light I see
Her eyes as deep as the bluest sea
Her eyes as deep as the bluest sea
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10. |
The Angel Song (1997)
03:13
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11. |
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Given recent history, concealing, twisting knives
it's not your eyes that set me off into another paradigm
It's when you speak to me in Russian with a tin can for a phone
and it sounds like the apocalypse of our innocence reborn
Souvenirs, black coffee, beers, 8-day old key lime pie
racing through the threshold under shot up Mojave skies
but when your Aunt Martha came a waitress slipped to me her key
and that night we made it rain arcane once you passed out from the mead.
Crawling through the garden, chewing on snakeberry vines
Swallowing the poison, heaven weighing on my mind
If God could only see you now dancing with the damned
he'd kneel right down beside you and kiss you on your wedding band
Oh no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no...
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12. |
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13. |
December (Live) (2008)
03:55
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December you have been a friend
A rekindled gift of innocence
Now February's laid you down
beneath January's icy ground
And I don't want to sing about it
I just want to get there on my own
These things I see I can't explain
Visions born of a fiery rage
And clouds just gather to misconstrue
what I already know is true
And I don't want to sing about it
I just want to carry it alone
Rooted on this icy knoll
above rustic cemetery snow
but ardently these grounds I'll tend
until December is unearthed again
And I don't want to sing about it
I just want to stand here all alone
on my own, December's gone
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14. |
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(Pt. 1)
I don't know what it will take to dishevel this crumpled pile of reveries
Most times, just sleep it off until tomorrow, relinquished by its wings.
It's such a hot afternoon.
All lines originated from believing in a shaped pretense of love
get retraced by the hands disfigured, scourged by terse relegations.
It's such a hot afternoon.
Sheltered by a wealth of wooden imitations, not distinguished by veneer.
One by one, beads roll down their faces, emancipating this requiem...
from such a hot afternoon.
(Pt. 2)
The unwelcome rite of late summer's pass bleeds you dry and spills your glass, it's more than enough to make you dread the death hanging above you.
It's not above you.
Then then final stretch pulls you in on a rusty wheel too old to spin in the deep dark pith of unreposed regret growing below you.
It's not about you.
I don't know what it will take to dishevel this crumpled pile of reveries.
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15. |
Two Stars (1995)
04:50
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16. |
I Don't Know (2001)
02:55
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17. |
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I've been searching my life over for some middle ground
Too much fun or not enough is all I've ever found
Only until lately, since she started coming 'round
This fire in my heart has turned my world upside down
She's tearing up the honky tonks, but takes it all in stride
'cause some nights you will find her painting by the riverside
She's paints the colours of her dreams, then a portrait of a clown
who waits here on this bar stool for her to paint the town.
She's somewhere between heaven and a child
Her heart's made of gold, but her spirit is running wild
She reels me in 'til I can almost taste paradise
then casts me away into a lake full of ice
Now here we are again like every time before
She sways in my arm across the hardwood floor
Now she's gone, it's closing time, but I'm still in denial
that in her eyes I am nothing more than a child
She's somewhere between...
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18. |
Dead Horse (2007)
05:27
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I've always been more than kind
when a dead horse kicks me from behind
but sometimes I turn and look too soon
and I find myself alone with you
I don't want to hear your story
I don't really need a friend
I just want to sit right down
and annihilate the night with gin
Kevin crows a sharp-tongued tune
Hannah likes to work the room
and Carla doesn't seem to mind
but your lips are working overtime
I don't want to hear your story
I don't really need a friend
I just want to find some space
where these veins are flowing free with sin
Now the dead horse lies there on the ground
so you start jumping up and down
until your face is the shade of blue
One day that ol' boy is going to rise up and bite you
I don't need to hear about it
You don't even know my name
So why don't you just turn around
and crawl right back into the ass from which you came.
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