Stripping Cane - Jeffrey Foucault

"There's no more room for angels
To dance or even stand
Upon this pin entangled
Bleeding sugar from our hands
Bleeding ashes from our feet
Won't you help me count my sheep
Won't you help me count my sheep tonight

You make your heart a decoration
It's like a broken violin
So carefully made empty
Taking only silence in
Taking saccharine to kill your pain
Won't you help me stripping cane
Won't you help me stripping cane tonight

Stripping cane for something sweet
Stripping cane a man complete is born
His heart a thing to hold both dark and light
Stripping cane no tongue can tell
The silent ring of this empty bell
Won't you tell me fare thee well
Fare thee well tonight

I've got nowhere to go now
I'm like a bird in an eclipse
And the grammar of our bodies
Breathing poems to our lips
Breathing verses out of rhyme
Won't you help me killing time
Won't you help me killing time tonight

There's no more room for angels
To dance or even stand
Upon this pin entangled
Bleeding sugar from our hands
Bleeding ashes from our feet
Won't you help me count my sheep
Won't you help me count my sheep tonight
Won't you help me count my sheep tonight
Won't you help me"


I don't remember how I first found Jeffery Foucault, but it was an actual CD, with a plastic cover and paper jacket. His CD STRIPPING CANE ministered to me before I even knew what the genre was. I just knew I wanted more. I recommend his newest CD also, HORSE LATITUDES. Good kickback-thinking music. Hard to understand his vocal lyrics sometimes, but I suppose that's why it's good thinking music....they don't interfere with your own.

Sidewalk Prophets

"Leaving family and friends to live on the road for half of each year, sleeping in the janitor’s closet at some venues, and making due with beans and cornbread while constantly honing their triplet calling of songwriting, performing, and ministering to the kind of kids that never got picked first for kickball sounds a lot like tenacious work ethic than luck. 'It literally took stepping out on a ledge to get us where we are today,' Dave declares. 'We moved to Nashville on a wing and a prayer with nothing but an EP and a determination to play anywhere and everywhere we could. It was not safety that we were looking for, but I’d be lying if I said there weren’t nights when I would lie awake and wonder what God was up to."


(Most Christian music feels too sappy for my dark nature, but today these songs are completely ministering to me.)


THE WORDS I WOULD SAY

♫Three in the morning, and I'm still awake
So I picked up a pen and a page
And I started writing just what I'd say
If we were face to face

I'd tell you just what you mean to me
Tell you these simple truths

Be strong in the Lord
And never give up hope
You're gonna do great things
I already know
God's got His hand on You
So don't live life in fear
Forgive and forget
But don't forget why you're here
Take your time and pray
These are the words I would say

Last time we spoke you said you were hurting
And I felt your pain in my heart
I want to tell you that I keep on praying
That love will find you where you are
I know cause I've already been there
So please hear these simple truths

Say... from one simple life to another
I will say... come find peace in the Father♫







YOU LOVED ME ANYWAY

♫The question was raised
As my conscience fell
A silly, little lie
It didn’t mean much
But it lingers still
In the corners of my mind
Still you call me to walk
On the edge of this world
To spread my dreams and fly
But the future’s so far
My heart is so frail
I think I’d rather stay inside
But You love me anyway
It’s like nothing in life that I’ve ever known
Yes You love me anyway
Oh Lord, how You love me
How You love me

It took more than my strength
To simply be still
To seek but never find
All the reasons we change
The reasons I doubt
And why do loved ones have to die?
But You love me anyway
It’s like nothing in life that I’ve ever known
Yes You love me anyway
Oh Lord, how You love me

I am the thorn in Your crown
But You love me anyway
I am the sweat from Your brow
But You love me anyway
I am the nail in Your wrist
But You love me anyway
I am Judas’ kiss
But You love me anyway
See now, I am the man who yelled out from the crowd
For Your blood to be spilled on this earth shaking
ground

Yes then, I turned away with a smile on my face
With this sin in my heart tried to bury Your grace
And then alone in the night, I still called out for You
So ashamed of my life, my life, my life
But You love me anyway
It’s like nothing in life that I’ve ever known
Yes,You love me anyway
Oh Lord, how You love me
You love me, yes You love me
How You love me♫

Let it go - Tenth Avenue North

It's hard to let go and give control over. We try so hard to affect outcomes. We try so hard to prepare. We try so damn hard.


♫I’ve been holding on so tight
Look at these knuckles they’ve grown white
I’m fighting for who I want to be
I’m just trying to find security

You say let it go, You say let it go
You say life is waiting for the ones who lose control
You say it will be everything I need
You say if I lose my life, it’s then I’ll find my soul
You say let it go

Well it’s hard enough to hear
Harder still to move beyond this fear
We know there’s nothing I can bring
So tell me what do You want from me?

You say let it go
What do I love? What do I hate?
What will I lose? What will I gain?
How do I save my soul?
What if I bend? What if I break?
What will it cost? What will it take?
For You to save my soul?♫

Say Goodbye - Katharine McPhee

♫If I seem distant, baby I am
Words are like scissors, in (my) hands
And there's no script to follow, so I just close my eyes
That way it won't hurt so much, when we say goodbye

I feel just like an actress, up on the stage
I can't believe, what I'm hearing myself say
And a porch light is my spotlight, so I play along with this lie
That way it won't hurt so much, when we say goodbye

Did you ever love me? Does it even matter?
Did you even notice, the whole word shatter?
I just want to hold you, and tell you that I'm sorry
But I just keep it all inside
That way it won't hurt so much, when we say goodbye

My heart feels like a circus
It's too much to take in
It's hard to lose a love
But you were my best friend

So walk this high wire, alone tonight
That way it won't hurt so much, when we say goodbye♫

Chances - Five For Fighting

♫Chances are when said and done
Who'll be the lucky ones
Who make it all the way?
Though you say I could be your answer
Nothing lasts forever
No matter how it feels today

Chances are we´ll find a new equation
Chances roll away from me
Chances are all they hope to be

Don't get me wrong I'd never say never
Cause though love can change the weather
No act of God can pull me away from you

I´m just a realistic man
A bottle filled with shells and sand
Afraid to love beyond what I can lose when it comes to you
And though I see us through yeah

Chances are we´ll find two destinations
Chances roll away from me
Still chances are more than expectations
The possibilities
Over me
Eight to five, two to one
Lay your money on the sun
until you crash what have you done?
Is there a better bet than love?
What you are is what you breathe
You gotta cry before you sing

Chances chances

Chances lost are hopes torn up pages
Maybe this time
Chances are we´ll be the combination
Chances come and carry me
Chances are waiting to be taken
And I can see
Chances are the fascination
Chances won't escape from me
Chances are only what we make them
And all I need♫

For My Marion

"Our Hope Endures"


♫You would think only so much can go wrong
Calamity only strikes once
And you assume this one has suffered her share
Life will be kinder from here
Oh, but sometimes the sun stays hidden for years
Sometimes the sky rains night after night
When will it clear?

But our Hope endures the worst of conditions
It's more than our optimism
Let the earth quake
Our Hope is unchanged

How do we comprehend peace within pain?
Or joy at a good man's wake?
Walk a mile with the woman whose body is torn
With illness but she marches on
Oh, 'cause sometimes the sun stays hidden for years
Sometimes the sky rains night after night
When will it clear?

