1. |
The Reunion
04:51
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Place me there in the casket. Lay me down ‘neath the ground. It is there where I’ll love you ‘til I find a way out. Beautifully sings my lovely, haunting ears of the fraught, “Fortitude’s not forgiveness if forgetters forgot.” Oh, have I forgot? You’re so far away though whispers of your love keep my eyes awake. You’re here in the darkening day on shadows of what rests our fading faith. The coal! The child! The rust! Of plagues that robbed our love, Lord. Of dreams we’re dreaming of where we will go. Oh! Here I fall towards destiny’s plot where the reapers of love and the fighters who fought pull limb from soul, so the body goes, and the winds of your call fall of deafening bones. I long to follow where you’ve gone, and my heart it lays with you my love. We’ll see on the destined day. They’ll march the trails we swore wouldn’t fade away. Like a Civil War parade, their carrying the stories our love has made. The church! The lost! The blood! They rattle soil we dug, Lord, with songs our lives have sung slung on their backs. Oh, song of hope that the cardinal crows of our forgotten dreams and a misguided course. Song never wrote, so the story goes, yet the notes are sung true from each bellowing throat. Tilt low. Just for you. Singing, “My darling my heart always lays with you!” I am ready for the night. We are ready for the heights. I am ready to die. We are ready for the bright.
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2. |
Go
03:46
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Lure of your song, the crackling guns, the choirs rise and fall. It’s beckoning to me, “Shirk my burdensome biology.” So child, draw near. These tilting tones will calm your greatest fears, and you’re gone, spirited on. But when the cold gets blowing, whose shivering arms will wrap you up? Or when your feet do wander, whose trembling hands will straight your walk? Wrong idea exchanging our love for some sense of peace. For twelve long years still searching for you, you searching for me? Will you go? I’m coming home. My heart’s large black hole, it’s grown in hopes its magnetism pulls and swallows the sea whose arms have pushed your island far from me. Dear child, draw near. This distant haunting focuses my fears that you’re gone, moving on. What if the leaves start falling? What if the colors drown us out? And all the lines are blurring a vintage photograph forgot? Wrong idea exchanging our love for some sense of peace. For twelve long years still searching for you, you searching for me? Will you go? I’m coming home. Let the weight of your soul lift you up, gilded in gold’s not enough. Longing still pulls saying, “Go, if you’re looking for it. Go, find what you need. Go, ‘cross the greatest ocean. Go, carry thoughts of me. Go, if you’re looking for it. Go, find what you need. Go, ‘cross the greatest ocean. Go!” Go! Oh loneliness, your grip is free.
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3. |
As We Grow Old
04:31
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Gave up the hope for the hopeless ‘cause hope it escapes, and its absence can break us. They said the war it would save us, but it seems love that it takes us. I’m looking for the things that I love the most. In the light all I see is your faith bound ghost. What’s the truth of your heart? When we were young, we would search for the meaning of the love, of the world, of the healing. Said it won’t make sense how this all ends. I’d tear away the things we’ve grown ‘til I claw the dirt that consumes and holds. Oh, maybe then you’ll loosen up your guns. We can raise a glass to the things undone. Oh. Lost in my home. Cold hands. Cold soul. I’m not my own. Sirens call us to shore found. They beckon for sweetness. They beckon for ways out. Wreckage is beauty beguiling. Tie me down man ‘cause I’m fighting. I’m still fighting. I’m looking for the things that I love the most. ‘Neath your skin there’s a truth that remains and grows. Been there from the start. When we were young we were young in our reasons. Simple hearts. Simple love. Simple meaning. Said it won’t make sense how this all ends. I’d tear away the things we’ve grown ‘til I claw the dirt that consumes and holds. Oh, maybe then you’ll loosen up your guns. We can raise a glass to the things undone. Oh, yet the wind carries on, forgets the rights it has wronged, shifting everything with His wandering. Still we’re here asking why while the why passes by. It’s not you. It’s not me. His well run deep. Pulls us beneath.
