Laura Veirs Lyrics, Photos, Pictures, Paroles, Letras, Text for every songs

B i o g r a p h y
(by Michael Hill)

On her third Nonesuch release, Saltbreakers, singer-songwriter Laura Veirs remains tantalized by the mysteries and marvels of the natural world, filling her work with images, both precise and poetic, of the ocean and the stars. But she digs even deeper this time into the vagaries of human nature, transforming the turbulence of her own life, as well as her concerns about the hair-trigger state of the world at large, into a collection of songs distinguished as much by their emotional urgency as by their often astonishing musical inventiveness. "Lyrically I drew more from my personal life on this record than with anything I've done in the past," says Veirs. She aims to convey the feeling, if not the specific circumstances, of an intense period in her personal life: the end of a long-term relationship, and the unexpected start of a new one, coupled with a move from Seattle to Portland. She recalls this recent time as "a real emotional pendulum. I was swinging from joy to despair and back again. I was bouncing off the walls." She channeled her restless energy into writing material that mirrors those dramatically swinging moods; it shifts from brooding to euphoric to the hauntingly contemplative.

"I needed to say something truthful," admits Veirs. "I wasn't afraid to look at my dark side." And she doesn't waste any time doing that, opening Saltbreakers with the lines, "Sorry I was cruel/I was protecting myself/Drifting along with my swords out flying/Tattering my own sails/then I tattered yours too." "It was nice to be direct," she admits. "But I still like to leave the songs open enough so that listeners can create their own images, their own ideas. On my early records, I was much more direct. It was all narrative. Then I went into a lot more obscure and poetic place. Now I've created a nice balance between those things." Veirs recorded the album in Seattle, with band-mate Tucker Martine (The Decemberists, Bill Frisell) once again producing and mixing. Though she now calls her group Saltbreakers, it's actually comprised of her longtime compatriots, formerly known as the Tortured Souls -- guitarist/bassist Karl Blau, keyboardist Steve Moore and drummer Martine. The name change was a practical decision: "I didn't want to talk about that Tortured Souls thing anymore. It just got old," Veirs, who also plays guitar, explains with a laugh, remembering lots of bad jokes about the moniker. Over the last three years, the band has traveled the world in support of Veirs' previous Nonesuch albums, Carbon Glacier (2004) and Year of Meteors (2005), assiduously cultivating an international fan base. Veirs continues to praise the musicians' strong interrelationship: "The band has gotten really close. We've become like a real family. It's felt like that for a long time, but it's even more so now. Before we made this record, I demo-ed the tracks at home using Garageband. Then we went on a short west coast tour and played the new material. One of the big pay-offs of the way we work was then being able to go into the studio and just play the songs."

The title track of Saltbreakers also marks the debut of her fellow players as backing vocalists; they gamely follow Veirs' lead, negotiating her twisting trains of thought and idiosyncratic cadences while managing to make it all sound relaxed and conversational. The lyrics to "Saltbreakers," inspired by A.S. Byatt's novel Possession, evokes the romantic intensity of the source material, but Veirs' group gives the song a disarmingly buoyant, R&B-like feel. As Veirs recalls, "Karl has sung with me before, but this was the first time for the entire group. They did it all live, clapping in a room together. There was a lot of laughing. I had to make up the last verse on the spot because we realized that we needed something more, the song wasn't ready to end. I like seeing the process unfolding in the studio like that. That's the fun of recording as a group." Salt became a unifying theme for the album – the salt in tears, the salt in ocean waves, the salt left behind by perspiration after, as Veirs puts it, "a long sweaty night of the soul," the point at which opening track "Pink Light" begins. "The idea felt visceral," says Veirs, "so I ran with it." The sea and waves – or saltbreakers, as Veirs likes to call them – are a leitmotif: "I have a lot of dreams about whales, and the sea itself is so mysterious, ineffable, infinite. You can never know completely what's going on under the surface. That really intrigues me. The sea is both nurturing and destructive: it can be safe and luscious and comforting or a real tyrant. Waves, of course, can wash things away, absolve you, clear the beach of detritus, or they can bring a bunch of stuff back in."

On "Ocean Night Song," in which guest star Eyvind Kang's viola is transformed into a ghostly undersea wail, Veirs envisions her soul floating into the deep to join the whales already swimming there. These "herds of the sea" – a phrase that echoes Herman Melville's Moby Dick, a touchstone for Veirs -- pass by again on the gentle, jangly "Cast a Hook in Me" as the narrator of the song is willingly seduced by a merman. Veirs has lately been drawn to the work of Nobel Prize-winning Portuguese novelist Jose Saramago, whose apocalyptic novel Blindness helped to shape "Don't Lose Yourself." She actively sought Saramago's permission to adapt his images of a society upturned by an epidemic of hysterical blindness. "Don't Lose Yourself" transforms social commentary, and a little bit of personal confession, into a sort of magical realism, while "Phantom Mountain" features a startling, fuzzed-out guitars and rock and roll drum-kit sound. Says Veirs, "We like to push different boundaries. We play loud and get noisy. I like some edge, along with some beauty, in my work." Perhaps the most beautiful moment on Saltbreakers, the one sure to entrance both dedicated fans and the uninitiated, is "To the Country," a call-and-response collaboration between Veirs and the eight-voice Cedar Hill Choir, whose almost otherworldly white gospel singing was triple-tracked by Martine. He recorded them in the studio at Johnny and June Carter Cash's cabin in Hendersonville, Tennessee, where, Veirs recounts, "You could feel the energy in that room. There are pictures of family -- mothers, fathers, grandmothers, grandfathers -- and a mantle that all the famous people who have recorded or visited there, like Bob Dylan, have signed. We were really excited to be asked to sign it too." Fellow Nonesuch artist Bill Frisell plays guitar on the track, which, despite the studio setting, owes more to the spare, hypnotic music of Mali, which Veirs has been exploring, than to American country music.