But our Hope endures the worst of conditions
It's more than our optimism
Let the earth quake
Our Hope is unchanged

Emmanuel, God is with us
El Shaddai, all sufficient
We never walk alone
And this is our hope

But our Hope endures the worst of conditions
It's more than our optimism
Let the earth quake
Our Hope is unchanged♫

Re-post

I was thinking of this song today...bits and pieces of it coming to me like dust on a sunbeam. I kept trying to google what I remembered of it, and nothing came up. I thought I had blogged it, but couldn't find that either. Then I remembered the line, "soft like the woman, with the fight of a thousand men" and was able to find the song. I am reposting, as it seems only Lorraine caught it last time :)

♫Lay me down on
shores of the whitest sand
soft like that woman
with the fight of a thousand men

and if you hold the key
would you set me free?
if you hold the key
would you set me free?

I'm screaming to God
‘would you come and save
what you've either forgot
or you're strengthening
I've finally paid the toll
and it's all open road
just trying to find a home
take me home'

Violet iris
and lilies in bloom for spring
enticing—the silence
a song that we all can sing

and if you hold the key
would you set me free?
if you hold the key
would you set me free?

I'm screaming to God
‘would you come and save
what you've either forgot
or you're strengthening
I've finally paid the toll
and it's all open road
just trying to find a home
take me home'

We're tired and changing
heartbeats are fading
our days are numbered
the clocks, they keep ticking
I've been deserted,
my feelings perverted
by a pissed off and ripped off machine cycle circus
when we look in the mirror
it shatters with shame
our faces are bloody
and sour with disdain
I have seen what you are
and I have seen who I am
and we are desperate, we're desperate, we're desperate
for home…
home….

lay me down on
shores of the whitest sand
soft like that woman
with the fight of a thousand men.♫


(I LOVE this song. Matthew Mayfield began as part of the band Moses Mayfield, and he hits me somewhere most artists can't reach.)

when i say take me

now...home...now

it is not a suicidal reckoning

of an irreconcilable sorrow

though surely there have been

those

endured for this...

strengthening

rather an unquenchable desire

for open road

unearthly

teal moonlit path across 

terracotta seas, impossibly glassy

my open road

has always been water

and there is a place

i might walk it

home

.

.

.

.

Eastmountainsouth - Show Me The River

(Sorry about the video. All I had was my choice of two equally sappy videos!)

"I've been a traveler of far away lands
I've got love on my mind, but death on these hands
come homeward angel, show me the way
or will fate leave me dead in the tracks where I lay

show me the river that leads to my home
back to the one that I love
show me the wind that constantly blows
and I will fly away, fly away home

since we were parted I know I have changed
you'll see the blood that was shed in the lines on my face
but now that I've turned my back on the fight
I'm gonna steal back my life like a thief in the night

I come to you through fire and snow
over high rolling hills and the valleys below
with all that I've suffered I'm still on this road
and if I hold you again will never let go."

Rocket Man - Elton John & Ryan Adams

"Mixing the heartfelt angst of a singer/songwriter with the cocky brashness of a garage rocker, Ryan Adams is at once one of the few artists to emerge from the alt-country scene to achieve mainstream commercial success and the one who most strongly refused to be defined by the genre, leaping from one spot to another stylistically while following his increasingly prolific muse." Ahhhh...a musically promiscuous musician!





♫I don’t remember were we wild and young
All that faded into memory
I feel like somebody I don’t know
Are we really who we used to be
Am I really who I was

The lights will draw you in
And the dark will bring you down
And the night will break your heart
But only if you’re lucky now

Waiting outside while you find your keys
Like bags of trash in the blackening snow
City of neon and toes that freeze
We’ve got nothing and nowhere to go
We’ve got nothing and nowhere.♫

Wired All Wrong - Nothing At All Lyrics

I don't want to post the lyrics, but this was the only decent video available and the lyrics aren't even right. *sigh* I really want to make my own videos, but there are only so many hours in the day for the umpteen hobbies I need to fit into whatever time is left over after work. The lyrics of this song really mean nothing to me. But the music hooks me in with the chord changes and unpredictability. It's the one song I really like from Wired All Wrong. The rest are just....wierder...and not in a listening pleasure kind of way.

Their debut album, Break Out The Battle Tapes, came out on September 12, 2006. And that's it! *POOF*, aside from an instrumental album of the same name with same song titles one year later. Hmmmmmm.

Heartstrings - Stephen Fryrear

♫I see you how feel, it's on your face
Heaven only knows this might be the place
Maybe you can find where I lost my grace tonight
Don't you know, I need you now
Hold me close, 'cause I'm losing ground
And I'm hoping you could help me out

There's something in your eyes that reminds me
The worst days of mine are behind me
My heartstrings and yours are winding down
Down, down, down

And baby you speak and your whisper
Heals my mind and you lay down a kiss
Where I need it the most
I need it the most

You don't know what you do to me
Every time you come around
You're making my dreams come true

There's something in your eyes that reminds me
The worst days of mine are behind me
My heartstrings and yours are winding down
Down, down, down

Oh and I can't ask for nothing more
It's almost like I never knew love before
I saw that there's

There's something in your eyes that reminds me
The worst days of mine are behind me
My heartstrings and yours are winding down
Down, down, down ♫


__________________

Not much info on this guy, but I've been listening to this CD for about four months. I love the sound. He has a new single out, "Hands and Feet" that can be previewed on iTunes. He has only put out the one full album so far. Still having a hard time finding women artists that aren't trying so hard to be sexy that they've blocked their soul. It's almost invisible behind the hype.

Maybe They're On to Us - Needtobreathe

I feel their eyes all over me

It’s lookin' like conspiracy

I'm out of friends that I can trust

Maybe they’re on to us

My heart is filled with suspicion

I've got a fearful condition

Its more than just paranoia

Maybe they’re on to us

Maybe they’re on to us

You're not the only one

To sleep through the firing squad

To scream through the night at God

Wake in a pouring sweat you hear the sound

Can't even turn around

Hand reaching from the ground

Who's gonna save us

Who's gonna save us now

I’m looking up in the rear view

Crowds that I can't seem to push through

Strangers and operations

Maybe they’re on to us

My hands are shakin' like a leaf

Can't even see in front of me

I know its just paranoia

Maybe they’re on to us

Maybe they’re on to us

You're not the only one

To sleep through the firing squad

To scream through the night at God

Wake in a pouring sweat you hear the sound

Can't even turn around

Hand reaching from the ground

Who's gonna save us

Who's gonna save us now

Who's gonna save us now

I’m not the only one

The fear is like a flood

It’s movin' on me now

The screams they catch us

The screams they catch us

The fear is like a flood

It’s movin' on me now

The screams they catch us

Who’s gonna save us now

You're not the only one

To sleep through the firing squad

To scream through the night at God

Wake in a pouring sweat you hear the sound

Can't even turn around

Hand reaching from the ground

Who's gonna save us

Who's gonna save us now

****************

This song was written about their fear that people would find the personal lives in the band hypocritical against the overall message. But haven't we each been, something opposed to our own beliefs and morals...identities and sacraments? This has been a favorite band of mine for a long time. I find them honest, and even if their lives don't parallel every word...they are trying. Aren't we all?

Indiana/ Human - Jon McLaughlin

♫I'm glad I never lived next to the water
So I could never get used to the beach
And I'm glad I never grew up on a mountain
To figure out how high the world could reach
I love the miles between me and the city
Where I quietly imagine every street
And I'm glad I'm only picturing the moment
I'm glad she never fell in love with me

For some the world's a treasure to discover
And your scenery should never stay the same
And they're trading in their dreams for Explanations
All in an attempt to entertain
But I love the miles between me and the city
Where I quietly imagine every street
And I'm glad I'm only picturing the moment
I'm glad she never fell in love with me

The trick of love is to never let it find you
It's easy to get over missing out
I know the how's and when's, but now and then,
She's all I think about

I wonder how it feels to be famous
But wonder is as far as I will go
Because I'd probably lose myself in all the Pictures
And end up being someone I don't know.
So it's probably best I stay in Indiana
Just dreaming of the world as it should be
Where every day is a battle to convince myself
I'm glad she never fell in love with me♫

**************

I've posted a couple of McLaughlins songs before (he's a favorite!) A pianist and songwriter since childhood, influenced by Billy Joel, Elton John and Ben Folds, Jon's passion was sidelined when both wrists were shattered in an accident. He finally rediscovered his muse at the end of high school, and concentrated on honing his skills at Anderson University School of Music. His self-titled 10-song debut album was released in 2004, on the university's record label, Orangehaus – and Jon has been touring throughout the country ever since. Take the time to watch "Human" below. This guy really moves me.