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4. |
Fit to Leave
04:54
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Forgive the clutter. Guns of men riddled castles down. Here lies the treasure. Glimmering dust will swing you round and round and down. They’ll fall in love with stenciled smiles they meet, sheltered from the lips of honesty. Trust that they forgive me. How could you know the ways of my soul? This thick fog could hold Son of God from Promised Land. Let me go. Faded light is beautiful. Seek those naturally lovely. Grieve not for me. I’m fit to leave. As Northern Lights, fluorescent bright, in the barren sky so pulse your words high over the earth. They burrow down until they found the longest droughts still end with flooded streets drowning those whose buckets dry beseech. Neglectful skies; unflinching. How could you know the ways of my soul? This thick fog could hold Son of God from Promised Land. Let me go. Faded light is beautiful. Seek those naturally lovely. Grieve not for me. I’m fit to leave. We are all the bones. (Repeat) You said, “These bones so old and dry. Sinews grow and wrap around these bones will come alive.” You said, “Our (These) bones will cry out chants. Chorus will rise above the earth. We’ll shake the air with dance. (Repeat) You are the healer of the weak. We are the bones. Healer of the weak, we are the bones. (Repeat) How could you know the ways of my soul? This fog could hold Son of God from Promised Land. (Repeat) I’ll let you go.
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5. |
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Moon seems red. Combinations sleep in atmospheric beds. These telescopes cut through layers thick. Can’t you see? Though it tries, it will always be white. Persistent lights through light-years wind and wind. Our faces bright, you’ve lost your great disguise. (Ooo) Frontier bleeds, still this country stands between you and me. All wagons west know their destiny. As they grow, they will remove and reduce what’s left. This rattled brush entrusted to us though scant adorned. It’s ours, and we will feel its thorns. (Ooo) I will not run from this. I’ve left my own estate to lay in the gardens, near your window. I will wait in faith and pain. I’ll call. Can’t you see we’ve levied fault? But hope, but love, but growth, but us, the trees will bend. Steeples fall. I’m lost. Still the time guides me to dust. Still in this you can trust. (Ooo) Persistent lights through light-years wind and wind. Our faces bright, they shine I find the night. Your signs. (Ooo)
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6. |
Rotted Pines
03:41
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I went searching for a line that would lift your heavy mind. That gravity will drive you down in time. And when you lift your weary eyes, I won’t be a bit surprised to find the one I long to recognize. To fall in love. To fall into your guise. We dig and we dig hoping still for the promise in kind, yet the circles we make only cut out the roots of the pines. What did you find? Your weary mind. What did you find? This rotted pine. Spent my time running away from the regency of faith. Momentum’s gonna take me to the grave. And when the rope it starts to burn. It won’t surprise me if you yearn to let me go, to give up on this turn. To fail to love. To take just what we’ve learned. We dig and we dig hoping still for the treasure in kind, yet the circles we make only cut out the roots of the pines. What did you find? My wandering kind. What did we find? These rotted pines. (Repeat) Still we can rejoice! A still and small voice. We can rejoice! We can rejoice! (Repeat)
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7. |
Stop Motion Picture
04:02
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Found what’s been nagging. Pulled on my strings. Raised my arm and closed my eyes. Though I’m surrounded by moving things, are we stop motion posing our lives? I realize solitude is near...solitude. I watch the birds flying South wishing the warmth will bring them health. Gone too. (2x) Time will soon take away from me what I’ve been collecting. I’ll sell off everything. Here I lay out my empty arms. If I’m done receiving, can I still do you harm? Solitude. (2x) Found this old knife, so we’ll carve out our names in the legs of furniture. Stretching for purpose - maybe I’m yours. Rusted blades make shavings of pain conjoining fates. You and me. (2x) I watch the bears in their caves hiding from all that will bring them pain. Gone too! (2x) Time will soon take away from me what I truly love. Can I give up everything? If this plane’s really going down, does it really matter? We’re falling towards the ground. You and me. (2x) In the bright, in the pride, will you elevate? I didn’t know you. (3x) With the lost, with the poor, with the crashing faith, I will see, I will see, I still see you leave one thousand. Find the lost one! You will soon take away from me what I’ve been collecting. I’ll sell off everything. Here I lay out my empty arms. I’m not done receiving. Fall into your charms. You and me. (2x)