Choirs seem to suit Veirs' material. A 45-member chorus of middle school students from Cognac, France, calling itself The Young Rapture Choir, created their own arrangements of Veirs' repertoire. Martine recorded them in concert last year and Veirs has released a limited-edition disc on her own Raven Marching Band imprint. More recently, a teacher from Spain sent Veirs 30 individual notes from his students, each of them thanking her for making the fantastical, gravity-defying video for "Galaxies," from Year of Meteors. Perhaps they're responding to an element of child-like wonder in her work. A fairy tale-like quality is certain there, but older, more knowing ears will find something even more engrossing in these songs: the sound of a real life unfolding between the crashing sea and the twinkling stars.

Jailhouse fire

Did you see that lady there
They stripped her to her underwear
She took it one step further and stripped to bare

Through the rising flames
And smoke she laughed as all the police choked
And then she danced in the government pyre

The jailhouse is on fire
The jailhouse is on fire

She grabbed a guard and stole his keys unlocked the cells
And set us free and we ran and caught our pants
On the old barbed wire

We hit the dirt, we hit the road we jumped the fence
We kissed a toad and we hollared at the ladies
In the churchyard choir

The jailhouse is on fire
The jailhouse is on fire

I hopped a train and headed west free woman
Now just like the rest all the hobos on the line called me a liar

The train it choked and spewed and spat and coal smoke billowed thick
And black and she was everywhere and rising higher

She set the jailhouse on fire
She set the jailhouse on fire
She set the jailhouse on fire

Up the river

Billy was a young man gone astray
Bottle at his lips all night and day
Mama said they're gonna send you up the river someday
Mama said they're gonna send you up the river someday

Whiskey ate big holes in Billy's head
Summer's day he shot spud murphy dead
He said i'm headed up the river as he watched the blood pour red
Yeah headed up the river as he watched the blood pour red

Mama asked Lord Jesus what to do
At the door came knocking boys in blue
We're gonna send him up the river and make him pay his dues ma'am
We're gonna send him up the river and make him pay his dues

And so she watched him round that riverbend go
Billy felt a chill pass 'cross him cold
They sent him up the river to turn a young man old
Yeah They sent him up the river to turn a young man old

John henry lives

Hear the whistle blow far off
In the still night without stars
See the tracks laid flat with a hammer's might
They're the spike driver's scars
They're the spike driver's scars

By the railroad ties there a hammer lies it's all painted in red
It's all painted in red, it's all painted in red

By the railroad ties there a hammer lies it's all painted in red
It's all painted in red, it's all painted in red

The west springs up from the spike driver's blues
And the captain's new shiny shoes take to him this hat
And hammer and tell him i'm gone i'm gone i'm gone i'm gone i'm gone

By the railroad ties there a hammer lies it's all painted in red
It's all painted in red, it's all painted in red

By the railroad ties there a hammer lies it's all painted in red
It's all painted in red, it's all painted in red

It's all painted in red, it's all painted in red, it's all painted in red
It's all painted in red, it's all painted in red, it's all painted in red

Black-eyed susan

Twenty days walking so lonely and talking to myself and the rocks and sand
Got me to thinking 'bout going and drinking in a tavern with a clean-shaven man

Just when i thought all souls had been bought by the devil here long ago
There did i see when i knelt to my knee i little texas flower grow

Black-eyed susan by the roadside blooming all yellow like sunshine red like wine
Flower like you in a desert this cruel my my you're a rare rare find

Well my newfound friend gave my heart a mend i sang her songs of my wayward ways
As day turned to night in the crystal moonlight i confirmed her unwavering gaze

As the days unraveled i stayed in the gravel and susan kept her eye on me
With my eye on her i felt my heart all astir with the joy of camaraderie

Black-eyed susan by the roadside blooming all yellow like sunshine red like wine
Flower like you in a desert this cruel my my you're a rare rare find

Orphan mae

I don't know where i come from but i know it's a place here on earth
Somewhere in a desert near a mountain was the place of my birth

If you could tell me i would cry if you could tell me
I would fly there if you could tell me my oh my my oh my

Somewhere out there in the blossoms of the cactus
I lost my mare walked up a ridge and at the top
I saw her running off i don't know where

If you could tell me i would cry if you could tell me
I would fly there if you could tell me my oh my my oh my

The naked sun she burns me down she turns my flesh to this dark brown
Won't someone please give me a place to go i assure you i don't ever ever know

If you could tell me i would cry if you could tell me
I would fly there if you could tell me my oh my my oh my

Blue ink

I'm falling off the barstool mama in this old ghost town saloon
Where sunlight moves like sadness across the room
Oh my sweet mama if you could only see me
Now drunk as a skunk falling out of this rundown lacy gown

This blue ink this blue ink this blue ink
Across the page i write to you

I'm sitting in these thorny cowboy boots
And scabby knees wondering why i left you mama
Just to do as i please no hat has a brim
Wide enough to block out the blazing sun
I met the devil on the road but i had no legs to run

This blue ink this blue ink this blue ink
Across the page i write to you

Silver ran off two towns ago i been walking alone
I been walking slow my eyes are dry from the desert wind
I know i ain't coming home to you again