***************




♫Can you tell me how we got in this situation
I can't seem to get you off my mind
All these ups and downs they
They trip up our good intentions
Nobody said this was an easy ride

After all, we're only human
Always fighting what we're feeling
Hurt instead of healing
After all we're only human
Is there any other reason
Why we stay instead of leaving
After all

Can we get back to the point in this conversation
Where we saw things through each other's eyes
Cause now all I see is ruin and devastation
We all need some place we can hide inside

After all, we're only human
Always fighting what we're feeling
Hurt instead of healing
After all we're only human
Is there any other reason
Why we stay instead of leaving

I'm smart enough to know that life goes by
And it leaves a trail of broken hearts behind
If you feel I'm letting go, just give me time
I'll come running to your side
Can you tell me how we got into this situation
I can't seem to get you off my mind

After all, we're only human
Always fighting what we're feeling
Hurt instead of healing
After all we're only human
Is there any other human♫

What If / Annie - Safetysuit

♫What if it makes you sad at me and what if it makes you laugh now but you cry as you fall asleep
And what if it takes your breathe and you can't hardly breathe
And what if it makes the last sound be the very best sound

What if what I want makes you sad at me
And is it all my fault or can I fix it please
Cause you know that I'm always all for you
Cause you know that I'm always all for you

What if it makes you lose faith in me, what if makes you question every moment you cannot see
And what if it makes you crash and you can't find the key
What if it makes you ask how you could let it all go

What if what I want makes you sad at me
And is it all my fault or can I fix it please
Cause you know that I'm always all for you
Cause you know that I'm always all for you

And if this be our last conversation
If this be the last time that we speak for awhile
Don't lose hope and don't let go
Cause you should know

If it makes you sad
If it makes you sad at me
Then it's all my fault and let me fix it please
Cause you know that I'm always all for you
Cause you know that I'm always all for you

What if what I want makes you sad at me
And if it's all my fault then let me fix it please
Cause you know that I'm always all for you
Cause you know that I'm always all for you♫


*****************


I fell in love with this band last year after hearing the song "Annie". Their lyrics hit me in very tender places, and that voice has enough raw emotion that my own angst is played out and each song feels like a damn good cry. In 2010, the band went back into the studio to begin work on their second album (excitement - tingle!)with producers Howard Benson and Espionage. Their first attempt at recording new material was scrapped in late 2010, as the band did not feel the songs lived up to their standards and started over. On March 21, 2011 the band announced on Facebook that the first single off the new record would be titled "Get Around This," (in hind sight, should have been "Get Around TO This" heh heh) produced by Espionage, and available for download on April 26. After repeated pushbacks, SafetySuit announced that their label had pushed the album release date back once again, this time to January 2012! It will be well worth the effort if the album lives up to anywhere near the first.


Drum roll please....My favorite, for your viewing and listening pleasure. This video is a highschool project about a girl named Anne, though the Safetysuit song "Annie" was used. I love it because it closely personifies me in highschool.

The Mountains Win Again - Blues Traveler

♫I put my smile put it in my pocket
Hold it for a while try not to have to drop it
Men are not to cry so how am I to stop it
Keep it all inside don't show how much she rocked ya

Ooh can you feel the same
Ooh you gotta love the pain
Ooh it looks like rain again
Ooh I feel it comin' in
The mountains win again
The mountains win again

Dreams we dreamed at night were never meant to come to life
I can't understand the ease she pulled away her hand
This time in my life I was hurt enough to care
I guess from now on I'll be careful what I share

Ooh can you feel the same
Ooh ya gotta love the pain
Ooh it looks like rain again
Yeah feel it comin' in
The mountains win again

A pocket is no place for a smile anyway
Someday I will find love again will blow my mind
Maybe it will be that love that got away from me
Is there a line to write that could make you cry tonight
Can you feel the same
Yeah ya gotta love the pain
Ooh it looks like rain again
Ooh feel it comin' in
The mountains win again
Ooh the mountains win again ♫


The economy is getting me down today. Seems like a mountain, and sure as hell seems likes it's winning. The strip malls are ghost towns. The streets are filled with more people wandering than working. It's a strange world right now, and I don't live on the fringe of it. I'm smack dab in the middle. Downtown Stockton.

LA TIMES - "California seems to be getting really good these days at making it to the top of "Worst Of" lists. This time, eight of the state's cities topped a Forbes list of the most miserable cities in the country. Stockton, that crown jewel of the San Joaquin Valley, is officially the most miserable city in the nation, according to Forbes."

I know, I'll get a lot of crap for crapping on my town, and I do know it's all what you make of it. But my point is, I SEE effect, more than some who live in more rural areas, or more affluent areas. You can feel the pain from here. The mountain wins again today, but maybe not tomorrow.

A Case of You - Diana Krall, Live in Paris

This song makes me deliciously lonely. I was sure I posted this song before, but I can't find it, so I'm reposting for myself :) I have a key and a security code (shhhhh) to one of my employers buildings with high ceilings and marble floors. I bring my JBL speaker and play this song as loud as the speakers allow when it is dark and the world still sleeps. Not a single note is missed. It is overcast today. There should be a fire, and a bottle of zinfandel...almost empty. A piano. A singer. And little else.

Thank you again Jonas, for introducing me to it.
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.
.

Justin Nozuka - Be Back Soon

I can't get enough of JN's music and it looks like I won't have to wait much longer for a meal. This just in on Facebook:

Justin and the band got together to record some new material at Coalition Studios! If you've been waiting for some new songs, keep your eyes open, they're coming soon!

Be Back Soon is probably my favorite Nozuka song, followed by his rendition of "Ain't No Sunshine", both of which I have listened to so often that a groove would have formed had I still been listening to vinyl. The tape would have stretched! The CD would be scratched. Ha! You get the picture. I love this guy. Thank you Lord, for my iPod(s)!

Nozuka, now 23 years old, was born to a Japanese father and an American mother of English ancestry. His mother's half-sister is actress Kyra Sedgwick.

He began writing his own songs at age 12. The earliest of his songs on his first album, Holly (named for his mother), "Supposed to Grow Old" and "I'm in Peace," were written when he was 15! Universal wanted Justin to sign with their label. However, he decided he wanted to "record an album on (his) own, with (his) own freedom". Although he is not nearly as well known as I think he should be, I believe he made the right choice. Holly is an exceptional album.

Scratch - Kendall Payne

Kendall Payne grew up in Los Angeles, CA. She is now 31 years old. She is deep and wise. When the singer writes the song, there is an element that is lacking in songs sung by an artist who did not live the lyrics. There just is...almost a hypocritical thing. That's stretching, but the exact feeling escapes me. Many of her songs have been themes in movies and television series, perhaps for their believability, if not their beauty.

