Feast or famine

Feast or famine

In a trailer park with hungry dogs
   Eat stolen bread
   With stolen credit cards
  
   With half a brain
   I’d torch this mess
  
   Have all these things
   So I don’t ask for more
  
   Never sure it’s about to happen
   Wait for sweepstakes in the mail
   What you don’t know it will rip you open
  
   Feast or famine
   Feast or famine
  
   Took a leave from better sense
   A hypocrite who bit on every line
  
   Have no time for another laugh
   Bought a car and drove it off a cliff
  
   Never sure it’s about to happen
   Wait for sweepstakes in the mail
   What you don’t know it will rip you open
  
   Feast or famine
   Feast or famine

When fortune smiles

When fortune smiles

Even the mightiest rivers will bend
   before they vanish, in the sand
   even the tallest of timbers will fall
   easy to fall, ain’t easy to land
  
   well that’s a curse of mine
   seems everything I find
   keeps fallin’ till it cannot fall
   well that’s a curse of mine
   in the best of times
   keep fallin’ till I cannot fall
  
   That’s when fortune smiled on you
   I’d say fortune smiled
   hen you went runnin’
   away from these arms
  
   the first will be last and the
   last will be drunk
   goes down, easy, easy come
  
   well that’s a curse of mine
   never look behind
   don’t look into the swath I cut
   well that’s a curse of mine
   never look behind
   deep into the swath I cut
  
   That’s when fortune smiled on you
   I’d say fortune smiled
   when you went runnin’
   away from these arms
   these are the last things,
   the things that will last
   the knife in my tears, the
   jail of my fears
  
   well that’s a curse of mine
   well that’s a curse of mine
   well that’s a curse of mine
   wicked and divine
   shoulda’ never tried to love me
  
   That’s when fortune smiled on you
   I’d say fortune smiled
   when you went runnin’
   away from these arms
  
   when you went runnin’
   away from these arms
   hmmmmm … when you went runnin’

The leaving kind

The leaving kind

Trying hard to remember your voice
   it seems so faarway
  
   all choked up by the heat and
   the dust
   it seems so faraway
  
   I’m gonna give you a call, from this
   air conditioned bar
   gonna give it one more crack
  
   before these cocktail lights
   all disappear
   like the night wind on my back
  
   I’m not the leavin’ kind
   but I’ve got leavin’on my mind
   from Jim Town, to Halfway, then back
   across the riverside
  
   it’s not hard to build a flat,
   straight road
   across this treeless plain
  
   just follow, the sharp-edge
   of the earth
   and never, never stray
  
   I’m not the leavin’ kind
   though I’ve got leavin’ on my mind
  
   from Jim Town, to Halfway,
   then back across the riverside
   I’m not the leavin’ kind
   though I’ll be leavin’ one more time
   from Jim Town, to Flatop, then down
   across the riverside
  
   from Jim Town, to Halfway,
   then back across the riverside
   from Jim Town, to Flatop,
   then down along the riverside
   from Jim Town, to Halfway,
   then back across the riverside
   from Jim Town, to Flatop…

Heartless

Heartless

This is where it starts
   This is… where it stops
   And when it finally stops
   I hope, starts right up
   walk the glitter mile
   past hotels of sand
   people say’n lots of things
   ain’t my job… to listen
   I don’t believe
   what they say you’ve done
   don’t believe in anything
   anything that lasts for long
   everytime I change my mind…
   you say I’m heartless… but I want the same thing as you
   This is where it stops
   This is… where it starts
   And when it finally starts
   I hope it pulls right up
   everytime I change my mind…
   you say I’m heartless… but I want the same thing as you
   why do ya say
   they built this desert in our way?
   open your eyes
   wacth it slowly come alive
   somethin’ new
   changin’ into somethin’ new…
   somethin’ that I… saved for you
   everytime I change my mind… everytime I change my mind
   you say I’m heartless… but I want the same thing as you
   everytime I change my mind… everytime I change my mind
   you say I’m heartless … but I want the same thing as you
   hmmmmmm something new… something new…
   something new… something new…