I'll take off into the deep blue sky
When i'm dead and gone and the buzzards fly this blue ink across the page
I write to you mama if you love me you're the only one who do

Montague road

The yellow wind sends brambles through the dust
The tractor wheels won't turn for all the rust the corn has died
And dried upon the stalk her lips are cracked it hurts to talk it hurts to talk

Through december

Birds were falling from the sky all leaves had turned to brown
The heartless cold froze everything and took my poor red down

Poor old red she's dead and gone her eyes
I do remember at least i have this old guitar
To get me through december through december

Her eyes were dark as winter's night both
Ssomehow young and old i loved her most
The day she died her hair was colored gold

Poor old red she's dead and gone her eyes
I do remember at least i have this old guitar
To get me through december through december

Old man winter at my door the sky heavy with snow all's cold
But my heart poor red it's hard to let you go

Poor old red she's dead and gone her eyes
I do remember at least i have this old guitar
To get me through december through december

Raven marching band

The sky's a raven marching band black blizzard blowing across the land
Come darling take my hand i'm whiskey poured into the sand

Star blossoms bloom the night falling now burning fire bright
Come darling take my hand i'm whiskey poured into the sand

The silver tracks lie long and straight perfect means for my escape
Come darling take my hand i'm whiskey poured into the sand

Movin' along

Light of the morning day
Sadly it will not stay
This perfect pink for too long couple of hours from now
All the sunflowers will frown and turn
For the sun is too strong

I'll be movin' along yeah i'll be movin' along

I'll head for those distant hills
Find some good land to till a river to sing me a song
When winter snows blow in
I'll pack up my bags again guess i'll be movin' along

I'll be movin' along yeah i'll be movin' along

Lost at Seaflower Cove

Oh the dirty wordless fingers come again
Where the mermaid singers
Oh when I need them
Oh how I need them

Pretty words doled up on silver platters
Chanting sea shanties the words that matter
Oh how they shatter me

Tattooed sailor man pull that net from the sea
Is there something good inside there for me
Something for me
No more rusty strings not these deadened things

Bedroom Eyes

Been traveling all too long this bear-cat trail
But the love in me's grown stronger than this steel rail
That I ride back to your bedroom eyes

Been gone so long baby I wrote you this love song
My heart the engineer now she's running strong
Taking me back to your bedroom eyes

Bedroom eyes, bedroom eyes
Brighter than this starlit summer sky

My cheek against this blackened boxcar dear
It's dirty and it's cold but the coast is clear
I'm coming home back to your bedroom eyes

Bedroom eyes, bedroom eyes
Brighter than this starlit summer sky

The Ballad of John Vogelin

I survived the desperate toll dark depression takes
I may not break even but babe I'll never break
Golden coins and smiles no they cannot tip my scales
Cuz this land, this love will never be for sale

Brass hats and soldier boys whiskey on your breath
Drop your holy missiles you can take my body dead
Send me all your lightning storms your thunderheads and hail
Cuz this land, this love will never be for sale

(Yodeling)

Wild eyes they watch on me through the velvet night
Fire on the mountain you can burn me where I lie
Even though I'm dead now as an old and rusty nail
This land, this love will never be for sale

Song My Friends Taught Me

Struggling like a fly against the glass
It's not clear why I can't blast
Straight through

Behind all the brightest smiles
Twist the tortured, tortured souls who
I'll never, never know
Who I'll try and try to know

You show me smoke and mirror eyes
And behind a shining lamp hides
A shining lamp hides

Cannon Fodder

I will not have a child, I will be wild
And not produce meat for your slaughter
No more cannon fodder

Company whip cracks at the break of dawn
Back break work the whole day long
They're coming for my daughter
Innocent cannon fodder

Every war is brutal, stupid, expensive and mean
If you take her, you also take me
Hiding by the water
Innocent cannon fodder

Tiger Tattoos

I see you there, your purple hair
And the rosy cheeks that I adore
Tiger tattoos, my how they suit you
I hope you'll let me see a little more

Will you come down, down to the river
And take a swim, a swim with me
Will you come down, down and deliver
And let me wash those earthly burdens free

Sweet baby blues and steel-toed black shoes
The breeze is blowing through the door
The time has come, let's have some real fun
I hope you'll let me see a little more

Will you come down, down to the river
And take a swim, a swim with me
Will you come down, down and deliver
And let me wash those earthly burdens free

Ohio Clouds

Roll Ohio clouds oh roll on in
Wash the cigarettes the smell from grandma's skin
Clear the dank and dusty kitchenettes
The bourbon bottles resting empty on the chest
Empty on the chest

Grandpa's on the outside of the fence
He's calling to his son again he's on the outside never in
So roll Ohio clouds oh roll on by
We gotsta get rid of that guy
He's gonna blacken up the sky

Daddy's old transistor radio
Is crackling by the window I just can't make it out
Stories passing through I know they're mine
American treasure find
I just can't make them out
What they're all about…

Devil's Hootenanny

I was walking through the snow
When I saw a distant glow
Of a farmhouse nestled down beneath the trees
With a guitar on my back
I thought it sure can't hurt to ask
If I could stay the night
And sing a pretty song for free

I walked up to the house
And then I knocked hard on the door
That old dark piece of wood
She fell right in there on the floor
And as she did a fire burst out on all sides
I wondered what the hell was going on inside

Then the music that I heard
It was bizarre, it was absurd
Like no banjo fiddle bass I'd ever seen
I stepped into a room of flames
Shook my head and looked again
It was the kind of company to make you scream