“I once had a great philosophy teacher who told me, ‘If an eagle only has one strong wing it won’t be able to fly very high. It will need to strengthen its weaker wing in order to reach new heights.’ Now I appreciate the uphill road I’ve had to climb because it’s made me develop the sides of my personality that weren’t so strong. I am a better person because of it; how could I be anything but grateful?” - Kendall Payne

"Every great songwriter needs fuel for their fire," she says, "and there is no greater fuel than the ache of rejection. I just never bargained for how hot the flame could get." Shortly after leaving Capitol, she also parted ways with her management company and Christian label counterpart. Once the darling of the industry and now alone in the music business, she recounts, "I found myself standing in my living room, ironing something while in my pajamas, wishing the phone would ring. It was quite humbling, I must say. I had made and found my identity in being an artist. If I wasn't that anymore... I didn't know who I was."

And so began a season of soul-searching. Payne remembers, "It was a very dark place for me, but in retrospect I would not trade it for all the success in the world."




♫It's a big girl world now
Full of big girl things
And everyday I wish I was small
I've been counting on nothing
But he keeps giving me his word
And I am tired of hearing myself speak
Do you ever get weary?
Do you ever get weak?
How do you dream
When you can't fall asleep?

I've been wondering what you're thinking
And if you like my dress tonight?
Would you still say you love me
Under this ordinary moonlight?
I'm so afraid of what you'll say.

I'd like to know if you'd be open
To starting over from scratch
I'd like to know if you'd be open
To giving me a second chance

I used to think I was special
And only I have proved me wrong
I thought I could change
The world with a song
But I have ended up in India
With no lamp to guide me home.
The strangest place I think
I have ever been
And all this time
I thought that we were friends
My stubborn will is learning to bend.♫
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Needtobreathe New Album - THE RECKONING

Needtobreathe is one of my all time favorite bands, as previously noted. THEY HAVE A NEW ALBUM !!!(clap clap clap) called the Reckoning. I love every track, as I have on every album they have ever put out. (Is it wrong to still call them albums? Whatev...) They have such a diverse sound. On A Place Only You Can Go there is a moment that almost goes bagpipe and organ. On Maybe They're On To Us the feel turns Maroon 5. There are blues tracks, and country influences. Needtobreath is like a box of chocolates (cue Forrest Gump). But their lyrics are never banal. The posted excerpt from their own website is a good explaination of why.






♫There's a host of hurts we come across
None of which alike
From the air inside the birthing room
To the darkness where we die
Though I feel I'm just as strong as any man I know
I'm not able on my own

Carry round the secrets
Only heaven knows
Crawl into our darkened rooms where only victims go
Though I feel I'm strong enough to carry all this load
I'm not able on my own

All my actions, false or true
Selfish motives I will use
We were born with knives in hand
Trained to kill our fellow man
If we're not better than the rest
How will children do their best
Find your patience, find your truth
Love is all we have to lose

I'm not able on my own♫

__________________

“There was always this creeping reminder that we needed to show what the last ten years on the road had taught us. If we couldn't do that, everything we had worked for was meaningless.”

“We considered every note, every sound, and every lyric that went on this album,” Bo says of their fourth album The Reckoning, which was co-produced by the band with Rick Beato (who worked with the band on their records The Heat and The Outsiders), and was recorded over seven months mostly at their Plantation Studios in Charleston, SC. “Everything was put through the ‘Do we really believe in this or not,’ filter. We never settled. We were looking for a spark. Sometimes in the studio you’ve got to keep searching until something happens that feels magical. We were waiting for that moment to strike on each song before we called this album finished.” Bear adds, “At one point, we had done 10 different versions of the same song, but that process is what the record came to be about. We felt like no one could take this moment from us. I think you can feel the pressure we put on ourselves in every note of this record. The songs and the album became something much bigger than us ... something we had to live up to.”


Lyrically, all roads lead from the album’s title, which Bear says has several different meanings, one of them being the justification of accounts. “I like the idea that you put in all this work and at some point it comes to a peak -- that’s the reckoning time.”


What the band emerged with is a timeless-sounding album rooted in classic American rock and roll, unafraid to veer off into unexpected directions. Songs such as “Maybe They’re On To Us” address the paranoia of wondering whether people know too much about the band. “It also asks, ‘Are we still driven in the same way?’ We’re always questioning ourselves,” Bear says. Even the songs that may sound light-hearted on the surface, like “White Fences,” “Slumber,” and “Drive All Night,” explore serious themes. “’White Fences’ is about the American dream of growing up in a big house with a white picket fence, but when the dream is broken and things don’t pan out the way you planned, asking who’s going to fix it,” Bo says. “’Slumber’ is meant to be about how beauty is all around you but you just can’t see it because of the funk you’re in,” Bear says. “It speaks to something that we really care about which is giving yourself a chance.” And there’s “Drive All Night,” a galloping barnstormer that Bear sees as a statement on the false idea that one can run away from one’s problems. “The truth is, the more you run away, the worse it gets, whereas if you embrace the things around you, the more joy you’re going to have,” he says.

Ena Na Lena - AOMUSIC

From the 2011 album "...and Love Rages On")

“Ena Na Lena” contains various syllables taken from Polynesian, Gaelic and Swedish languages (translated as “Little flame, my flower of light”). The song features the Bishop Bavin St. George’s Children’s Choir from Johannesburg, South Africa, and the Rainbow Mountain Children’s School Choir from Asheville, North Carolina, USA.

Thanks to Liza for sharing this video with me. The photos are remarkable!

Jack and White - Telephone Games (Live Acoustic)

Brooke White (a beauty school drop out - cue Grease soundtrack) was first seen on American Idol...at least by me. I liked her voice. I didn't really think about her after that until I checked out her first album release High Hopes and Heartbreak. I wasn't particularly impressed, or should I say nothing made an impression on me, as I chose not to download any of the songs and can't remember them.

Brooke was blindly set up for a song writing session with Jack Matranga, who was born and raised in Sacramento, CA...a mere 45 minutes from me! He had formed an Indie pop-rock band that I never heard of (shock!) "They were to co-write a song for what was supposed to be Brooke’s next solo record. The pair had no expectations and minimal knowledge of each other’s history, musical or otherwise. But they found an almost instantaneous creative chemistry and spent the first hour just talking, sharing their influences and favorite songs. In just a few short hours, JACK AND WHITE penned their first tune.

This collection of songs that has been described as “reminiscent of the Buckingham/Nicks pairing of the 70's.” With Jack’s luminous guitar picking and Brooke’s warm airy vocal style, the two have harmonized to create something completely modern and relevant, yet classic sounding."

While the pair are both happy upbeat types, I took an instant shine to the title track of their collaborative EP, Gemini, which straddles the fence between shadow and sunshine. But what I love most about this album is the under produced quality of it. It sounds as if I could be sitting in their garage listening to a practice session. The more I listen to these six songs, the more I love them. I would have liked to hear Jack on lead. I haven't a clear shot at his voice yet, and for equal billing in the name, he sure doesn't get equal vloume in the lyrics, though they blend beautifully.


♫My friends, your friends
Everybody's whispering
The same old telephone games.

High school is over
We don't grow up
No we just get older
Such a shame.

And we can't shake it.
Is there any truth behind what
They are saying, babe?

I'm here, you're there
Talk is cheap, it's everywhere.
Denial eases the pain.

But when the summer turns to fall
I won't be waiting for your call.
I'm only holding on, holding on
For so long.
You've got me holding on...
On the line.

It's the talk of the town
Has my heart turned upside down.
The same old telephone games.

Send a message thru the wire
Set the rumor mill on fire.
Watch it burn up in flames.

And I believe, when I see
You standing in front of me
Eye-to-eye, face-to-face.

Are you lovin someone new?
Has a change of heart changed you?
Maybe I'm going insane.♫

Riot - Three Days Grace

FOLLOWERS FUGE - Annie

She's done a lot of writing

It's like saying she's run marathons

but no one would believe their equality.

She weight lifts the music.

It is isometric, the way she listens...

the strength required to hold such a thing for three minutes

or more.

She's not sure anyone understands.