Nothing is a stranger

Nothing is a stranger

Spent another season in the valley of the bones
   But higher grounds was callin, callin me back home
   109 answers to 110 proofs
   Back up to my bed o’ nails and my leakin roof
  
   Hold me sober and hold me still
   Holdm y past up against my will
   Nothing’s wrong when your head is gone
   Nothing is a stranger to me now
  
   All that good behavior I knew it wouldn’t last
   At the funeral of fossils, I buried up the past
   But just like I predicted the past came jumpnig up
   Jumped up like a devil who had finally seen enough
  
   Hold me sober and hold me still
   Hold my past up against my will
   Nothing’s wrong when your head is gone
   Nothing is a stranger to me now
  
   Saw a lighthouse in the wheatfield where I drove off the road
   But, when I got there, there was nothing but darkness in a hole
   And down inside I saw my favorite place
   Furniture all busted and the arson on her face
  
   Nothing is a stranger to me
   Nothing is a stranger to me
   Nothing is a stranger to me now

Loom of the land

Loom of the land

It was the dirty en dof winter
   Along the loom of the land
   When I walked with sweet Henry
   Hand upon hand
  
   And the wind it bit bitter
   For a girl of no means
   With no shoes on her feet
   And a knife in her jeans
  
   Along the loom of the land
   The mission bells peeled
   From the tower at Saint Mary’s
   Down to Reprobate Fields
  
   And I saw (that) the world
   (Was) all blessed and bright
   And Henry breathed softly
   In the majestic night
  
   O baby please don’t cry
   And try to keep
   Your little head upon my shoulder
   Now we’ll go to sleep
  
   The elms and the poplars
   Were turning their backs
   Past the rumbling station
   We followed their tracks
  
   My hands they burned
   In the folds of his coat
   Breathing milky white air
   From deep in his throat
  
   O baby please don’t cry
   And try to keep
   Your little head upon my shoulder
   Now we’ll go to sleep
  
   I told him the moon
   Was a magical thing
   That it shone gold in winter
   And silver in spring
  
   And we walked and we walked
   Across the endless sands
   Just me and my Henry
   Along the loom of the land
  
   O baby please don’t cry
   And try to keep
   O baby please don’t cry
   And try to keep
   Your little head upon my shoulder
   Now we’ll go to sleep

Jack Candy

Jack Candy

Jack Candy was as old as my father
   But still I took a likin’ to him
   He said: “You will be somebody’s treasure,
   But no one has discovered you yet.”
  
   Jack Candy lived on Sky Valley Road
   And that’s where he did business I guess
   Some say he sold a suitcase of cocaine
   But he never showed me any of that
  
   This is a story that I’ve prayed to tell
   This is a story that I’ve prayed to tell
   About the day they drove him from this town
   About the day I lost: Jack Candy
  
   I was walkin’ up to Jack Candy’s trailer
   When he shouted that I(‘d) better head home
   The curtains closed as he went back inside
   And I trembled ’cause he wasn’t alone
  
   This is a story that I’ve prayed to tell
   This is a story that I’ve prayed to tell
   About the day they drove him from this town
   About the day I lost: Jack Candy
  
   Some say they took him out to a clearin’
   And made him crawl until he confessed
   Some say they hung him up by his bootstraps
   Some say they let him swing in the wind
  
   I walked along (the) Sky Valley Road
   And out onto the great northern bridge
   And for hours I stared into the cold
   Sick and tired of denying I loved him
  
   This is a story that I’ve prayed to tell
   This is a story that I’ve prayed to tell
   About the day they drove him from this town
   About the day they drove him from this town
  
   I’ve lived a lie and I have lived it well
   This is the story that I’ve prayed to tell
   About a love and how I let him down
   About the day I lost: Jack Candy

