1. |
Genesis
04:18
|
|||
|
Genesis
First there was light
Burst into sight
Brighter than all of creation
Elation to night
First there was light
Then there was sound
Waves all abound
Vibrating softly and slowly
The holiest round
Then there was sound
Laughing with all of the angels
Passed down from heavenly ground
Then there was one
Who spoiled all the fun
‘Til brother fought brother
The pillars of heaven came undone
Then there was one
Laughing with all of the angels
Then cast out from heavenly ground
Goodbye to all of the angels
You’ll never find what I’ve found
First there was light
Wrong and then right
Hell after heaven
The seventh star burst into sight
First there was light
|
||||
2. |
Broken Horses
03:25
|
|||
|
The wind whistles hi-yo
Snow floats above
Slush melts grey on my floor
High plains bad men
A lone and lonesome dove
And drunkards spitting insults at my door
Quicksilver sidewalk
Coyotes in the yard
I wake up in the night and think I’m dying
Train whistle howling
Like a wildcat in the dark
And somewhere in my head I think I’m flying
Over Red River Valleys
And frozen city streets
Every day’s a picture
That I’ve already seen
Silver screen sunrise
Stray dogs in heat
Every day’s a picture
That I’ve already seen
I walked up to a shadow
And offered it my hand
Saw a string of horses in the sky
Tavern sounds of broken glass
And worn out country bands
Singin’ Glory Hallelujah bye and bye
And Red River Valley
Near my God to thee
Every day’s a picture
That I‘ve already seen
Angel of mercy
Beckon to me
Every day’s a picture
That I’ve already seen
Whippoorwill a calling
To a yellow Wolf’s moon
Gutter full of frozen maple leaves
And I’ve watched the gardens of this city
Churned with old beggars’ feet
But the ghosts of summer’s bloom never rest
All choked with hypodermic needle shells
And husks of cigarettes
And sad stalks of flowers buried deep
In its own way isn’t death a relief?
Like Red River Valleys
On television screens
Every day’s a picture
That I’ve already seen
The city dreams of cowboys
But I can’t seem to sleep
Every day’s a picture
That I’ve already seen
|
||||
3. |
Mercy
03:07
|
|||
|
If I die will I go to heaven?
When I die will I go to hell?
I don’t care which way I’m headed
Been so lost, can hardly tell
But you wait until the sun goes down
Had me once, you won’t fool me now
Sing my song, collect my pay
Save mercy for another day
Zebra once said to the tiger
Tiger, what a mess I’m in
You cheat me once now I can’t tell
Where my stripes end and yours begin
But you wait until the sun goes down
Had me once, won’t fool me now
Sing my song, collect my pay
Save mercy for another day
I can’t say what’s more beholding
Your tired laugh or your weary eyes
But I would be in fortune’s favour
If I could lay down by your side
Then you wait until the sun goes down
Had me once, don’t leave me now
Sing my song, start to sway
Save mercy for another day
|
||||
4. |
Well Digger
03:22
|
|||
|
If I told you in the morning
Let’s go out and dig a well
In the chilly morning sunlight
Would you think me mad as hell
Would you stay out all day with me
Find the water table line
Wash my hands when they get dirty
Turn that water into wine
If I told you some old evening
Let’s go out and rob a bank
Change our licence plates for fake ones
Fill a pistol up with blanks
Would you stay up all night with me
Teach me how to sew a mask
A dollar sign on a burlap sack
Would I even have to ask
If I told you all my secrets
Even ones I didn’t know
Because I buried them so deep
Not but a hint would even show
Would you hold them all against
Like a thorn into my side
Or just hold them up before me
Help me quell my foolish pride
If I told you this in earnest
I’m afraid of being loved
How the loneliness can’t hurt me
Like the flame, or lack thereof
Would you leave me one time only
Make it clean and make it fast
Would you take these things I tell you
All in stride and plainly laugh
If that’s the truth
If that’s the way things are
Then all the mountains and the valleys in the distance
Oh they can’t be that far
If I told you in the morning
Let’s go out and dig a well
In the chilly morning sunlight
Would you think me mad as hell
|
||||
5. |
||||
|
Darling, you were handsome
In the days before the war
We tore off our clothes