It was a devil's hootenanny
An old-time fire band
A drunken whiskey choir singing
Round me you understand
And then they said, "We've been searching near and far
For a thing like you to sing and play guitar"

Well I opened up my case
And all the blood rushed to my face
I sang a fragile note, picked a minor tune
Well those devils yelled and clapped
And all their asses they did slap
Before too long we were arm and arm beneath the moon

Cuz that old house burnt on down
There were cinders on the ground
I snuggled up inside, closed my eyes
I was sleeping sound
And I dreamt of summer nights down by the sea
With a devil's banjo playing on my knee

Midnight Singer

Oh midnight singer
Outside my window
Oh how your songs
Come in strange and low
And in my bed I lay silent
Hoping you'd stay
Hoping you'd go

Oh midnight singer
Just outside my door
Oh how your song
Waves on the shore
Making a sound oh then silent
Making a sound once more

Oh midnight singer
Sing inside my heart
Oh mysterious like no other song
And in my bed I lay silent
Hearing a rhythm then gone

Ether sings

My wooden vibrating mouth
Sing me your lover’s song
Come with me we’ll head up north
Where the rivers run icy and strong

The empty theater is lying cold
In the shadows of the past
A church group enters to touch the molding
With a burst of song and a simple repast

Guitars can’t help but sing
Can’t help but ring

A tiny little flute is whistling in the lips
Of a stranger on the corner
A tiny little girl ties flowers to her wrists
And the bees come round to adorn her

All the time spent dreaming is never lost
Dreams come back through the bells of trumpeting horns
Souls lost into the ether of death
Come back wise in the eyes and the arms of newborns

Hearts can’t help but sing
Can’t help but ring

Icebound stream

Watch, i can flash across the sky
A lightning bolt from up on high
And i can crash into myself
Now a flower blooms in reverse
And a song takes back a verse
A photograph fades to white

I can hold a thunderhead in my heart
And in my bed i can dream a winter’s gale
And wake up drenched
A stormy pale, a stormy pale

A battered heath on the shore
Will make her keep and wait for more
But underneath her icebound stream
The water pours, the water pours

I can hold a thunderhead in my heart…

Rapture

With photographs
And magnetic tape
We capture
Pretty animals in cages
Pretty flowers in vases
Enraptured

And doesn’t the tree
Write great poetry?
Doing itself so well

Do you blame monet?
His gardens in giverny
He captured
And lovely basho
His plunking ponds and toads
Enraptured

The fate of kurt cobain
Junk coursing through his veins
And young virginia woolf
Death came and hung her coat

Love of color, sound and words
Is it a blessing or a curse?
Enraptured

Lonely angel dust

The rose is not afraid to blossom
Though it knows its pedals must fall
And with its pedals fall seeds into soil
Why toil to contain it all?
Why toil at all?

Ice crystals form from flakes of heaven
Fall down weightless to the earth
To them it’s worth the falling
Through atmospheres a-dawning
And open arms a-calling
To collect and protect all the raining
Insane from above
The lonely angel dust
The only angel does…

The cloud room

Music in the air
Plucked from the centuries
Presented in the form
Of a song by you to me
Seagull in the air
Floating on the updraft
See me on the ground
Think i just heard her laugh

Up in the air
Up there, up there, in the air

Twelve floors up
In the camlin hotel
Man at the piano
Plays songs for the clientele
Notes mingle out from his mouth
With the alcohol
Floating up to the stars
And circling through them all

Up in the air…

Topographic lines
Come close together
Imagine the peaks
And the stormy weather
Trees fade to white
And boulders just might
Make an appearance
If the sun shines just right

Up in the air…

Wind is blowing stars

Clear as ice, oh clear as ice
Dripping down from a rock
Spring will come and so will fall
All my enemies have finally fled
They’ve finally fled and gone

Take your pick, oh take your pick
And dig into the earth
You’ll find a muted pearl its worth
It will never self-disclose
It’s your job to dig and polish you know

All the colors spin, all the colors spin
Blackness from a pitcher pours
Stars come blowing through the door
Your eyes they mirror pools of ink
Your heart and mind combine to drink
From the puzzle’s trough
But the troubles can be solved

Take jumps in wintry lakes
Feel the water’s skin and face
Huddle up close nice and tight
We might absorb enough moonlight
Your kiss adorns a neighbor strange
Who’s one of us again, again
The wind is blowing stars my friend
The wind is blowing stars!

Shadow blues

There’s a shadow beneath the sea
There’s a shadow between you and me
I’ve learned that love is scared of light
Thousand seeds from a flower
Blowing through the night

Your blackened kiss on my cheek
Your blackened kiss runs river deep
A stranded fish dear, i’m on the sand
Blue water from a pool
Up to the clouds i’ll land

Though i am dark ‘bout the whys of wanting
Though i am dark, i’m still a child
Gonna dig a coal mine, climb down deep inside
Where my shadow’s got one place to go
One place to hide…

Snow camping

I saw the violet turn to night
I saw the water turn to ice
A thousand snowflakes hovered ‘round me
The world aglow

I heard a distant songbird singing
A song the words i used to know
And as the melody went ringing
I felt my bones on the rocks below
The weighted trees of my only home

With brother sleeping right beside me
The blankets pulled up to his chin
The makeshift snow cave settled slightly
But held us in and sheltered us
Like mom and dad, they always helped us

Chimney sweeping man

I’m a chimney sweeping man
You see the black lines
On the backs of my hands
I planted all the gardens
I sent off all the hand-typed letters
To the empty shells on high
How i want to make things better

Maybe you thought i’d be president
With my cheshire grin, high iq
And charming baby blues
Well i’m a lowland forest resident
With lime in the outhouse
And black grime for tattoos

I try to make things better
I try to make things mine
I write a lot of letters
To pass the time

I pulled three hundred rocks
From the land to build my house
I walk quiet through the forest
Like a tiny quiet forest mouse

I’m a chimney sweeping man
You see the black lines
On the backs of my hands

Salvage a smile

Dead eye from the wood of life
Hold the ropes and the rigging lines
Red-eye a.m. Here i lie
Shipwreck passing underneath
What of the sailor and her spinning wheel?
What was she thinking being
Swallowed by the water whole?