Maybe 29 do.

But more like 4.

They are elite like that

and she prefers it to a crowd.

Three Days Grace, which was originally called Groundswell, was a post-grunge band that formed in 1992 in Norwood, Ontario. Most of the members were attending high school when the band initially formed.

By the fall of 1995, two band members left and the band regrouped and changed the band name to "Three Days Grace". According to Gontier, the name stands for a sense of urgency with the question being: if you had three days to change something in your life could you do it? I relate to this music from the dense forest, out from which I occasionally visit the meadow. I cannot listen to sweet music for long. I cannot stomach main stream praise songs for long. My ears are bent, and often the music or lyrics must be equally crooked.



♫If you feel so empty
So used up, so let down
If you feel so angry
So ripped off so stepped on
You're not the only one
Refusing to back down
You're not the only one
So get up

Let's start a riot♫

Angels On The Moon - Thriving Ivory

♫Do you dream that the world will know your name,
So tell me your name (tell me your name)
And do you care, about all the little things,
Or anything at all (or anything at all),

I wanna feel all the chemicals inside,
I wanna feel (I wanna feel),
I wanna sunburn just to know that I'm alive,
To know I'm alive (to know if I'm alive),

Don't tell me if I'm dying,
Cause I don't wanna know,
If I can't see the sun,
Maybe I should go,
Don't wake me cause I'm dreaming,
Of angels on the moon,
Where everyone you know,
Never leaves too soon

Do you believe in the day that you were born,
Tell me do you believe, (do you believe)
And do you know that every day's the first of the rest of your life,
Don't tell me if I'm dying,
Cause I don't wanna know,
If I can't see the sun,
Maybe I should go,
Don't wake me cause I'm dreaming,
Of angels on the moon,
Where everyone you know,
Never leaves too soon,

This is to one last day in the shadows,
And to know a brothers love,
This is to New York City angels,
And the rivers of our blood,
This is to all of us,
To all of us,

So don't tell me if I'm dying,
Cause I don't wanna know,
If I can't see the sun,
Maybe I should go,
Don't wake me cause I'm dreaming,
Of angels on the moon,
Where everyone you know,
Never leaves too soon,

Yeah you can tell me,
All your thoughts about the stars,
That fill polluted skies,
And show me where you run to,
When no one's left to take your side
But don't tell me where the road ends,
Cause I just don't wanna know,
No, I don't wanna know,

Don't tell me if I'm dying,
Don't tell me if I'm dying.♫

Beautiful Disaster - Kelly Clarkson:

♫He drowns in his dreams
An exquisite extreme I know
He’s as damned as he seems
And more heaven than a heart could hold
And if I try to save him
My whole world would cave in
It just ain't right
Lord just ain't right

Oh and I don't know
I don't know what he's after
But he's so beautiful
He's such a beautiful disaster
And if I could hold on
Through the tears and the laughter
Lord would it be beautiful?
Or just a beautiful disaster

He's magic and myth
As strong as what I believe
A tragedy with
More damage than a soul should see
But do I try to change him?
So hard not to blame him
Hold me tight
Baby hold me tight

Oh and I don't know
I don't know what he's after
But he’s so beautiful
He's such a beautiful disaster
And if I could hold on
Through the tears and the laughter
Would it be beautiful?
Or just a beautiful disaster

I'm longing for love and the logical
But he's only happy hysterical
I'm searching for some kind of miracle
Waited so long
Waited so long

He’s soft to the touch
But frayed at the end he breaks
He’s never enough
And still he's more than I can take

Oh and I don't know
I don't know what he's after
But he's so beautiful
Such a beautiful disaster
And if I could hold on
Through the tears and the laughter
Would it be beautiful?
Or just a beautiful disaster

He’s beautiful
Lord he's so beautiful
He's beautiful.♫
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Song for Viola - Peter Bradley Adams

If my soul had a sound...it would be viola.

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What I Cannot Change - LeAnn Rimes

This is one of my favorite songs, though I must admit it's probably the only song of hers I have really taken to. It is touted as one of the few songs of hers that is not slick and over produced. I agree. I posted two versions...the first for audio quality, the second just to perpetuate the impact the song has made...how it connects with people. The website was a great idea but was taken down, presumably because LeAnn was attacked regarding her alleged affair and subsequent divorce. I play it loud. I play most things loud as there a nuances you miss if the volume is low. The viola is so melancholy. The simple piano is a plea for acceptance of what is, and guitar plucks the knowledge that we should change what we can. "It's easier to please the world than it is to please myself."


♫I know what makes me comfortable
I know what makes me tick
And when I need to get my way I know how to pour it on thick
Cream and sugar in my coffee
Right away when I awake
I face the day and pray to God I won't make the same mistakes
Oh the rest is out of my hands

I will learn to let go what I cannot change
I will learn to forgive what I cannot change
I will learn to love what I cannot change
But I will change, I will change
Whatever I, whenever I can

I don't know my Father
Or my Mother well enough
Seems like every time we talk we can't get past the little stuff
The pain is self inflicted
I know it's not good for my health
But it's easier to please the world than it is to please myself
Oh the rest is out of my hands

I will learn to let go what I cannot change
I will learn to forgive what I cannot change
I will learn to love what I cannot change
But I will change, I will change
Whatever I, whenever I can

Right now I can't care about how everyone else will feel
I have enough hurt of my own to heal

I will learn to let go what I cannot change
I will learn to forgive what I cannot change
I will learn to love what I cannot change
But I will change, I will change
Whatever I, whenever I can♫

The Best is Yet to Come - Hinder

♫My first make-out session
I learned my first lesson
While trying to get to the next base
When i slipped past her waist
She smacked my hand away
Then i got a slap in the face

If i could go back in time
Wouldn't change a damn thing in my life
Love the dumb things we do when we're young

But the best is yet to come

My first drinking lesson
I followed all my friends
Stole liquor went down to the lake
Weed mixed with whiskey
Hell i got so dizzy it was more than my stomach could take

If i could go back in time
Wouldn't change a damn thing in my life
Love the dumb things we do when we're young

But the best is yet to come

Go for it
Run toward it
Dive in head first
Live life with no regret
Put your heart out there
Don't be scared you might get hurt
But it's all worth it in the end

Because the best is yet to come

My last high school lesson
Scared of graduation
Tipped a few back and showed up too late
Well my mom got mad hell my dad he just laughed
And said, son i have done the same thing.

Just go for it
run toward it
dive in head first
live life with no regrets
put your heart out there
don't be scared you might get hurt, but its all worth it in the end.
it'll all work out in the end
because the best is yet to come
the best is yet to come

the best is yet to come.♫

Ray Charles

‎"I was born with music inside me. Music was one of my parts. Like my ribs, my kidneys, my liver, my heart. Like my blood. It was a force already within me when I arrived on the scene. It was a necessity for me-like food or water." - Ray Charles

This song, melts me...like butter in saute...like cheese in fondue. There is no alternative, no other flame. You can slay me with this song, to the point at which I hate my name...curse my momma. I shoulda been a Georgia.

Banjo Bits

(Having never been much for this particular instrument, I have a renewed interest. Love the harmonica additions in Outsiders as well.)


