
LYRICS
America
Where did you see it, where did you see it
Our love, our love,
America
In the promise of freedom no matter your race
Or the trouble you’ve seen far away from this place
In the house where you worship or under a rock
In the rubble of what someone did for their god
If it’s not there
Tell me where did you see it
Where did you see it
Our love, our love
Where did you see it
Our love, our love
America
On the wind raking plains of our first-born men
In their voices being silenced again and again
Or in the roar of our lifeblood they stand to defend
Our primordial wounds that have yet to mend
If it’s not there
Running wild-eyed in droves on Chicago’s east coast
Shouting justice for all of us above and below
all the lines that they’ve drawn telling us where we go
and in mother’s hands where there once was a son and now only a ghost
If it’s not there
Bigger
I'm out walking, me and this shadow
everywhere I go it's at my feet
growing under street lamps, shrinking in the shade
making me so small some days, bigger when I need
we once loved like the walls were caving in
I was proud to be the prize you got to win
I became your trusses at my own expense
&now we're on the center lines plotting our defense
but I keep on walking, me and this shadow
everywhere I go he's at my feet
growing under street lamps, shrinking in the shade
making me so small some days, bigger when I need
my mother gave me the spaces in her mind
o, the riches and the grit she shed
eight years have gone now since last she looked upon
the glory of her garden green, the wisdom of her young
but I keep on walking, me and this shadow
everywhere I go she's at my feet
growing under street lamps, shrinking in the shade
making me so small some days, bigger when I need
Catalpa
you wrote in a letter
Catalpa is calling me
you said oak is a king, the acorn a man
but so many kings and
never a plan
when the wilt took rampant hold
oak is a king that rules not for me
you poured over pages Catalpa is calling me
you said white pine's an ogre, cold and getting colder
it flattens the ground, none other can grow there
the needle swift and strong
white pine's an ogre but he ain't howlin' for me
catalpa
oh my, oh my
you sink in despair, Catalpa is calling me
her shape in a space is something like mine
we hunch in our curves and don't take the time
to grow the way we need
Catalpa my darling you're something like me
December song
December is calling
and the wind's begun to whine
and your heart is part of mine
so darling don't get buried down
'cause it's too cold to dig us out
The acorns are falling
and I've barely made a dent
in paying back what I've spent
but darling don't be mad at me
I'm just the best that I can be
so we walk along the edge
holding tight to the strings that we've tied around our fingers
to remind us of the debts we owe and what we have to cling to
and we dance when we can
It's no matter the season
it's no matter the clothes I wear
it's plain to see the load I bear
is lighter darling when you're there
I've got your love and some to spare
Get out
get out while you can
few words have followed you from boy to man and these are some
you got to get out on the radio, show 'em all the good things your know
got to give 'em 110 and if you don't it don't count
even if you lose some friends along the way
it kills you but you knew it would
pulls you from where you stood
never on the same floor more than a night
it kills you but you knew it would, and you just had to get out
Doug he was a one-shot man
got it from his dad, he was the best shot in the Eastern land
but his liquor it followed him the way that he did his dad
and they both had the proof to back it up
it killed him but we knew it would
pulled him from where he stood
never in the same state more than a night
it killed him but we knew it would, he just had to get out
now I'm all out on the old railroad
singing jubilee and breaking down
at the thought of laurel and the great green pines
and you driving me all the way across Georgia in the night
it killed us but we knew it would
it pulled us from where we stood
never on the same page more than a night
it killed us but we knew it would, and we just had to get out, get out
get out while you can
few words have followed you from boy to man and these are some
I don't want to go home
My body is swimming in Lake Michigan
I think its following you
But really I'm just standing in some kitchen
Feeling like a fool
And it’s been 3 days and nights in this dark lake
The kitchen’s starting to fade
The seagulls and children have all found their mates
But still I sit here and wait
The wine and I
Talk through this fantasy
But dawn keeps breaking
and I don’t want to go home yet
So I paddle on through lake Erie too
I almost forget about you
But kitchens turn to bathrooms turn to working til' I'm blue
And I should be getting home soon
Is it true that Toronto is New York up there
I wade Ontario as I climb the stairs
Where your jacket used to hang but now it’s just bare
I’m everywhere and you’re nowhere
If you’re walkin’ long
If you’re walkin’ long
If you’re walkin’ long enough
If you’re walkin’ long enough the
Path will rise up to greet you
And if you’re walkin’ long
I’m walkin’ right beside you
I’ve got this ringin’
I’ve got this ringin’ in my ear
I’ve got this ringin’ but I
Can’t hear the song
Can’t hear the song in it just yet
But I’ve got this ringin’
Every day is a struggle
Every day is a gift they say
Every day is a struggle sister
Wrapped up in gold then rolled away
But I’ve seen it floatin’
I’ve see it floatin’ on the lake
When night comes lowering and it
Holds my eye
Holds us all inside that
Great white ball up in the sky
Lean in
I knew a man who was always a child
he talked about right now and never though too far ahead
when I press on the gas past all his almost-alma maters
I'm a clean paved road through used-to-be prairie land
wondering what I could have been
if I worried as little as him
I know a man who'd have died to keep being alive
but his living is proof of a lesson that's hard to ignore
he kept pressing on the gas past all his almost-satisfaction
and he worked until working didn't work anymore
and I was there when they said he went home
I guess you could say that he gave it to fate
and the cards just did not play
but I hate it as much or more than you do
when people start talking that way
so lean in tonight
to what feels right
and do what feels right
and never do anything else
I know a place that I'd like to be
it's the same old neon swaying and a dusty wood floor
I'm pressing on your chest through all our almost-ever-afters