Red on the left, green on the right
You can see me coming in the morning light
Brass and glass and rusted iron
Sextant here for the heavenly bodies
Compass here but the needle’s shot
Magnetic deviation screws me up

Break the glass from your hanging lanterns
Break the sea with your blackened anchors
And you might end up a floating junk pile
But you can always scramble to salvage a smile

Riptide

Riptide pulls me out into the open sea
My toes dangle for a place to stand and be

Oh starry night come and chart a course
Or send me a boat with an anchor set
I’ll pull myself ashore

Left with essence
Of the moon and stars and night
There’s no other route
I cannot take self to flight
I’ll float here with the shrimp and brine
And on my cheeks and hair
The salt will always shine
And with this phosphorescence map
A sailor’s chart a mermaid’s hand
Something i’ll find

Oh starry night come and chart a course…

Fire Snakes

Mermaids
Shimmer in the waves
Wanted to share a word
Course they only waved
Left me alone
With the blood in my mouth
To paw and to pray
To tear at the fray for a thundercloud

To dress up your wounds
Wash off the salt
Freshen the blooms
At your sea-rusted altar

Caldera’s edge
We’ll hold hands and wait
Mudflows are greyhounds
Exploding from gates
With hot ash and hot rocks
They’ll crash and they’ll mosh
Till the trees are all flat
And we all collapse from the chase

Then I’ll dress up your wounds
Wash off the salt
Freshen the blooms
At your mud-crusted altar…

Galaxies

When you sing, when you sing
The stars fill up my eyes
Galaxies pour down my cheeks
Galaxies…they flood the street
Galaxies

When we dance, when we dance
Eels and sea grass float on by
I’m 10,000 leagues beneath the sea
10,000 leagues…beneath the green
10,000 leagues

When we kiss, when we kiss
Bears and boulders vibrate through the air
Gravity is dead you see
No gravity…all I need is beating red
No gravity…

Secret Someones

I’m climbing up the stairs
I’m circling the waves
The broken ceiling paint
The broken windowpane
O a smile would melt
Me to an asphalt strip
Where all would travel
Where all would tread and trip

Where all the rolling rollers roll
And all the secret someones go
And all the roving rovers ramble
Down my back, down my track…

The horizon disappears
Like a windswept trail
Gone from wind and rain
Blurred like a charcoal stain
Smearing your face
Your shins are skinned again
You can soak up my heat
Sweat your beaded jewels to the street

Where all the rolling rollers roll…

Hey hey hey hey
Tell me, did you make it to the show?
Tell me, what did you make of the drummer’s hair?
Tell me, about the atmosphere
Tell me, about the faces that greeted you there

Where all the rolling rollers roll…

Magnetized

Slain
By your zirconium smile
I was slain
By your olivine eyes
Slain
I was lying in piles
Hoping shovels would cast me
Furnaces burn everlasting
Black tattoos of you onto me
Furnaces burn everlasting
Black tattoos

Burn
Brand my memory
Black
A tattoo of you
Wash
Me with your mouth
Brackish bright water from your eyes
I’ll homing pigeon fly
To hover by your window white and shy
Homing pigeon fly
To hover by

Spill
My ashes to the wind
Ghosts
Can gather what they’ve found
Now
We can struggle in the web
We can struggle
With white spider stars coming down
And night blowing black from the ground…

Parisian Dream

Your painting
Scratched lines of blue and gold
You open me up
Was folding into myself
A deck of cards
Face down empty on the shelf

Your song with
Emphasis on one and two
Then I couldn’t keep time
You took me into a dream
Exploding soundtrack
That I treasure as mine…

I was bent over
My chest and invisible line
Sinking
But then the light
The lamp that I held
In my blistered hands
You the fuel and
Me the fool for not noticing

This Chinese junk we’re on
With strapping strong
You cast free the lines
Let’s float here
Together clearly we better
Slip out to the brine!

Rialto

Check out the skylark
Riding and singing alongside
Salt cool breeze coming from the West
Ships and their lawlessness
Running wild and the waves
Wearing their bright blue summer best

Here come the sailors
Marching two by two by two
They pressed their pants
And shined their shoes
Aren’t they strapping and deranged?
Too long at sea makes your eyes strange
Makes ‘em strain
For the vision of your youth
Dripping castles in the sand

I could still go there
But my mind would be too loud
Sun on water
Bright colors drowning me out…

Now they’re standing on the beach
In a wild colored wind
Sunrays stream
Ah the pretty boys gleam
Watching distant buoys toss
Water rolling on the rocks
Smoothing down the broken things

I could still go there
But my mind would be too loud
Sun on water
Bright colors drowning me out…

Through the Glow

Flat stone skipping the surface sink
Into the golden deep
Crawl inside like a honeybee
Creep into the heart

Give me snow and give me salt
Troubles cracks and creaks
Watch ‘em tumble to the sea
Come back ‘round you see