♫Shortfalls and little sins
Close calls where no one wins
Stand tall but running thin
I'm wearing thin
Oh, why are we keeping score

Cause if you're not laughing
Who is laughing now
I've been wondering if this starts sinking
Would we stand our ground
After everything we've learned
We've finally come to terms
We are the outsiders

I'm not leaving without a fight
I've got my holsters around my sides
Just cause I'm wrong that don't make you right
It's not right
Oh, what are we fighting for

Cause if you're not laughing
Who is laughing now
I've been wondering if this starts sinking
Would we stand our ground
After everything we've learned
We've finally come to terms
We are the outsiders♫

TENDER AND YOUR TIRED - THE MANIC STREET PREACHERS

♫You're so fragile tonight
Been up hurting all night
It's not trivial like they think
Yes you're desperate and you're hurt

Thought about it so many times
Too afraid to open your eyes
To see the sadness that's inside
Just sit back in and stop time

You're tender and you're tired
You can't be bothered to decide
Whether you live or die
Or just forget about your life

But it's too late to be real
No time to be strong enough
Just time to leave it all behind
Memory has become pain

Rebuild the void with flowers
Sad eyed destruction build around sand and sea
Yes you can build yourself around
Build yourself around me, yourself around me

You're tender and you're tired
You can't be bothered to decide
Whether you live or die
Or just forget about your life

Never say goodbye
Drift away and die.♫


("The band was originally a quartet: main lyricist and guitarist Richey Edwards vanished on 1 February 1995. In November 2008, thirteen years after his disappearance, he was officially declared presumed deceased.[3]

The Manics released their debut album, Generation Terrorists in 1992. Their combination of androgynous glam punk imagery, outspoken invective and songs about "culture, alienation, boredom and despair" soon gained them a loyal following and cult status. The band's later albums retained a leftist politicisation and intellectual lyrical style, while adopting a broader alternative rock sound. Enigmatic lyricist Richey Edwards gained early notoriety by cutting the words "4REAL" into his arm with a razor blade (narrowly missing an artery and requiring seventeen stitches) in response to the suggestion that the band were less than authentic.[9] The dark nature of 1994's The Holy Bible reflected the culmination of Edwards' instability.")

Brooklyn Bridge - Lee DeWyze

(Born Leon James DeWyze on April 2, 1986, in Mount Prospect, Illinois, to parents Kathleen and Lee DeWyze, Sr. Lee, Jr. had a difficult time in school, and was kicked out of Prospect High School for fighting. He later attended Forest View Alternative School, but he never graduated. To cope with his feelings of estrangement, DeWyze turned to music, teaching himself guitar and drums. He began performing publicly at the age of 16.)

Lee DeWyze. Who wouldn't be a talent at something with a name like that. It rolls of the tongue. His voice sooths me. *sigh*  Thank God, his album was true. No bubblegum. I was worried. Of course I was.

Mercy - Matt Nathanson

Play it LOUD. REAL LOUD.

"What inspired a concept album about “modern love”?

Matt Nathanson: "I’m a huge fan and believer in the album as a concept – that has an arc like a film. I may be the last one left who believes in the concept of an album as a whole. It all started with this idea of how everything is moving so fast, technologically, and the way that our culture is obsessed with celebrity and obsessed with the surface of things.

It’s a two-fold thing; the subject of the stories in the songs were stories I was telling about people I knew who were in a relationship crises or at a turning point. Everyone I loved was hitting a weird moment at the time that our culture was having its own weird moment. What I saw was that everyone I know was having too much upheaval when our culture wasn’t having enough upheaval.

Our culture has a weird romance with the surface level of everything. So, the album became a weird trip of technology versus heart. That’s how we wanted it to sound, too. The technology would be there, but we would use it to our advantage in order to complement the emotional core and the depth. Then the concepts starting influencing the sonics and the sonics started influencing the concepts."


♫I want a real love
To let me in
I want to zero out
And be born again
No more false starts and no dead ends

Cause I'm no shape
To do what's right
I see up that's down and black that's white
It makes me dizzy I come apart
All this love love love in the dark

Mercy mercy both hands
I need less drowning and more land
Mercy mercy, understand
Less drowning, more land, less drowning

Lay a fire in the crowd
Just to watch you move
Tie your hands and demand a salute
All these gardens full of snakes and fruit

Hear the click click click
And the camera flash
It's in the definite kick up in the fame ball blast
But they don't call and they don't last
And you're gone, outshine

Mercy mercy both hands
I need less drowning and more land
Mercy mercy, understand
Less drowning, more land, less drowning

Come on kill the light
Leave it all behind
I'm right by your, I'm right by your side

Lean on the tick of time
Put your hand in in mine
Watch you, watch you ignite

Mercy mercy both hands
I need less drowning and more land
Mercy mercy, understand
Less drowning, more land,

Mercy mercy, I'm in your hands
I look into your eyes and I see life end
Mercy mercy, understand
Less drowning, more land,
Less drowning, more land.♫

I got a love that comes in colors

I got a voice, comes in screaming

My old clothes don’t fit me now

– “Drop To Hold You”, Modern Love

We All Need Saving - Jon McLaughlin

It used to be that the songs with deep emotion came from seasoned men of hard lives...women who were rough around the edges with four men of bad marriages behind them. But I listen to the lyrics of my son's songs, the songs of John McLaughlin, Justin Nozuka, James Morrison (maybe it's the J-names???) and they FEEL. They translate it. I feast on it. It's not the age of the body, but perhaps the soul.


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Mayday - The Icarus Account

♫Mayday Mayday
Someone save me
I am fragile
Oh somebody rescue me
Oh somebody tell me you will
Concrete Heartache Left me awake
Sleepless Sleeper
Oh somebody wake me up
Oh somebody tell me you will
Tell me that you're going to save me
That everything is gonna be ok
I'm screaming but nobody can hear me
Can you save me from myself? No, no, no, no
How can the be? I've tried and tried and tried
But I'm sill lost out at sea
When did I become the things that
I used to hate I'm stranded to this ship
Left to fall with a crash of the waves (mayday)
Tell me that you're going to save me That everything is gonna be ok
I'm screaming but nobody can hear me
Can you save me from myself? Mayday Mayday Mayday♫


Icarus Account last blog entry re: "Come Home To Me":

April 2010 - For the first time in my life I knew what it was like to lose a girl to another guy. It was hard to get a grip on the fact that I was actually being left for another person and there was nothing that I could do or want/try to do to change it; I finally understood how it felt to be lied to, etc. and yet somehow at the same time still care about the person who hurt me.

This song was so personal that we almost didn't release it. But at the same point I knew there were people who could be moved by the story and relate to the way that I felt at that vulnerable moment in time. Even more so, I thought about my faith and the way that I am loved unconditionally despite my unfaithfulness. We could all be more faithful to what we believe in and the people that we Love. Hearts break everyday, the ability to heal and move forward is a beautiful thing :)
- Ty


What happened to them? I often wonder. I stupidly think that if I had found them sooner, they'd still be making music. But...perhaps they are.
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The Lake (a ghost story) by Tim Buck

I made a collage from my photographs (mostly mine...not the women, and not the gravestones in rows) put to Tim's song. Enjoy.


♫The Lake (a ghost-story song)- by Tim Buck

I float in my boat about one hundred yards from the shore.
I drift on the lake, drinkin' ten beers or more.
Summer sun cooks me up a serving of dreams,
and I drowse like that lazy faun by Claude Debussy.

Daydreams get stirred up with a relish of recall,
and I think about that time before the dam was installed.
All the homesteads were abandoned, the coffins disinterred.
Rites were performed so no curses would stir

stir the big water,
stir the big water,
stir the big water of Greer's Ferry Lake.

But sometimes the schemes of sincere mere men
get waylaid by unforeseen consequence.
I do believe that all of those cautions did fail.
I've seen things in the depths make a sober man quail.

Some of us folk got minds that are slightly free.
We don't mock our spirits, we don't chop down willow trees.
So what of those apparitions reported back then?
Has a liquid mausoleum sealed obsessions in

beneath big water,
beneath big water,
beneath the big water of Greer's Ferry Lake?

Sometimes when I peer down in the watery vast,
I see her mad spirit amid the crappie and the bass.
Not a-swimmin', she's a-swirlin', she's a-searchin' for God.
Gonna confront him for killin' her with diphtheria's blood rot.

