1. |
Aluminum Overcast
04:59
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Out of the sky, the heavy rain
I guess they’re back at work again today
In truth, I’ll never be alone
With the groaning metal sky-clouds keeping company
They’re light as air and born of hate
The modern marvels taking patients to the gate
But the droning engines lull to sleep
The parts of men that love before they jump away
And all the pontius pilots of the golden age
Are whisked away in holy wars
Are whisked away in holy wars
Above thy deep and dreamless sleep
The silent stars are overcast aluminum
Cast out my sin, and enter in
The pride of men, and all their minds have made and done
But sometimes I desire to fly
Machines of change, and engines of expectancy
The fight for all will soon give fall
To blind oppressions, long as we’re remembering
Above thy deep and dreamless sleep
The silent stars are overcast aluminum
Cast out my sin, and enter in
The pride of men, and all their minds have made and done
Above thy deep and dreamless sleep
The silent stars are overcast aluminum
Cast out my sin, and enter in
The pride of men, and all their minds have made and done
Out of the sky, the heavy rain
I guess they’re back at work again today
It’s true, I’ll never be alone
In truth, I’ll never be alone
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2. |
Way On
06:34
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Way on the edge of town
Just past the highway’s lost and found
A broken down train lay satisfied
It’s wasted weight deep in the ground
He thought of his mother now
And all that made his father proud
A thought like a train came whistling by
He held his ears to block the sound
Five stories up, the noise was dim
The view from the cage she slumbered in
Like how many hurried flights of stairs
Will keep a bird from prison sin
Way on the edge of day
She boils up a new escape
Oh sister, listen what they say
With the fire and the coal, the train decays
It’s a limited mode of transportation,
And it’s pleading you to stay
Sir, are you getting on this train?
Yes, but I’m waiting, awaiting now
What are you waiting for now?
I can’t keep my mind off the edge of town
Sir, you should really get on the train
Not ‘til I find out where it will go
Far away, off to some city, out of this town and away from this bad dream
What of my home and my children? They’d be alone and I don’t think they’re willing
The journey may feel like eternity, but it’s only an hour or two, or three
Besides now, the train doors are closing, they’re closing, they’re closing,
They’re closing, they’re closing, they’re closing now.
No need to worry my friend, this train will come back in an hour again.
Way on the edge she tries
A drag from the spirit of yellow lies
But where does she hold the cigarette
To keep the smoke out of her eyes?
Way on the edge
A town laid to rest
Its door bolted fast
And keykeeper satisfied
Way on the edge of town
I heard it coming far away
Held my ears to block the sound
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3. |
Sooner
06:35
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Sit awhile with me
Count the windows on the houses in the park
Sit awhile with me
We’ll come here to this park bench every Saturday around this time
Sit awhile with me, and make connections between houses
And the roads they’re on
Colored lights and candles
Fights and Choirs floating from the windowsills
Pictures of a livelihood, and any one can be our own
Sit awhile with me
And pick a life that we could lead
If you would have me
We reach the door of our own story and you buzz me in
For better, we don’t know the worse for wear, we’re jumping in
We pull each other off our ledges when the night is young
We look not down upon ourselves, but to the rising sun
We pull each other off our ledges when the night is young
We look not down upon ourselves, but to the rising sun
She made me eat the food you’re only supposed to finish when you’re sad
When you’re sad,
When you’re…
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4. |
Kelvin
03:46
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Today, the T was fifteen minutes late
Crawling like a snail that ate a birthday cake
How suiting that your birthday’s on the fifth
‘Cuz if I’m twenty three today, you’re minus five in celsius
With windchill, maybe more like minus ten
A little more, at eleven point four, you’d practically be here again
And oh, how I miss you here
Oh, how I miss you here
Oh, how I miss you here
Falling from the world’s a different thing
Than moving to a place you think you’ve never been
Space and time are not continuous
The big things slow us down, the little speed us up
But oh, how I miss you here
Oh, how I miss you here
Oh, how I miss you here
Oh, how I miss you here
Oh, how I miss you here
Oh, how I miss you here
And Celsius leaves Fahrenheit, she must
And Fahrenheit leaves Celsius, he must
The two will reunite some winter’s dusk
When it’s minus forty Fahrenheit, and minus forty Celsius
But oh, how I miss you here
Oh, how I miss you here
Oh, how I miss you here
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5. |
Folk Song
08:36
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Pardon me, friend
I have mistook you for someone else
You have his nose, yes
But not his shoulders or his hands.
It was a strange dream
That taught my heart to love to hate
Please pardon me, friend
I am a victim of my fate
Pardon me, friend
I have mistook you for someone else
You have his nose, yes
But not his shoulders or his hands
Oh mama, when did life start to get you down?