Heartless

Heartless

This is where it starts
   This is… where it stops
   And when it finally stops
   I hope, starts right up
   walk the glitter mile
   past hotels of sand
   people say’n lots of things
   ain’t my job… to listen
   I don’t believe
   what they say you’ve done
   don’t believe in anything
   anything that lasts for long
   everytime I change my mind…
   you say I’m heartless… but I want the same thing as you
   This is where it stops
   This is… where it starts
   And when it finally starts
   I hope it pulls right up
   everytime I change my mind…
   you say I’m heartless… but I want the same thing as you
   why do ya say
   they built this desert in our way?
   open your eyes
   wacth it slowly come alive
   somethin’ new
   changin’ into somethin’ new…
   somethin’ that I… saved for you
   everytime I change my mind… everytime I change my mind
   you say I’m heartless… but I want the same thing as you
   everytime I change my mind… everytime I change my mind
   you say I’m heartless … but I want the same thing as you
   hmmmmmm something new… something new…
   something new… something new…

Feeling no pain

Feeling no pain

Will you crash the engine of our ruin?
   Who’ll spill the flat cars of our shame?
  
   I’m beat up tired from always doin’,
   What I shoulda done in the first place.
  
   You can call in sick, no need to fear the morning.
   You will drink by numbers, I will drink by faith.
   The stairs are crashin’, so is all the danger.
   Shoulda took a breath, but I’s too drunk to wait.
  
   Can you still prescribe,
   The remedies and lies,
   ‘Til we feel no pain?
   ‘Til we all have risen.
   ‘Til we all have risen.
  
   Porchlights shattered, but the veins still glow here.
   Met you in a bar, out by the switchin’ yard.
   My best attempts, can only knock you down here.
   You should wear this badge, or wear nothin’ at all.
  
   Can we reconcile,
   The bottom of the pile,
   ‘Til the poison tastes good?
   ‘Til we all have risen.
   ‘Til we all have risen.
  
   Can you help explain,
   The senseless and the vain,
   ‘Til the vial’s empty?
   Can you still prescribe,
   The remedies and lies,
   ‘Til we feel no pain?
   ‘Til we all have risen.
   ‘Til we all have risen.
   ‘Til we all have risen.
   ‘Til we all have risen.
  
   Will you crash the engine of our ruin?
   Will you give me up to feel no pain?

Death at low waters

Death at low waters

I could hear you callin’
   Through the whisperin’ woods
   I could hear you call my name
   from the back porch door
  
   Said Prosper come here quick
   It’s worse than we expected it
   Found him this mornin’
   And the news ain’t good
   Finally caught up with him last night
   Near the Nevada line
  
   Trail of blood along the clean white salt
   Found him faced down on the alkali flat
   Rolled him over, barely breathin’
   Still he got a few words out
  
   Said he was drivin’ the Denio track
   A 4 x 4 appearded behind his back
   Headlights burning up the sky
   To the top of Steens mountain
  
   Death at low
   Death at low
   Death at low water
   Death at low
   Death at low
   Death at low water
  
   Crashed his side door,
   And they forced him to stop
   Three men got out dressed in camouflage
   Told him: “Start digging us a well
   And when you’re done you’ll dig another.”
  
   Then shots they ricocheted around his head
   Kicked him hard and they left him for dead
   He started crawlin’ back to town
   And that is when we found him
  
   Death at low
   Death at low
   Death at low water
   Death at low
   Death at low
   Death at low water
  
   And the last thing your father said
   When he closed his eyes:
  
   Now it’s said the sun’s a big door
   That protects us from the dark
   And if you look behind it
   All you’ll see is yourself
  
   Since he died I lost my will to ride
   It’s ‘neath the surface
   With my shame and my pride
   Someday it will explode
   Explode in the sky
   All the way to the top of Steens mountain
  
   Death at low
   Death at low
   Death at low water
   Death at low
   Death at low
   Death at low water