Well, I ain't like those who have lost their inner eye.
My peripheral sight sees through what shadows glide.
Once as a boy jumpin' headstones, a spectre gave a fright.
Momma said that was a goat with long hair silken white.

So I am primed to see what lies beyond the pale.
Yes, I have a hoard of uncanny tales I could tell.
And I'll float upon this reservoir from end to blue end
until I can speak solace to my little restless friend.

Sometimes when I peer down in the watery vast,
I see her mad spirit amid the crappie and the bass.
Not a-swimmin', she's a-swirlin', she's a-searchin' for God.
Gonna confront him for killin' her with diphtheria's blood rot.

The waves of this lake lap incessantly.
Once into a lonesome cove at dusk I did drift.
The water transmogrified to mist eerily,
in the shape of a child, up through the pines she did lift.♫

All We Are - OneRepublic

♫I tried to paint you a picture, the colors were all wrong
Black and white didn't fit you and all along,
You were shaded with patience, your strokes of everything
That I need just to make it, and I believe that...
Lord knows I've failed you
time and again, but you and me are alright.

Time can tear you apart
But it won't break anything that you are, you are

We won't say our goodbyes you know it's better that way
We won't break, we won't die
It's just a moment of change
All we are, all we are, is everything that's right
All we need, all we need, a lover's alibi

I walked a minute in your shoes, they never would've fit
I figured there's nothing to lose,
I need to get some perspective on these words before I write them down
You're an island and my ship has run aground
Lord knows I'll fail you time and again,
But you and me we're alright

We won't say our goodbyes you know its better that way
We won't break, we won't die
It's just a moment of change
All we are, all we are, is everything that's right
All we need all we need, a lover's alibi

Every single day that I can breathe, you change my philosophy
I'm never gonna let you pass me by
So don't say your goodbyes you know its better that way
We won't break, we won't die
It's just a moment of change

All we are, all we are, is everything that's right
All we need, all we need, a lover's alibi

So don't say our goodbyes you know its better
We won't break, we won't die.♫

She Hates Me - Puddle of Mud

I love this song. I have the dirty version (she says somewhat sheepishly). Can't help myself. I love this video...everything but the blonde. Bad casting. Blech!

Have a great weekend!

Medicine - Tab Benoit

I think I was born in a shack on the bayou.

I've memories of it

small wooden porch

creak of a rocking chair

the gentle sway of a lantern

crickets so loud they drown out sorrow

or are sorrow

or eat sorrow.

My eyes are the color of silt

and I've the scent of the water in my hair.

They keep telling me

I was born and raised inland

a city dweller

but I cannot reconcile the fact

I do not live where I ought.

My soul has never lived here.

♫I’m losing my mind, babe, the worse things happen I fear
Begging for mercy, there ain’t no connection out here
I’m getting sick of these things that’s going on
My fever’s high, my nights are long
One more shot to do me in

Bring me my medicine
Bring me my medicine

A hard times are holding me against y will
I’m so tired that I can’t find my flip
I’m stuck in the middle of the right and wrong
I don’t know what keeps me hanging on
Baby, can’t you see what a shape I’m in?

Bring me my medicine
Bring me my medicine

It/s so good when medicine hits my vein
just one time and I ain’t never been the same
People try to find out what’s the deal
All I know is how it makes me feel
Maybe this is pushing incomprehensible

Oh bring me my medicine
Bring me my medicine baby♫

Tab Benoit

("Tab Benoit (born November 17, 1967, Baton Rouge, Louisiana) is an American blues guitarist, musician and singer. He plays a style that is a combination of blues styles, including Chicago blues. He plays a Fender Telecaster electric guitar and writes his own musical compositions.

A guitar player since his teenage years, he hung out at the Blues Box, a music club and cultural center in Baton Rouge run by guitarist Tabby Thomas. Playing guitar alongside Thomas, Raful Neal, Henry Gray and other high-profile regulars at the club, Benoit learned the blues first-hand from a faculty of living blues legends. He formed a trio in 1987 and began playing clubs in Baton Rouge and New Orleans. He began touring other parts of the south two years later and started touring more of the United States in 1991- and he continues to this day.Tab is also featured in the IMAX film, Hurricane on the Bayou.")

ACK! I gotta see that movie!
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You Can Call Me Al - Jesse Young

♫A man walks down the street
He says why am I soft in the middle now
Why am I soft in the middle
The rest of my life is so hard
I need a photo-opportunity
I want a shot at redemption
Don't want to end up a cartoon
In a cartoon graveyard
Bonedigger Bonedigger
Dogs in the moonlight
Far away my well-lit door
Mr. Beerbelly Beerbelly
Get these mutts away from me
You know I don't find this stuff amusing anymore
If you'll be my bodyguard
I can be your long lost pal
I can call you Betty
And Betty when you call me
You can call me Al

A man walks down the street
He says why am I short of attention
Got a short little span of attention
And oh my nights are so long
Where's my wife and family
What if I die here
Who'll be my role-model
Now that my role-model is
Gone Gone
He ducked back down the alley
With some roly-poly little bat-faced girl
All along along
There were incidents and accidents
There were hints and allegations

If you'll be my bodyguard
I can be your long lost pal
I can call you Betty
And Betty when you call me
You can call me Al
Call me Al

A man walks down the street
It's a street in a strange world
Maybe it's the Third World
Maybe it's his first time around
He doesn't speak the language
He holds no currency
He is a foreign man
He is surrounded by the sound
The sound
Cattle in the marketplace
Scatterlings and orphanages
He looks around, around
He sees angels in the architecture
Spinning in infinity
He says Amen! and Hallelujah!

If you'll be my bodyguard
I can be your long lost pal
I can call you Betty
And Betty when you call me
You can call me Al
Call me Al♫


(Thanks Alesa for the song reminder. I sure would like a shot at redemption. Soft in the middle. Yeah. Right about now. I like Jesse's cover of Paul Simon. Check him out at www.myspace.com/jesseyoung)

(Update: His Myspace page shows four original songs I think. Unfortunately too "pop" for my taste in general. Good voice, just wish the songs weren't so slick. I really like this acoustic thing with very little production. I'll keep an eye on him.)
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The Gabe Dixon Band

(The band released their debut album for Fantasy Records, The Gabe Dixon Band, in August 2008. In its initial days of release, it has received praise from the music press and fellow artists. The band toured the United States from Aug 2008 through Nov 2008 with native New Yorker turned Canadian resident, Justin Nozuka. The song Find My Way was the opening track to the film The Proposal (2009) starring Sandra Bullock and Ryan Reynolds.


Gabe's solo album, One Spark, will be released on August 23, 2011. The album is produced by Marshall Altman and will feature a duet with Alison Krauss.)


I think this band has a wide diversity of songs/styles. I REALLY REALLY love all of it. My favorite so far, is Baby Doll. I think it is an exceptionally sweet and patient song. I hope he gets the girl :)






♫You take your coffee differently each day
I hope you think my noticing's okay
Just when I think I'm learning all your moves
Do you even see the dance you do
Between who you are and what you choose?

