1. |
Fairgrounds
04:34
|
|||
|
this heart is wheel, on a wide open road
with blue sky about me and good earth below
this heart is a province, shot through with roads
for all the places that i’m going
and all the places i let go
this heart is an island, in the still of the ocean, this heart is a ship on the wide open sea
this heart is a spark in the dark of the night and this heart is a shot ringing out in the street
i'm sick of wondering how far i’ve been running how long i’ve been staring it down
always new faces but the names of the places have this way they always make the same sound
and i guess i should have said goodbye, done the dishes, or locked the back door
but we’ve been down that road at least a hundred times before
another long weekend and we’ll put our stakes in from thursday til tuesday at dawn
light up the rides, shake the 20's and the 5's from the farm kids and then i’ll be gone
and i know that dallas has some room in his bed for someone lonely like me
but what good is a lover if it's one after another and it sure don’t seem no way to get free
following the fairgrounds
fifth wheels, dumauriers and dirty magazines
following the fairgrounds
fade into the background til i'm nowhere to be seen
midway lights shining brighter in august--the days getting shorter
gossip from girls sneaking smokes by the bleachers knows school's coming soon
edge of town drinking lukewarm drummonds from a styrofoam cooler
lay on my back wonderin' if he's watching the same harvest moon...
i'm sick of wonderin' how far i've been running
how long i've been staring it down
can’t pass a payphone without thinking of home
without thinking about turning around
following the fairgrounds
never long enough you ever need to say goodbye
following the fairgrounds
i guess i just keep running til i bleed the tank dry
|
||||
2. |
Almanac
03:31
|
|||
|
i guess the almanac was right as usual
another drought another fallow year
we’re losing more than insurance gonna cover
and down at the bakery people talking like fear
preacher says we gotta plow the fields and scatter
catholic father well he’s just saying just the same
but talk is cheap when you’re making steady wages
collection plates the only place they’ll ever make it rain
i can feel it coming like a summer temper (dust in the creases where i kiss you goodnight)
and all this talk and all this talk and all this talk about the weather (something’s gotta give but there’s no end in sight)
i don’t think i can stand another season
of you out on the rigs while the shingles let the cold in
and every night i'm robbed of one more reason to stay
but there’s a couple sections in the corner of the county
out past the coulee on the may city road
barley coming ninety bushels to the acre
malting grade and all of it already good as sold
and jonah thomas he ain’t been to church in ages
and up from the basement rising time and time again
angry talk about a deal with the devil
from under itchy fingernails and breath of idle men
i can hear them coming like a summer temper (26 of wiser's and can of kerosene)
and all this talk and all this talk and all this talk about the weather (enough to turn a man into something hard and mean)
til the scream of sirens splits the evening
out past the coulee where that crop’s already burning
and there's jonah kneeling, a box of matches in his hand
there’s some things the almanac will never tell you
there’s some things you just weren’t meant to understand
asked him why he did it and he said “i couldn’t take it
feeling like a pilgrim set adrift in god’s plan”
|
||||
3. |
Hard Buried Past
04:56
|
|||
|
well you threw a dr. pepper at my head
kinda feeble but the message sent:
i'm not special; we're all subject to
our private curses
you slammed the door and sped downtown
you broke some promises but i promise this won't count
you found yourself a bump o' coke and a rum and coke
i found you in the dark, chucking darts
with them cityfolk
so are you coming home are what?
cuz we both have to work tomorrow
i'm sorry i said that you're naive
or whatever you need to believe
baby, please come home
you come into the bar in your jogging pants
hair pinned up under a baseball cap
tapping your foot because you are so mad
and the bar falls silent and i guess
that's where we're at
i don't remember what we said the whole way home
but we fought so hard we had to pull off of the road
we got so sick of fighting we started to laugh
and as we pulled away
i cried into your lap
so will you leave me along or what?
cuz i don't give a fuck about tomorrow
and when you said i was naive
what did you hope to achieve?