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8. |
The Water's Ways
05:01
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The water and its ways, they tumble earth beneath the softening waves. Its contours always change, tearing rock to find its resting place. But I stay the same though sacred paths were blazed. My bed’s made on desert plains. Here I wait. (2x) Time and will can make the blackened coal into the diamond ring that I have worn. These stories, oh how I crave. Still I hurt you in all the same old ways. I stay the same, ‘cause moving causes pain. A tin roof or wooden planks, here I wait. (2x) We stay the same. We’re stacking pain on pain. Forgetting how we were made, here we stay. (2x) But you call me towards the clouds sayin’ child don’t look down. For what’s buried ‘neath the ground will always be found. You will always be found. The trump will pull you out. Your change is in the clouds. As poor as you ever were seems that you just bought the love. For treasure won’t pay the cost. No, it was paid for with blood. Pulling me upward, though heavy and blind as the sun, my eyes bring to focus that giving in’s not giving up. It’s enough. (2x) Better things I want for you, but I can’t help but bring pain to you. Better things I want for you, help me show that love to you…to you.
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9. |
Poisoned Heirloom
03:02
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Silence falls, hovers over the winding interstate. Held my breath. Plugged my ears. Proved to me that I can hardly wait to breathe in this poisoned heirloom that has ravaged those before. Feel the water. Feel the water it takes from you. It takes from you. On the way out. On the way out I will call for you. I’ll call for you. Wretched body! Fade out. See what I’m missing? Whole of the ancient mural. Baptized in rivers of martyrs, I will wait on you. Wait on you. Broken body, battered, and bruised. Amplified, listen close to the pulsing of the earth. Durable, falling towards a meaning that will fill the void that’s left. See it coming? Breath left for growing old. Feel the water. Feel the water it takes from you. It takes from you. On the way out. On the way out I will call for you. I’ll call for you. Wretched body! Fade out. See what I’m missing? Whole of the ancient mural. Baptized in rivers of martyrs, I will wait on you. Wait on you. Broken body, battered, and bruised. They say that I’ll grow stronger each day as I watch our bodies wither away, fallen from grace, rumbles ‘ore the plains. Pull close. See what I’m missing? Beauty of ancient pictures. Wandrin’ through rose-covered gardens, I will wait on you. Wait on you. (2x) Leave this body lovingly used.
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10. |
Patterns
03:14
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It’s a way out of this town. Can you see it? See that the patterns fit. But you bolt your chair to the floor. Bolt the lock on the door. Hold your peace a bit more. We stay. Hold the shifting weight. Gates were not meant for us. We know when the rain starts falling we’re gonna get to where we’re going. It’s a way out. Stopped chasing ghosts. Stopped fighting crows. Stopped gathering those souls that would approve of where we are. Move to where we are. Soothe the roughest parts. Truth we haven’t proof. We know when the rain starts falling, we’re gonna get to where we’re going. It’s a way out. (Repeat)
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Bethesda Kent, Ohio
Bethesda's 2012 was a busy year with performances at Bonnaroo Music & Arts Festival, Rock and Roll Hall of Fame Summer in the City Series with Sharon Van Etten, RedGorilla Music Festival at SXSW, MidPoint Music Festival, Burning River Fest, and more. Meanwhile, Bethesda has been working on their next fan-funded full-length album "The Reunion" in 2013 with InKind Music, distributed by Sony Red. ... more
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