You're restless when you're talking about him
And I don't mind discussing it again, no
You say talking to him's just making sound
I don't see why you're still hanging 'round
You're the fastest rolling stone in town

Baby Doll what you gonna do now?
Is your head in the clouds or stuck in the ground?
Will you pin your hair or let it down?
I'm sticking around
Don't let me down Baby Doll

I'm sorry if I'm calling you too late
And now I'm fumbling for words to say
I've got your voice repeating in my head
All the sad and lonely things you said
Maybe I should let you get to bed

Or maybe, maybe
Baby Doll
I hate to see you sad
I hate to see you sad
But I love to see you

Baby Doll what you gonna do now?
Is your head in the clouds or stuck in the ground?
Will you pin your hair or let it down?
I'm sticking around
Don't let me down Baby Doll
Baby Doll♫

I Hear Goodnight - Ingram Hill

♫Well I closed my eyes this mornin'
Last night to me and my friends
Found myself spinnin' once again
Telephone rings for me
Still dirty from the day before
Feel the day's gonna leave me wantin' more

Gonna need some time
Let the night unwind
Face down on the floor
Like a drug you take
Fillin' in my fates
It's killin' me to know
I'm dyin for more

Annie you've never been good for me
But I still wanna be wrong
I said too much and now you're gone
And Annie you've never been true to me
But I still buy your lies
Tell me why when you say goodbye
I hear goodnight

Well I drove down every alley
Wore the shine off these old shoes
Shouldn't hurt this much when there nothin' to lose

I tell myself a story
I hang on every line
What if you adored me
Would I still be so blind
Every single time?♫



(Another Annie song :-(   Gotta start wondering about the name! I hate the name Ann. It is so boring and lacking in personality. Vanilla. I suppose Ann-marie would have been fine (which is my given name). I went with Annie, for some unknown latent reason. (oh yes...now I remember...) Are there songs about Kate? Carlie? Am I just aware because the name is mine....like I am aware of FourNineteen? )

three letters

who can absolve me

in one vowel?

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June - Tyler Hilton

♫June, what you gonna do without me?
Soon, you're gonna have to move around me,
It's never what you wanted but it's been awhile coming,
Oh June, what you gonna do?

Throw your stones, if you need to take it out on me,
Don't you know, that's the way it's always gotta be,
There's no room, in the end your little fantasy,
Won't come true, that's so you,
June

June, I love the hats you wear to meet me,
But soon, you're gonna have to chose between me
And everything you wanted, girl you knew you had it coming,
Oh June, I said what you gonna do?

She screams and she cries and nobody cares,
She's never alone, she needs everyone there,
But she's not gonna get a reaction from me 'cause I let go,
And it's so hard to go.♫


(I love this song. I want to be left of center :)  I love this!. You'll have to listen to it on iTunes though because all the Youtube versions have bad sound quality.)

Dancing Shoes - Arctic Monkeys

I dunno...I just like it. Makes my feet jiggle :) TGIF!

Shadowfeet - Brooke Fraser

♫Walking, stumbling
On these shadowfeet
Toward home, a land that I've never seen

I am changing
Less and less asleep
Made of different stuff than when I began

And I have sensed it all along
Fast approaching is the day

When the world has fallen out from under me
I'll be found in you, still standin'
When the sky rolls up and mountains fall on their knees
When time and space are through
I'll be found in you

There's distraction
Buzzing in my head
Saying in the shadows it's easier to stay

But I've heard rumours
Of true reality
Whispers of a well-lit way.♫

ADHESION

I am adhesive

rolling into being

the way you stick to me, the tenacity.

We are adhesive

the way she sticks to us, permanent

all these adhesions

binding our tissue

such a delicate word....tissue

can we be made of something so fine?

We should shred, moving through the world

and I suppose we do

though rolling on

picking up adhesions

I've heard rumors of a whole woman

who had no need

She lived in a garden

and then she didn't

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Apologies - Grace Potter and The Nocturnals

(Where has this band been all my life? Described as "home based in Vermont, it blends a cool funky kinda soul with a honest, but heavy 70′s vibe" by Living In The Spiral, and I wholeheartedly agree. Gotta go find me some more of this as this is the first I've heard!)

♫Yesterday he said my eyes
Were fading fast away
I said well what do you expect
You asked me not to stay and if it had all been for the best
I wouldn't feel this way
And he said

Oh he said it's crazy
How love stays with me
You know it hurts me
Cause I don't wanna fight this war
It's amazing to see me reading through this scene
Of love and fear and apologies

My love is like a blanket
That gets a little bit too warm sometimes
I wanna wrap somebody in it
Who can hold me in his arms
Cause when it got a little too hot in there
He was always stepping out for air and he froze
Oh he froze

He said it's crazy
How love stays with me
You know it hurts me
Cause I don't wanna fight this war
It's amazing to see me reading through this scene
Of love and fear and apologies

Yesterday he looked at me
With a tear in his eye and said
I'll always tell you you're my friend
I hope I don't have to lie
Cause it's clear you love another man
I said you're damn right

And he said
He said it's crazy
How love stays with me
You know it hurts me
Cause I don't wanna fight this war
It's amazing to see me reading through this scene
Of love and fear and apologies
He said it's crazy
How love stays with me
You know it hurts me
That i didn't figure it out before
And now it's too late for a soliloquy
It's way too late for dignity
It's time for apologies.♫

Nothing Fancy - Dave Barnes

♫There's nothing fancy bout the way I love you,
There's nothing you could not find in any other man.
There's nothing fancy bout the way I love you,
But I love you as hard as I can.

There's no good reason for the way you love me,
But you're my walking dream come true.
There's no good reason for the way you love me,
But I thank God that you do.

I don't know the perfect conversation,
I don't know the way to turn a head,
I don't know the perfect way to prove my love,
But I know I'll love you till I'm dead.

There's nothing fancy bout the way I love you,
It's as simple as the stars in the sky, and the blue in the sea.
There's nothing fancy bout the way I love you,
But it sure is fancy how you love me.♫


(The lyrics aren't spectacular. The sentiment is lovely and the melody makes it a winner. As a songwriter, Barnes has both written and co-written songs for Marc Broussard, Bebo Norman, Matt Wertz, Andrew Ripp, Billy Currington, and many other singers. I'm not surprised about the Matt Wertz connection, as both artists flip my heart the same way. Broussard surprises me, but no doubt it was Gavin's Song, and Jeremiah's Prayer if I were to hazard a guess. Ahhh yes...just Googled. Gavin's song co-written with Dave Barnes. Barne's has a recognizable style. Humble. Connected. Earthy. I'm a huge fan.)

Rise Up - Disciple

♫Here I come, I'm 'bout to rise up
With all of my people, we're 'bout to rise up
Here we come now, we're 'bout to rise up
With all of my people, we're 'bout to rise up.♫


My favorite wake up song :)
Not much to it...
but it get's my feet moving at 0-dark:30.

Good Morning!

Everything - Alanis Morissette

♫I can be an asshole of the grandest kind
I can withhold like it's going out of style
I can be the moodiest baby and you've never met anyone
Who is as negative as I am sometimes

I am the wisest woman you've ever met.
I am the kindest soul with whom you've connected.
I have the bravest heart that you've ever seen
And you've never met anyone
Who's as positive as I am sometimes.

You see everything, you see every part
You see all my light and you love my dark
You dig everything of which I'm ashamed
There's not anything to which you can't relate
And you're still here

I blame everyone else, not my own partaking
My passive-aggressiveness can be devastating
I'm terrified and mistrusting
And you've never met anyone as,
As closed down as I am sometimes.

You see everything, you see every part
You see all my light and you love my dark
You dig everything of which I'm ashamed
There's not anything to which you can't relate
And you're still here

What I resist, persists, and speaks louder than I know
What I resist, you love, no matter how low or high I go

I'm the funniest woman that you've ever known
I'm the dullest woman that you've ever known
I'm the most gorgeous woman that you've ever known
And you've never met anyone
Who is as everything as I am sometimes.♫

you might want a manual

a playbook

Rule Of Woman

this one, this woman

oh...you'd be so bored

you might want me stable

and predictable

agreeable and hanging on

your immutable suggestions

as if they were my very own

because my mistakes might be minimized

and your awkwardness reduced

oh...but I'd be so bored

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