Can you hear the cliffside’s heart
Bubbling red and deep?
When you’re slow not stop and start
You can burn a memory

Oh-oh-oh-oh-oh…

Gather with me like the gathering clouds
Smooth the twisted lines
Float above the quilted plains
Up to the stars we’ll strain

I can hear the sparkling dark
Calling me to swim
Through the sound waves
Through the glow
Into the undertow

Oh-oh-oh-oh-oh…

Cool Water

Cool water…

I want to fly like a scroll unfolding
Float to a stone ledge
Wait for a moment ‘fore spilling
Words to a hedge
And going away
Like a poem closed in a dresser drawer
You could say that’s what they’re for

You want to melt like bullion in a golden flow
And roll on down the hills
Back to the cracks
Back to the deep
Where you can harden and get your fill
Of cool water in surround sound…

Oh my mackinaw feels too tight
My frozen jaw begs for the break of night
Songbirds and sounds of dawning light…

Spelunking

The tiny midnight caravan
Made its way across the black hills
As I watched from a distance
The slow-going glow
Their wandering you know
Made me pine
For the lamplight
Where you lie

If I took you darling
To the caverns of my heart
Would you light the lamp dear?
Would you light the lamp dear?
And see fish without eyes
Bats with their heads
Hanging down towards the ground
Would you still come around
Come around?

I believe in you
In your honesty and your eyes
Even when I’m sloshing
In the muck of my demise
A large part of me
Is always and forever tied
To the lamplight
Of your eyes, of your eyes

Black Gold Blues

Bird of prey
Gonna float away
To a feather cloud formation
I’m gonna dig
For pretty and strange
Gonna open me up
A black gold vein

Arrow on fire
Flash the night
Gonna fade away
To the trees and caves
Salt-salt lamp
Romance the spark
And you’ll shine shine shine
Up up the wild deep dark

A sliver, a crack of light
Is all you need to see…

Ten black stars
At my windowpane
That’s ten pretty stars
Circle in my veins
Old barbed wire
Gonna fight and sting
Just ten little stars
Gonna make me sing

A sliver, a crack of light
Is all you need to see…

Where Gravity is Dead

Where gravity is dead
And the airplanes fly around
Above the roaming bees
And the buzzing town
Above the tattered flags
And the rotten show posters
Above the clubs and microphones
Above the jealous mouths

That’s where you’ve found yourself
Riding into the sun
On a raft made for one

Red painted radio
Towers sing you songs
Not, not that something’s wrong
You’ve got ‘em in your head
But doesn’t it get lonely
Riding up there to the sun
On a single raft for one
Don’t you wish for someone

To pull you on a string
Down from atmospheres
Down into a clearing
To kiss and box your ears?

That’s where you’ve found yourself
Riding into the sun
On a raft made for one

Lake Swimming

Lake swimming
Shucking free our deadened selves
Like snakes and corn do
Our bodies tore off swimming suits
And all the old notions
The cold ocean far away

Enter the sun
Marching like a matador
Flashing her yellow velvet suit
Throwing a red cape on the sky
Old butterfly
I’ll dance with you
Though our wings may crumble
We can float like ash
Broken but the edges still shine

Lake swimming
Shucking free our deadened selves
Like snakes and corn do
Our bodies tore off swimming suits
And all the old notions
The cold ocean far away

Pink Light

Sorry I was cruel
I was protecting myself
Drifting along with my swords out flying
Tattering my own cells then I tattered yours, too
Took you and rocked you around me like a spell

Oh, how now the cold seeps in, oh
Oh, how now I cast you into the wind

Wracked by winter, I'm cupping my coals in the sand
Growing like a starlight 'cross the garden of night, I'll think
Bones look lonely, memories surround me
Good times, skeletons are kicking at the ground

Oh, how the night drags on, oh
But I think I see a pink light and the coming of dawn
Oh, how the night drags on, oh
But in the fading of the constellations, I am growing strong
In the fading of the constellations, I am growing strong
In the fading of the constellations, I am growing strong

Ocean night song

A handful of dream dust for my pirate
He can hear the pacific singing
The sea meets the light in his salt water eyes
Icy pictures of the water are captured in his frame

The paddles of night are unfolding
A mermaid's map floats by on the rolling green
Japanese fishing float carries my soul out to the whales
And out to the deep

I wonder 'bout the herds of the sea
If they will hurt or if they will help me

Swimming with my fallen blossoms
I drink from the source above (x4)

A handful of dream dust for my pirate
He can hear the pacific singing

Don’t lose yourself

I felt my vocal chords weakening
I felt my concave thoughts
I felt my voluntary blindness
For staring straight into the sun
The romantic air of your eye patch
Called me across the room
I clung there and I danced with your silent
Admired your divine tattoos

We slept in the shadow of a cedar tree
We made love on the rising tide
We smelled the perfume of the waxing moon
We dreamt of all friendships kind
We touched the blood of the black cat
We pet the mammoth day of tears
In the flickering light we were laughing
« Necessity conquers fear ! »

Don’t lose yourself
Don’t let yourself be lost
Don’t lose yourself
Don’t let yourself be lost

Dreaming we were stares in black stillness
Dreaming of the death of the sun
Waking to a world of white windiness
Painted eyes of the holy ones
The death of the word was upon us
And the discipline of the wind
We see less and less all the time, dear
Just look at this mess we are in

Don’t lose yourself
Don’t let yourself be lost
Don’t lose yourself
Don’t let yourself be lost

Staring at the entrance
I prayed for your wounds to close
Tiger ointment and cosmic collision
And the crucifixion of the rose

Don’t lose yourself, don’t lose yourself…

Don’t lose yourself
Don’t let yourself be lost
Don’t lose yourself
Don’t let yourself be lost...

