1. |
90 and Rising
04:00
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Blowing through the cattails and meadow grass
From hotel halls through urban sprawl I'm pounding on the gas
I can't see the truck stops for the gasoline
when the axle is due to crack and the engine is giving out on me
Over thoroughfares and rivers and interstates
The earth engulfs the roots of smoke and it's choking more each day
Coal is still in stacks in freights as far as I can see
while the BNSF is runnin' steady right along me
It's 90 and risin' at the Kansas City line
I can't put the breaks on or pull off to the side
The mirage on the road ahead is playing with my eyes
When it's 90 and rising at the Kansas City line
After months unheard I got word from a roaming friend
He said he'd been run ragged and now he's burning through the rims
Brother is traveling overseas for land he's yet to claim
I swear I'll do the same on the blood of saints that runs through our good name
It's 90 and risin' at the Kansas City line
I can't put the breaks on or pull off to the side
The mirage on the road ahead is playing with my eyes
When it's 90 and rising at the Kansas City line.
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2. |
Onion Eyes
02:54
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He went quietly on a Sunday night
between the dim lamp light and the howl outside
the window frame with a rattling hinge
who spoke back and forth like a pendulum click
with the clock on the table outside the door
who told him he didn't have time no more.
All day his heart was gnawing on his mind
The echo in his skull sounded something like "goodbye"
So quietly he went on that quivering night
He drew a nice warm bath and a bottle of wine
Every time he placed the bottle to his warm lips
The strength left more from his white knuckled fist
And it didn't come at all from the wrong he done
It came from his Evelyn's long lost love
It didn't seem right, he wasn't known to cry
But she wasn't there to dry his onion eyes
Before the red blood flooded from his blue veins
And the memories flickered all around his brain
He said, "they'll never ever see the likes of me again"
The way his heart had been gnawing at his head for years
He had to hide himself away so he could hide the tears
The folks he knew got the shock and surprise
'cuz they weren't around to dry his onion eyes
And the went quietly on a Sunday night.
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3. |
St. Anthony's Pawn Shop
04:33
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Tomorrow is a long time and yesterday is gone
Today stands here like a slow line sluggishly movin' on
Waiting on the shopkeeper to turn the sign
And turn the turn key lock
To grant me entrance to the walls
To inspect what he's got in stock...
Where I'll run my fingers slowly down the corners of his case
To haggle with him prices the relics in the place
If tomorrow is a stranger
Then the past is tramping gone
I wonder what I can find this time behind the doors of
Saint Anthony's Pawn
Maybe a fabled party ashtray or a pair of her high heels
Her hazels I search for second hand I was first to steal
Sometimes I check the watches to see how long it's been
In sign language their hands tell me lost time ain't found again
When each day is born I search some more for things I once adored
Lurking around inside the doors...
I wonder if I can somehow place what's left without a trace
In damp corners inside the walls of
Saint Anthony's Pawn
I wonder if I can somehow place what's left without a trace
To catch the slightest smell or to snag the smallest taste...
at Saint Anthony's Pawn...
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4. |
St. Luke's Little Summer
03:02
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Her words hung there like a riddle in the air
When they ricocheted off my vacant stare
My thoughts churned up like a gravel road
That ain't seen tires in a years or so
She left like ripples on a pond in the sky
Given by the kiss of a dragonfly
Saint Luke is gonna give one last chance
And I'll try to bargain with him best I can
When I'm left behind and the bridge gets torched
I pull the chairs off the front porch
When summer is gone like the locust's song
I'm a-go runnin' all winter long
'Cuz the nights get strange and I sleep day
Behind heavy doors and window panes
Cabin fever gets me all cooped up
Then I'm pouring liquor in my coffee cup
I've got more reason to go then I've got to stay
I should've left years ago anyway
I should've left years ago...
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5. |
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It ain't raining
It ain't pouring
But the Old Man is snoring
And his Old Lady is sleeping on the couch
Where she's deploring
The morning
Her right and left brain warring
On the train beneath her shoulders
Her head will slouch
She's dogged eared, dog tired,
The dog days just wired
Said, "lookin' like she'll be a year long drought."
And the blacktop is boiling
the eggs in the fridge are spoiling
'Cuz up and down the block the power is out.
100 pounds soakin' wet
She sweat through her nice work dress
She bought a week long pass
with hardly any patience left
In the subway
on the tracks, trapped
hot wind breathed a breath that gasped
Her eyes looked through the platform mirage
and up the staircase cleft
Her dry mouth hummed a song and it went...
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6. |
Through the Rye
03:00
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1,000 lousy memories
that all look the same
A decades worth of women
I can't recall the names
Late at night sometimes
When it digs in most
I wish I'd have died
When I was out there cross-eyed
Wanderin' through the Rye
For a few cheap laughs, some photographs
like a moonlighting clown
"There's a place I know when this one is closed
Baby, I hate coming down."
Late at night sometimes
When it digs in most
You know I wish I'd have died
When I was out there cross-eyed
Wanderin' through the Rye
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7. |
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If the bar never did close
I'd never go home
I'd never be alone
Unless I wanted to
If the bar never did close
I'd never be alone
I'd never go home
Unless they asked me to
When the whiskey don't kill me
My heart surely will
If the bar never did close
I'd be sitting there still
If this dump never did close
I'd be bleeding out my nose
Counting tombstone toes
'Cuz I was runnin' my mouth again
If they never did shut the lights
I could simply shut my eyes
Whistle me a lullaby
Until the early morning when
I'm rubbing the drunk from mine eyes
And I'm ready against my will
If the bar never did close
I'd be sitting there still
If the whiskey don't kill me
My heart surely will
And if I'm in this for anything
It's for the measly thrill
If the bar never did close
I'd be dyin' there...
It's like a should've been gone
I just never got started
It ain't easy and it's only gettin' harder
what with winter on and I just wish it were warmer
I might be all right if I make it 'til summer...
alright.
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8. |
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let me tell ya honey
why i toss and turn at night
let me tell ya honey
why i toss and turn at night
in all my years i never done a damn thing right
let me tell ya honey
when i plan to go
let me tell ya honey
when i plan to go
first in the morning soon as the the rooster crow
it's just one too many evenings
that lie about in stacks
I can't say when I'm coming back
you know better than to ask...
now let me tell ya honey
what i hope to find
let me tell ya honey
what i hope to find
nothin' in particular, i'm just the travelin' kind
when i was born i was brought with a restless mind...
it's just one too many evenings
that lie about in stacks
I can't say when I'm coming back
you know better than to ask...
I can't say when I'm coming back
so honey don't ya ask...
i can't say when i'm coming back
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9. |
Before I Go
04:07
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I had so many things to say when I was younger
Before my certainty turned to doubt
I'm still skin and bones
But somehow lost my hunger
There's nothing left in this world I give a damn about
If I could fight the good fight again
Feel the beat in my heart again
I could do most anything
I know
If I could love like I was younger
Before I go
I had a different love for every different season
Lovin' was something I never went without
Now they've all gone
I understand their reasons
There's no part of me left for them to care about
If I could stand like a man again
Love like I was loved again
I could do most anything
I know
If I could love like I was younger
Before I go.
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Gar Clemens Greensboro, North Carolina
Gar Clemens' delightful Americana-influenced-folk debut full-length may be simple, sleepy and comforting, but it is also thematically captivating, and all too capable of stirring up the kind of nagging life sentiments usually reserved for when your head hits the pillow. (Jamie Downes // 07/01/14//United Kingdom) ... more
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