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Demos​/​Live

by Chad Lee Williams

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1.
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...
2.
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.
3.
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...
4.
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...
5.
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
6.
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8.
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.
9.
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
10.
11.
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...
12.
13.
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
14.
(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.
15.
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17.
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...
18.
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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released December 29, 2011

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Chad Lee Williams Columbus, Ohio

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