Now the raging of the forest fires end
And all the mammals fled
I smell in the charred darkness
A little green, a little red

When you sing your song
Your voice washed over the sea
Glacial land of
Beautiful blue light came o'er me
Came o'er me

Drink deep, my love
For the water is gasping for your mouth
Gasping for your mouth
Drink deep, my love
For the water is gasping for your mouth

I remember in the burning
A secret magic expense
A flame universe of bright gold and white
I treasured the whole fest
But it was too hard to touch
I flew out with the cinders in a mighty black rush

Drink deep, my love
For the water is gasping for your mouth
Gasping for your mouth
Drink deep, my love
For the water is gasping for your mouth

And the fire closed his eyes
Tipped his flame hat and slipped through the dire rye
We wandered romantic
We scattered dark branches
With the singing green stars as our guide
With the singing green stars as our guide

Drink deep, my love
For the water is gasping for your mouth
Gasping for your mouth
Drink deep, my love
For the water is gasping for your mouth (x2)

*** Thanx a lot to Carly for this one ***

Wandering kind

A strange July, storm came down
From the north and pulled out the salt
And it tore out the leaves
From the pear tree and my canopy

In the twigs and the bugs of sow
I knew somehow I was free
I held a stone above my bones
I was shaking

In the blue stained glass church
You gathered up my heart
Sauntered together all the tiny shattered parts
I said, 'all I can see in front of me is the armpit of a crow'
You closed the ring and opened the door
And ran into the summer yard

'Cause the sun's been known to shine
On our wandering kind
Yeah, the sun's been known to shine
On our wandering kind
(to shine)

Clogging on her wooden board
The tattooed girl took up her swords
And plunged them down deep into the earth
A twinkling tie filled up her eyes
And poured out to the lawn
A made a raft of the scraps from her skirt
And sailed 'til dawn

'Cause the sun's been known to shine
On our wandering kind
(to shine)
Yeah, the sun's been known to shine
On our wandering kind
(to shine)

Our wandering kind

Nightingale

Nightingale sing
Though it's blacker than the bog
Nightingale sing to me
I need to hear your song

Nightingale come
And perch upon my tree
A terrifying light's
Been flashing over me

I would not bear to rest
I would not dare to dream
Till the nightingale came
And sang a song for me

She'll sing above the blasts
And the clothing singed by fire
She'll sing above the black smoke
Rising from the funeral pyre

Her heart a field in bloom
Her heart a sacred snow
Her heart a mirror blinding
All the greedy as they go

I would not bear to rest
I would not dare to dream
Till the nightingale came
And sang a song for me

I cannot help but want
To sodder all the parts
Sodder back together
All the shattered hearts

Nightingale come
And perch upon my tree
The terrifying night's
Been crashing over me

I would not bear to rest
I would not dare to dream
Till the nightingale came
And sang a song for me

I would not bear to rest
I would not dare to dream
Till the Nightingale came
And sang a song for me

Saltbreakers

Serpent tails and flying fish
Sup up all the wishes
That you sent to the stars
Chinese dragons incandescent
Mirrors in the waves
I want to put them in jars

With my-y-y saltbreakers
Ringing all the underwater
Underwater, underwater bells

Saltbreakers
Look inside a space
Look inside a space and you can tell

Saltbreakers
What you need to sow
What you need to know by any means

You will not burn me up
Though I’ve dreamed nightly of your face
And walk the streets of my life
With your singing in my silent brain
You cannot burn me up
I’m a falling leaf who keeps her green
And don’t forget I’ve got my
Trusty bag of oh-oh-oh

Saltbreakers
Flashing in the night
Flashing all around my arms

Saltbreakers
Throwing me down
Turning on the fireflies

Saltbreakers
The ebb and the flood
Clearing all the channels of your heart

Bleached by the dark
Oceans of clouds
Rainstorms of ash
Stars on the ground

All around my-y-y saltbreakers
Floating like a butterfly
Stinging like a bumblebee

Saltbreakers
Dashing alright, splashing
O and slumbering

Saltbreakers
Mirror to the serpentine stars

To The Country

Don't recognise my face
Everybody knows your game
Feel like I’m running in place
Everything's changed, everything's changed
I'm gonna move to the country
She's gonna move
So I can see the stars
Heavenly stars, the heavenly stars, the heavenly stars

She's gonna move
Heavenly stars, the heavenly stars, the heavenly stars

I dove into the night
Bathed in the beautiful blue light
Sheltered inside a bat cave
Me and my baby had a conversation
Gonna move to the country
She's gonna move
So I can see the stars
Heavenly stars, the heavenly stars, the heavenly stars

I'm gonna move to the country
She's gonna move
So I can see the stars
Heavenly stars, the heavenly stars, the heavenly stars

Cast A Hook In Me

Breathe life to the street from the mouth
Those ruby red lips have much to give
Pull life from the land with your capable hands
Those life loving beautiful broken hands
Oh, I'll stand with you and marvel
At the cosmos pink and bright
All the pages flipping backwards
Til time is gone and wrong is right

Rivers running up the hills and to the sky and down to the sea
Where a merman with a twinkle casts a hook in me

Sing me a salty blue song, I'll be gone
With watery cheeks down flowered lanes
Tattered sails on a ramshackle ship, I'll go pale
Staring straight in the face looming tempest waves
Otherwise I'll wither and die here
On this reach of rubble rambling
With two years filled up with sand, dear
In a broken daze I'll be scrambling