You look tireder than last I came into town
Are you holding up the sky for the sake of rhyme?
Singing your baby down with ‘this little light of mine’?
“Oh mama, he left his head for a piggy bank
What’s comin’ out his ears, is it steam or change?
If change is all you need, I’ve got pockets full
But change won’t change a thing for your dampened soul”
Oh drama, runnin’ wild and steeped in sin
Who offered you a hand, offered you the win?
Are you tired from lack of sleep, or from sleeping in?
Singing yourself to sleep with this little light of…
Oh mama, when did
Oh mama, when did
Oh mama, when did life start to get you down?
Pardon me
Pardon me, friend
I have mistook you for someone else
You have his nose, yes
But not his shoulders or his hands
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6. |
Later
04:59
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She waits behind the koi fish pond, the train’s delayed
She works on all the lines and lies that she has memorized
To say to him behind another pond that’s made of rain
And I can’t believe my ears and eyes
He’s feeling all the ride as he gets off the train
The book that he’d been reading there has crossed his eyes
And now his brain is tired of all the ups and downs of traveling
And there’s ringing in his ears and eyes
“Why don’t we take a walk?” she says, to his dismay
He takes apart her language, and his mind, it runs away again
But she says “We’d better hurry dear, it looks like rain”
And he’s taken for a ride again
They sit beside a dried-up hole, it starts to pour
They can’t escape the feeling they’ve been here before
They’ve been here before
They’re busy sinking deep into the task at hand
There’s nothing there to notice but another man
He takes a seat beside them as the story sets to start again
He’s taking in the roads again
They sit beside a dried-up hole, it starts to pour
They can’t escape the feeling they’ve been here before
Now everything’s a memory of clearer skies
The book that he’d been reading he has memorized
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7. |
Flying Kites
11:00
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Focusing hard on improving our hearing
We pressed our ears up to the train station door
The sound of the businessmen traveling fiercely
Ignoring the staircase inhabitant poor
Who evaded our senses
For lack of a movement or pulse in the world
The park will be littered with all of the signals
The kite-flying types, and the scars of unrest
But still we scamper around in the bushes
Taking advantage of all of the best hiding places
And fiercely we search all the sandlot for tracks of our friends
Finding depressions in all of the footsteps
We add our weight to the dent in the sandlot
Making no difference at all
Wake me to the cross bred, ham-fisted, well meaning , polluted things
That make up our cupboarded life
A life I fiercely left at three this morning
But I had to come back for my coat
But I had to come back for my coat
But I had to come back for my…
I let out a sigh as I cupboard the dishes
Complaining inside, but not somehow out loud
The glinting of fins of all the other fishes
In the sea, and my head, are all swimming around
Hold the line
Is that the phrase you had in mind?
Or was it some other cliche
About how different today has been from every former day
But can’t you see, you went and gave it all away?
When I wake up in the morning
I don’t abandon all the things I learned the day before
Standing with the congregation
As I am able to feel the sand that’s holding up the floor
Hate me with the same old passion or one you stumbled on today
Rate me with a brand new system and rig it ‘til it runs away
But make sure if you get him, you don’t let him leave before the break of day
Hate me with the same old passion or one you stumbled on today
Rate me with a brand new system and rig it ‘til it runs away
But make sure if you get him, you don’t let him leave before the break of day
Focusing hard on improving our hearing
The brunt of our speaking had gone off the rails
The traveling business-types still in the cabins
The kite-flying people alone on the trails
That surrounded the train station far and across
They were stuck in the way.
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8. |
Chorale
01:04
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After the heavy rain
He’s visible again
Leans up agains a wall
Lights up the world to breathe in and out a “hello”
“Hello, how are you dear?
Oh how I’ve missed you here”
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9. |
Ghost
04:02
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Oh hold your ghost
Against my bones
Nothing that my spirit knows
Can keep the lovers home
On rainy days
She digs my grave
With dirt and Saturn on her hands
It’s all the same
The normalizing grace, it means she’ll never have to stay alone
I dreamed last night I ran away from home
So I know all the family will miss me when I’m gone
I dreamed last night I ran to pay the rent
So I know all the children believe I’m heaven-sent
So hold your ghost
Against my bones
Nothing that my spirit knows
Can keep the lovers home
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Early Gray Winston Salem, North Carolina
Early Gray is a band with an intimate acoustic sound. Their music is experimental yet accessible, drawing listeners from the folk, classical, and jazz worlds. They have appeared in venues such as Lincoln Center's Clark Studio Theater and Rockwood Music Hall. They have collaborated with artists including Gabriel Kahane and Tanner Porter. ... more
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