And made love on the floor
Now even the wind
As it blows through the pines
Invokes your voice
Brings you to my mind
You told me to wait
That you’d be home soon
As soon as our garden
Was coming to bloom
But now I don’t know
Where you are
Dead on a beach
Or in a Paris bar
Day after day
All of our roses have faded to grey
And I can’t disregard
The plans we made before the war
Spend my days alone
Sullen and bored
Walking back and forth
From the general store
And the nights are cold
The wind’s moaning low
Dreaming of gunfire
And billowing smoke
Day after day
All of our roses have faded away
And I can’t disregard
The plans we made before the war
|
||||
6. |
Kelly's Wine
03:17
|
|||
|
Flat broke, bagged smokes
Hotdogs on a Coleman stove
On a side road shoulder
Somewhere west of Elie
No shows, dirty clothes
We siphoned gas with a garden hose
And, my friends, that taste
Never leaves your mind
And we never got paid in Montreal
And the east coast never pays at all
We slept most nights in tents
Or in the van
We got a long haul east without a dime
Tell the folks at home we had a real good time
They’d never understand
They wouldn’t ever understand
Flashlight, midnight
We woke up in our tents to find
A cop outside saying
Boys you gotta’ go
White lines, Kelly’s Wine
Park someplace well out of sight
And sleep until a new day
Starts to show
Moaning, groaning, spitting
Time to go
Lost along some dirt street
3AM no place to be
Cherries in the rear view
And a bottle between my knees
We got a long haul east without a dime
Tell the folks at home we had a real good time
They’d never understand
They wouldn’t ever understand
And I can’t say the reason why
Those cops let us go
I was half drunk and half awake
Hiding in the trunk
And I want to call my mother
But I haven’t got the change
And there was frost on my pillow
When I woke up in Falcon Lake
But she’d never understand
She wouldn’t ever understand
That I stole my supper from a corner store
And last night we played to an empty bar
Ain’t got a single fan
Ain’t got a single fan
They never understand
They don’t ever understand
|
||||
7. |
Clay Feet
03:37
|
|||
|
Stumbling home tonight
I swear the earth spun beneath me
I’m not kidding babe
I couldn’t walk a straight line
That old barkeep threw me out
I got lost somewhere off Elgin
Didn’t mean to wake you up
But here we are
Did you know what kind of man
You were choosing then?
Do you think you know me now?
Head full of gold, silver hands
Iron hips, diamond teeth
I’m the man with clay feet
Next to you
It means that I get stuck
While the world keeps going forward
But these roots that I’ve set down
Don’t run that deep
It means I’m not as tough
As I’d like the world to think
And I’m living on the border
Of the brink
I’m so afraid I’ll waste away here
In this city of my birth
And you’ll learn what a coward’s worth
Head full of gold, silver hands
Iron hips, diamond teeth
I’m the man with clay feet
Next to you
As my eyes move past these
Killers in the sun
With their big shiny cars
And their evening runs
I can tell it’s still a long way
Down this hill I’m on
And rock bottom’s just
Another song
Like head full of gold, silver hands
Iron hips, diamond teeth
I’m the man with clay feet
Next to you
|
||||
8. |
Blood on the Thistle
03:33
|
|||
|
Oh take me back
To when the willow was new
When my mother was young
And my father was too
I was just a girl anew
A little blood on the thistle
A little mark on a tree
From the Kwagama Hill
To the rolling sea
No meek and barren life for me
How the clouds grew heavy
And the night was long
On that fateful morn
I woke up alone
Blood red roses and other songs
Was it early may
Was it late in June
was a whole year long
I sang a lonesome tune
No day’s rest from sorrow’s blue
I could walk these hills
‘Til I’d not be found
I could cry out loud
And not make a sound
Unmade beds and fallow ground
Oh take me back
To when the willow was new
When the sky held joy
And a promise too
I was just a girl anew
|
||||
9. |
Henrietta
03:44
|
|||
|
Maybe I was born a little troubled
Maybe I’m trouble myself
Maybe some of us are born a little broken
Maybe some of us are born to break the rest
Henrietta
I wish that I could tell you how I’m dying
How every day is harder than the last