Like rivers running up the hills and to the sky and down to the sea
Where a merman with a twinkle casts a hook in me

Summer sky falling into the sea, taking part of me
See the bones on the sand in the light
All the heards of the sea rushing by, pay no mind
To the dancing reflections gone wild
And at night a fractured star fell
And pierced right through the thick of me
I cried out in pain and joy, yes
I'm not dead, not numb, not withering

Like a falling leaf who keeps her green
I'm turning bright in the sea
Where a merman with a twinkle casts a hook in me

Phantom Mountain

At the top of
Phantom Mountain
I saw the turquoise
Brilliant burning sea
The sweat on my shoulders
The silvery haze
Swords of lightning
Hawks and Gulf Stream
Made me crazy, crazy

I could not tell the truth
I could not tell the truth
From the mirage, from the mirage

Yellow butterfly
On the rocky path below
Fluttering lifeless
In the shimmering glow
Of the Phantom Mountain
Took her heartache
Took her beautiful face
To a distant place

I could not tell the truth
I could not tell the truth
From the mirage, from the mirage

I could not tell the truth
I could not tell the truth
From the mirage, from the mirage

*** Thanx a lot to Alice for this one ***

Black butterfly

Goodbye black butterfly
You can take those perfect wings
Into outer space
'Cos there's no place left in this blood
For your restless fluttering
Your sleepless ways

Black butterfly flutter me by
Kick a little bitter into the night
Spark of the stars leaving on my heart
Trying to be good by you
Alright, alright

Salt breeze rose city sunset
The bats are swinging 'round me
Like drunken ships
Ever - evergreen bows above me tower
Singin' quiet stories 'bout forgiveness

Black butterfly flutter me by
Kick a little bitter into the night
Spark of the stars leaving on my heart
Trying to be good by you
Alright, alright

Alright, alright (x4)

Alright, alright

*** Thanx a lot to Carly for this one ***

Wrecking

Looting the destroyed
Vessels of the sea
I wondered if the waves
Had taken all of me
All of me back
Down to the black
Down to the where the worms reign silent and green
Silent

We can do some wrecking here
Til a little color
Comes into your face
We can do some wrecking here
And find something to love
In this broken place
This broken place

And the king is a hand
And slaps you like a wave
And shackles you down
Bound like an anchored chain in the sand
Sends your ships to the rocks
Sends the keys to the lock of the chain
On your heart
To the mouth of a serpent
And his scaly glass shards

He's holding all the cards
And waiting in the waves
With the poker face
And no trail to trace
No trail to trace

We can do some wrecking here
Til a little color comes into your face
We can do some wrecking here
And find something to love
In this broken place
This broken place

Freight Train

(Elizabeth Cotten cover / Two Beers Veirs EP)

Freight train, freight train, run so fast
Freight train, freight train, run so fast
Please don't tell what train I'm on
They won't know what route I've gone

When I am dead and in my grave
No more good times here I crave
Place the stones at my head and feet
And tell them all that I've gone to sleep

When I die, Lord, bury me deep
Way down on old Chestnut street
So I can hear old Number nine
As she goes rolling by

When I die, Lord, bury me deep
Way down on old Chestnut street
Place the stones at my head and feet
And tell them all that I've gone to sleep

Spike Drive Blues

(Mississippi John Hurt cover / Two Beers Veirs EP)

This is the hammer that killed John Henry
But it won't kill me
No, it won't kill me
No, it won't kill me

Take this hammer and hand it to the captain
And tell him I'm gone
Won't you tell him I'm gone
Won't you tell him I'm gone

John Henry, he left his hammer
Laying inside the road
Laying inside the road
Laying inside the road

John Henry, he left his hammer
All painted in red
All painted in red
All painted in red

John Henry, he left his hammer
Laying inside the road
Won't you tell him I'm gone
Won't you tell him I'm gone

John Henry, he left his hammer
All painted in red
All painted in red
All painted in red

The Coo Coo Bird

(Clarence Ashley cover / Two Beers Veirs EP)

Oh the cuckoo, she's a fine bird
Don't she warble as she flies
She don't never holler coo coo
Till the fourth of July

Oh the cuckoo, she's a fine bird
Don't I wish she was mine
She won't never drink water
She always drink wine

Don't you kill her, little cuckoo
She won't do you no harm
She will eat up all the ground worms that destroy that farm

Oh the cuckoo, she's a wise bird
Goes down south and fall
She goes down to old ???
Where the snow never falls

Oh the cuckoo, she's a wise bird
Built her nest in the pines
She goes high up in the timbers
Where the snakes never climb

Oh the cuckoo, she's a fine bird
Don't she warble as she flies
She don't never holler coo coo
Till the fourth of July

Wilwood Flower

(Irving & Webster cover / Two Beers Veirs EP)

Oh I'll twine with my mingles and raven black hair
With the roses so red and the lilies so fair
And the mirtles so bright with the emerald dew
The pale and the leader whose eyes look like blue

Oh I will dance, I will sing and my laugh shall be gay
I will charm every heart, in his crown I will sway
When I woke from dreaming all my idols was clay
All portions of love have flown all away

Oh he taught me to love him and promised to love
And to cherish me over all others above
How my heart now is wondering, no misery can tell
He's left me no warning, no words of farewell

Oh he taught me to love him and call me his flower
That was blooming to cheer him through life's dreary hour
Oh how long to see him, oh I regret the dark hour
He's gone and neglected his pale wildwood flower