baby, please go home
and i swear i'll believe
old broken glass left you scars
if you'll just get in the fucking car
oh, hard buried past
revenant again
|
||||
4. |
Distant Craigie Dam
04:29
|
|||
|
from her bed sarah hears him throw a rope over the towing winch
and drag the fence post driver back into the shed
fires up old gus and sneaks out the driveway
she know where he goes every now and then
parks over by craigie dam and turns off the ignition
turns on the radio and chews a plug of copenhagen
from here the city looks like a star that fell across the horizon
doesn’t seem to know, and just keeps on shining
is everything that people feel happening inside that little light
what would happen if that light went out
do they do the things they do every day
it all looks so small from this far away
all it takes is time, for restless minds
all it times is time, to ease those troubled eyes
tries to wash the taste out of his mouth with listerine
crawls into bed and sarah asks him where he’s been
“honey do you think it’s funny we’re trapped in flesh and bone”
she kisses him on the cheek and say baby go to sleep
all it takes is time, for restless minds
all it times is time, to ease those troubled eyes
|
||||
5. |
Nothing At All
05:50
|
|||
|
there are lines drawn straight as an arrow
barbed wire fences and lonely jet contrails
some know no logic, the chaos of sparrows
or maybe nothing at all
there are storms that form unexpectedly
out of the hot summer nights on the prairie
and some take a lifetime to find their way back to me
or maybe never at all
there are seeds that will never scatter
there are words you will write that will never matter
and some so well worn they leave torn and tattered
or maybe nothing at all
i've had dreams of feverish urgency
squalls and hurricanes, waves over the sea
and all of this time for you to come back to me
or maybe never at all
until some day without any warning
you wake up and find in the stillness of morning
that I'm nothing more than a memory fading away
into nothing
at all
|
||||
6. |
100 Stories Old
02:44
|
|||
|
i will build you a house, 100 stories old
with the ocean for a basement
and a fire to keep out the cold
we'll go walking in our bare feet
we'll go swimming in our clothes
and we'll live in a house, 100 stories old
i will plant you a garden where weeds and thistles will grow
and there we'll bury our troubles
our sorrows and our woe
until in a few years
they'll all be overgrown
outside of our house, 100 stories old
|
||||
7. |
Persons Case
02:32
|
|||
|
you’re nighthawks in your sullen clothes
in the catchlight of the townhouse rows
of quilted lovers, and their passionate throes
well hell is hell or so you’re told
but lizzie you’re a ghost that can’t get cold
how long, how long, how old, how old
i was grabbed by the collar by youth, i was caught singing drunk in a taxi
hand in hand in the winter for cigarettes, what did we squander—oh Lizzie
…are you out haunting in queen’s park tonight, or in some grave out in the country
but second glances never come your way
when you cast no shadow by the light of day
but not immune to all the words that they won’t say
well hell is hell or so you’re told
did you lose faith: women, wheat or gold
just another, just another bought and sold
i was shaken at the cuffs, i was taken by surprise by the sound of my own voice
were you rattled by the things that you lost or were you thrust into little or no choice
did you hear the banner's high note or was it all part of the same noise
…did you raise your glass to the vote or did you see no reason to rejoice?
|
||||
8. |
New Tires
04:35
|
|||
|
did our band break up when you moved out of town
I was off getting bombed at the bar
with a six out of ten, in the middle of the week
and no intentions to take it too far
well winter comes early and without new tires
your van will get stuck in the snow
but there's no one to push and they ain't coming back
so I guess we'll just cancel the show
and the years keep on coming
like an old guitar strumming
out a tune on a few busted strings
and before too long all that's left of the song
is a melody no one will sing
there's some band on stage i hear they're all the rage
i can't listen to a note that they play
he asks me to dance but i'd rather just sit here
and drink til it all goes away
well winter comes early and without new tires
your van will get stuck in the snow
and the wheel will keep spinning in circles and circles
until there's no place left to go
and the years keep on coming
like an old guitar strumming
out a tune on a few busted strings
and before too long all that's left of the song
is a melody no one will sing
|
||||
9. |
Drumheller (Pt. 2)
03:16
|
|||
|
mom and dad up and moved
the year I went away
sold the house, bought an acreage near Oyen
out by the highway
and I went to school and struggled in the bushes
with daredevil boys and their cigarette kisses
til boredom, or I don't know, something
carried me back home
with my friend Shelley I tried waiting tables
but I didn't even make it til fall
six months at the Co-op, a year at the paper
who knows how it happens at all
he was good-looking and a pretty good dancer
I was a little too reckless and taking my chances
she arrived eleven months later
and nothing was ever the same
and time has a way
of getting away
of getting away on you
I don't know where we're going
I barely know where I come from
but I never did hide away in that canyon
and I never did get that gun
penitentiary nights when who knows where he's been
she's awake crying in the distance between
I swear as good as I'm still seventeen
i'm gonna get in the car and just run...