and a clean page turned, but we're still standing there
dancing through how've you been
did your momma end up with him
idd you brother get to drinkin' again
did we really let it sink in
I guess you could say that we gave it to fate
and the cards just did not play
but I hate it as much or more than you do
when people start talking that way
so lean in tonight
to what feels right
and do what feels right
and never do anything else
Like the soil
I was six feet tall
and ten years old
driving a '38 Hudson down Main Street
with my brothers in the back seat
I grew up in a hell of a hurry
Two years later I was twelve and
and tired
driving a team of horses on the plow
and my brothers had their families
I grew up in a hell of a hurry
And my body was like the soil
back in North Carolina
I was rigid and ready to take the coming rain
so I did what good men did
I enlisted
and I knew that I would be the killing kind
She was like the spring in '54
blooming on every end of every arm
and she danced like the pansies
I had no more reason to hurry
so we grew up a family
and we grew up a real good one
but our bodies are like the soil
back in South Korea
they're running red with blood in the summer rain
then they go the way the rains do
they pass on through
and I never found a love like her kind
Long time exhaling
I was thinking yesterday on the passing of my friend
and her name was Evalee
we were neighbors in the tall pines by the hill on Gilbert Street
and then her motherless children were younger than me
and I got to thinking
we're all in it the same
as children of a mother we are killing everyday
and if all the world is a motherless child, who will fill the ocean's glass
who will turn it all to vapor when the current flows too fast
and who will wake the winter from her worried rest
get me a chair without arms
maybe a sunset over Evalee's barn
get me the ones I've known so long
and I will sing through all the lines that we have drawn
oh it's a long time exhaling that makes for one good song
if all the world is a motherless child, we will fill up every glass
we will sing to all our fears as the years go on to pass
and we will wake up taller than the questions we have asked
My house
I’m gonna clean up my house
I’m gonna clean up my mind
I’ve been so unkind
To myself now I’m taking the time
Finally
To clean up my house
So go on and get me a broom
Cause there’s a pile for love
Where the dust burns red in the mornings
I wake up alone
I’ll sweep it up
A pile for losing
That’s harder to find sometimes
But I know it’s there
I’ll sweep it up
A pile for “not good enough”
“I should’ve tried harder”
Should’ve gave up
But I’m not sweeping anything under the rug
I’m not pulling any wool over
But I’m not sweeping anything under the rug
I’m not pulling any wool over
Peggy's song
Peggy was smoking by the swimming pool on the day that I remember her best
if you'd give her a choice between hell and high water
she'd take the water with a whiskey and ice
she was a good mama, she was bad news
if you caught her on a day when the Eagles were losing
ooh, I wish I knew her
ooh, I wish I knew her
She worked nine to five as a secretary, it was thirty years of minimum wage
but she raised up her kids in the height of the sixties
and she didn't need no man to tell her how to fix things
liked to jitterbug, she was fancy free
her lips were ruby red every day of the week
ooh, I wish I knew her
ooh, I wish I knew her
Now when Peggy was laughin' you were laughin' too, she had a voice that you could never forget
and a butterfly ring on her littlest finger
that she gave to Joey after she got sick
and it was real hard on the family
but if she were here I hope she'd see herself in me
ooh, herself in me
ooh, herself in me
now she's gone and I guess that's how it goes
it ain't fair but she'll live on in her laughter in my head
Tell me again
I’m not sure I heard you
So tell me again
About what I mean to you
And the tears you’ll cry when
I’m all gone
I’m all gone
It seems just last night we dreamed of our own
A homestead to nurture and fifty years gone
I’m wide awake now and you’re on your own
But don’t spare me your love song, I swear I’ll stay strong
I’m not sure I heard you
So tell me again
About what I mean to you
And the tears you’ll cry when
I’m all gone
I’m all gone
Now I’m all out of pity for gestures like these
You send me your sorrow while you’re doing as you please
Don’t get your shirttails caught on the door my love
‘Cause while it’s true you’re losing, it’s you leaving me
I’m not sure I heard you
So tell me again
About what I mean to you
And the tears you’ll cry when
I’m all gone
I’m all gone
Cause now I'm all gone
I'm all gone
The Sweetness
You had gallons on gallons of maple sap
set to boil on high
while the steam drew up from the window panes
I was worrying about how to miss you
It’s like a drip in a bucket of tin
there’s a flowing from the heart of a tree but it’s flowing thin
and it takes forever to fill
and it quakes when time is standing still
but you wait, and you wait, and you wait
for the Sweetness that’s promised to come
and now the heat takes to rising
In nectar once clear
and leaves a warm shade of brown sinking low
and my feet wander back through a flurry of tracks
when we were hunters among sugar maple
It’s like a drip in a bucket of tin
There’s a falling fast from where we came
not knowing where we’ll land
and it takes forever to know
and it gives so little to show
and it takes forever to grow
But we wait, and we wait, and we wait
for the Sweetness that’s promised to come
Quarantine
We're living in a dream now
the clock has no meaning
its every minute for itself
but you can bet on bodies moving at the break of dawn
they're clocking out from working all night long
so we're ok
we're ok
I heard somebody crying its the end of the world
as if we saw it begin
no one, I mean no one
has an answer that stands
we're dropping down the wheels but we have yet to land
and that's ok
we're ok
I'm turning down the radio now
I'm singing for the empty bars
my lonely every day's the only gift I have to give
I don't see you but I feeel you out there helping me live
so we're ok
It's harder than we thought now
so little to do
as if I had it down before
my inclinations heavy, all my boxes checked
but I'm falling to my knees for those with so many left
I hope you're ok
you're ok
It seems the story changes now with lightning speed
it's every minute one more gone
the air is so electric that its meaning gets lost
they sent us up a signal but the wires crossed
said it's ok
we're all ok