How the wounds that I received when I was younger ache
As my present stretches farther from my past
I wish that I could make myself grow up
I wish that I could be a better son
I wish that I could tell you how I love you
But the words dry up on my tongue
Henrietta
Henrietta
I suppose you wish that I had. Turned out different
And I know I owe you all the words I sing
But I spent my youth chasing some old insight
And all I’ve learned is that I haven’t learned a thing
So I smoke and drink and snort my way to wisdom
And I stitch those wounds with better poets’ words
When you can’t remember where it is you’ve come from
It’s hard to figure out what that’s worth
Henrietta
Henrietta
Henrietta
|
||||
10. |
Two Wings
03:35
|
|||
|
From the deep pit of the valley to the crest of the hill
I would call out for my sweetheart to know that I love her still
But I know she won’t answer to the sound of my call
Still I’ll cry out for my darling ‘til the mountains do fall
If I were the lonesome sparrow, if I had two wings
I would carry towards my lover across the vast, endless sea
No strong winds could bend me, no trials dissuade
Oh but I am no sparrow, and she wants none of me
On the grey silver mountains where I once made my bed
Where I laid my sweet mother and father to rest
Oh this world is so lonesome, this I can attest
How I yearn for the kingdom at the saviour’s breast
|
||||
11. |
Resurrection Blues
03:07
|
|||
|
While travelling through this world alone
My head as heavy as a stone
I swore I heard the final call
From a voice above for to end it all
I ain’t ashamed of the things I’ve done
To bow my head when Jesus comes
I have no use for worries now
On the road ahead or the hangin’ bout
Now David was a shepherd boy
With a steady hand and a lump of joy
I’ll tell you what little David done
He picked a real good rock and away he run
Goliath was a towering man
But the lord put his fate in David’s right hand
On Judgement Day, how the horns will blow
From Gehenna’s fire down to Babylon
When heaven calls and the lost are found
I think I’ll stay in the cold cold ground
|
||||
12. |
The Anchor
04:46
|
|||
|
Is it time to go now?
Haul away your anchor
Haul away your anchor
Is it morning time?
My love is a fisherman
With windswept hair
And good strong hands
And his lips taste like
Salt and sand
‘Cause my love is a fisherman
I can hear the ocean roar
Lover dear
Please don’t go
Yes, I know the tide will soon turn low
I’ve got a dark mind
And a worried soul
The rain came like a curtain fall
They’ve been out for days
In a northeast squall
And we haven’t seen a sign at all
I’m just sitting here waiting on
A widow’s call
Last night in sleep, oh darling mine
I saw a flag break
The horizon’s line
And the northeast wings
Howled and whined
I swore I felt your eyes meet mine
My love sleeps under whitecapped waves
There is no stone to mark his grave
In my dreams now
That’s where he waits
I go to sleep
Just to see his face
Is it time to go now?
Haul away your anchor
Haul away your anchor
Is it morning time?
Is it morning time?
|
||||
Bad Actors Greater Sudbury, Ontario
If you like Bad Actors, you may also like:
Old Habits
by Kat Wallace and David Sasso
This New Haven duo write bright and emotionally resonant folk music where sweeping strings elevate gorgeous melodies.
go to album
House and Land
by House and Land
House and Land offer a stirring take on classic Appalachian folk; this is delicate, heartfelt balladry.
go to album
Guardians Of Our Time
by Edd Donovan and The Wandering Moles
Edd Donovan's day job as a social worker brings a sense of empathy to his elegantly constructed political folk music.
go to album
Dakota Blue Moon
by Jackson Harden
Gorgeous acoustic Americana from North Carolina, stripped-back and sublime.
go to album
Caught Up On A Feeling
by Veronica Stanton
Stunningly beautiful orchestral folk songs with just a hint of country, delivered with heart-on-sleeve immediacy.
go to album
A vibrant vision of "Central Americana" from the Costa Rica-based artist, blending heartland devotionals with playful Tropicália grooves.
go to album
Papa Bear Sings Baby Bear a Lullaby in a Bearhouse
by Hige Kuma
Raucous jams from this Austin artist with hooks so immediate, they bury themselves in your brain.
go to album