and time has a way
of getting away
of getting away on you
and more for the miles and the more for the years
just adds up to more that you lose
|
||||
10. |
Knives Waltz
04:14
|
|||
|
i can't seem to shut up, i'm always talking
but it's only ever the same old shit
i'm a recond, i'm a black vein with no place for the needle to sit
in the last life i was a believer,
now i work where the city grows thin
where the sad and the lonely are worn right up next to your skin
do you know the secrets i keep while you're sleeping
or are you dying for just one more lie
i'll bandage your fresh wounds wash stains from your clothing
but i can't dry the tears from your eyes
i never thought that i'd catch you praying, but i guess we've been staying up late
stubbing out cigarettes on the edge of your mother's good plates
“this town is so wide” you said and i know you mean it,
but narrow still on the inside
despite all the corners there's still hardly no places hide
do you know the secrets i keep while you're sleeping
or are you dying for just one more lie
i'll bandage your fresh wounds wash stains from your clothing
but i can't dry the tears from your eyes
|
||||
11. |
Rainbow Lake
04:00
|
|||
|
rainbow lake what are you hiding
is it gold or diamonds that they're mining
or a loneliness
better suited to the cold
your daddy's a pipeline operator
think you'll follow him sooner or later
but you never been
too good at doing what you're told
when the ice melts
we'll start it all over
we'll take all our sorrows and drown them so deep in the water
rainbow lake what are you drinking
glacier water or too much time thinking
about the things you never got to say
when I close my eyes all that's remaining
of the words you always were saying
goodbyes you left
before you went away
when the ice melts
they'll drag up the bottom
just one more step on your way
to being forgotten
you were hiding in the winter hours
you were scaling that transmission tower
now they're crying and they're buying flowers
you took for yours what we decided ours
when the ice melts
i'll start it all over
i'm heading south
away from this winter
this winter forever
|
||||
12. |
Angels in Soviets
06:04
|
|||
|
they never said about the cold
the way it worms into your bones
steals your breath and leaves you hiding
in a warm bed when the call comes in
a raw nerve to pierce the skin
an urgency for going
it's just a job, it's just a job
it's four days off and four days on
the second try the engine turns
in the blistering cold and then i'm gone
from the highway i can see the fires
the picket signs the overhead wires
and lakeside sleeping, quiet
i kill the siren at the gates
pass through the crowds of expectant faces
apprehension
to all those voices speaking in tongues
to all the blood of killing floor
it's just a job, it's just a job...
..i turn the key and it trembles and starts
pull through the crowd and he's whispering soft
"is that the sun coming over the west"
lay down your head try to get some rest
"don't let them know it was me"
swing low sweet chariot
i can feel it in my bones
sing angels in soviets
coming for to carry me homes
|
||||
The Collapse Calgary, Alberta
prairie folk don't listen to mermaid tales or sailors' warnings
If you like The Collapse, you may also like:
Juxtaposing poetic balladry with roaring feedback and warped piano lines, the Vermonter's music is as stunning as it is unsettling.
go to album
Long-running underground rocker Brian Vanderwerf is the heart and soul of these gritty songs that capture the scruffy spirit of the ’70s.
go to album
24th Street Blues
by Tom Heyman
Tom Heyman documents life in San Francisco circa 2023, refusing to succumb to easy characterization & instead capturing the city’s nuance.
go to album
Move To The Trees
by Winter McQuinn
Winter McQuinn mixes soft rock and psychedelic folk for a sound reminiscent of classic pop purveyors like Cut Worms and the Lemon Twigs.
go to album
Downey to Lubbock
by Dave Alvin
Soulful guitar interplay form the heart of this lovely Americana collaboration from Dave Alvin and Jimmie Dale Gilmore.
go to album
Away From The Castle
by Video Age
Video Age make cute and upbeat power pop that's both quirky and classic at the same time.
go to album
A new EP from Evan Myall delivers four songs packed with irresistible power pop harmonies and jangling guitars.
go to album
