Let the Lead Fly : Don’t just stand there Raise your guns and let the lead fly I thought I told you You’re going to miss if you close one eye So don’t just stand there, raise your guns and let the lead fly Before the dawn in the St. Level wood Rest your head on the warm of the hood Mayflies and bugs chipping at the road Miles away from the world I’ve known Grind the stump and tighten the chain Twice as strong as a man half of my age But I suppose the plow’s reached the end of the row “Be particular son now as you go” And every dog’s named for a color Blood is thicker than any kind of water Blackie and red painted R.L.R I wish I could find you wherever you are

Fortune Fades : Shaking off the shadows, running from the cold Waters churn and beckon at my door Tainted streams are flowing where the transom used to be Take me down with the vessel when you go Fortune fades, you’re reaching for the light Brighter days are falling far behind When your hole is dug so deep and it’s so dark you can’t see The winds will always bring you home to me Concrete and the pilings driving deep beneath the sea Amongst the rising waves and finer things Heavens to Betsy, to be a pearl upon a string Resting on your shoulder eternally No time for winding down, where I wind up is on my mind Surely there’s more silver sides to see No time to count the miles, counting them up just brings me down Looks like we’ve been leaking gasoline

Medicine Bow : Yellow is the color of midnight Words are just moments in time Although the devils hovering around me I think I’m doing alright The Salt and the Wind and the Teton The Green and the Snake and the Lost The Medicine Bow and the Big Horn The Blackfoot, the Crowheart and the Wood Gone are the days Gone are the days of runoff Now everything is running clear Yellow is the color of midnight Words are just moments in time The Medicine Bow and the Big Horn They tell me I am doing alright Tell my friends I’m doing fine

Dopamine Dream : Ceasing and desisting was the order of the morning The order of the night was chasing those money machines But he was fearful of the crossing and the calling of the coffin Cause the Arkansas side of the river runs a little bit deep All the women make a living undressing Never taught me much of nothing that I needed to know Left me with a cigarette burn and a dopamine dream When you’re far too old for dying young, but you’re still too young to see The fires are burning low on the Kerosene Buzzards and the red tail and the gravel underfoot Singing of the jays knowing we were up to no good Sneaking down to High Street with a bottle and a rose Looking for the side of the night where they lay it down low

As the Waters All Run Dry : When I looked up from the ground The moon blocked out the clouds The crowd control wasn’t keeping me at bay Like a spider in the drain I swam and screamed and swayed Raised my arms and hoped to hear you say Turn it over dark of night Prop me up in the morning light Tomorrow I’ll wish that I had died Sweep the floors, prop the chairs And leave me lying here Watching as the waters all run dry In the east the daylight broke But my eyes they burned and smoked With thoughts of some Sunday left behind Spilling cubes from the glass Rising slow and falling fast Yes, I guess the years have not been kind There’s fog all around the lens And I’ve not seen you since We lay upon the Dominion’s mighty bones While the devil worked the fields Deliver us Lord from all evil Because each of us has cast our own stones Turn it over dark of night Prop me up in the morning light Tomorrow I’ll pray to God that I’m alive Lock the doors, run down the stairs I’ll strain my ears to hear You calling as the waters all run dry

One Hand in the Furnace : Living down the time spent subdivided by one effort Or another and the grains are almost gone Sitting on the top there molested then compressed into the middle And the longest of free falls Black out on a Tuesday You know that it ain’t usually like the bottle to get us gone that far As the light was leaving the darkness came creeping up behind us And covered up the falling of the stars All the good times and the bad luck never added up to much But a court date down in Farmville and one hand in the furnace Saturday replenishes what Sunday leaves behind We’ll be alright Simple graces interlaced with sterile spaces And the sounds of all the barely hanging on Never was intended for my parts to be descended Cause a furrow in your brow

Pleasure is the Absence of Pain : Feel the flex of the string, hear the doorbell ring See the letter he brings that told it was gone As the oldest of trees to fall in ’03 When Isabel’s breeze tore our roots from the ground Pleasure is the absence of pain Touch the first bitter chord, know the last sad word Hate the sound that you heard about the old tired tree Who lays in the dark with his corpse on his heart That was scraped in the bark to remain to remind us that Pleasure is the absence of pain Hold the last soft note, clear the burrs from your throat Love the pain that you wrote for the old tired tree Who was strong as he stood, heart, belly and blood Turned love into wood and wood into pain

Cracks and Seams : Vagabonds and it’s hard to hear With the line drawn from over there To the middle of the road the first bars of night Creeping in or is it daylight? With your heart of water & your face of stone We won’t loiter we’ll soon be gone To the center of the earth, to Orion’s belt  It’s not till morning that the pain is felt Where we’ll dry out In the cracks and seams You go on I’ll lag behind While the saw blades turn and the waters dry You light the torches, I’ll dream the dreams And sing the songs of smoke and steam

Catfish and Color TV’s : Catfish and color TV’s, kindly company Saltwater dreams and nicotine keep me living right Shadows are growing longer now and they’re bringing on the night Keeps my brain from thinking about the things that passed me by It’s 75 degrees out on the water And its 3’ to 5’ with a steady southern breeze But I sure could use a storm or two to help these wounds to heal Get back on the right side of the reel Scraping off the paraffin, climbing up my stringer That 5’10” taught me when to chase them or to run Crickets sing the chorus of the way things used to be Back when the reds were biting and you were still right here with me Coming with the leaving, bringing on the feeling That the current and the winds may be too strong Every time you go something deep inside me knows it won’t be long

Pull Me from the Wreckage : Lay the strings out on the bed and lie there Walk straight up the hill to ring that bell The swollen hearts and the stops and starts will leave you lying low One day it’s going to break apart I know Pull me from the wreckage And lay me out upon the road Pull me from the wreckage Things are going to be changing here I know You just like a snake with your steady living And me just like a fly in the windowsill I’ll buzz and crash and then rehash the whole misdeed again Laid in armor plates and draped in sin Nobody said a word about the hallways Or all the stairs we had to climb We’ll weave and wind and pass the time by staring at the wall Tell me my good brother, “how far’s the fall?” I’m so sorry to see you go I’m so glad that I’m so sorry I’m so glad to see you go I’m so sorry, I’m so glad

Howard Johnson : Beneath that yellow glowing street lamp a pretty girl sat weeping Same way I’ve seen her do about a hundred times before Tears were falling down into a puddle upon the asphalt Pretty one’s a crying in that Ho Jo parking lot It was the first time in my sixteen years that I heard Mr. Big played Not the one you’re thinking of it’s the lyrics of a pimp Coming out hard, we were living large  In the Howard Johnson parking lot Saturday night Feel your way into a blue lit room Where the smoke’s so thick from the cigarettes and the weed your brother bought you Katie got her braces off at 12 o’clock on Thursday If the evening goes as planned then we’ll be frenching in my car Too many coolers and she’s puking in the bushes Of the Howard Johnson parking lot Saturday night Feel your way into a blue lit room Where the smoke’s so thick from the cigarettes and the weed your brother bought you Hazy rings around the moon Forget the springtime cause the summers coming soon Everything feels just right You can feel it in the air tonight The pretty one is still weeping ‘neath that yellow glowing street lamp I really wish she’d knock it off but you know I won’t say so Probably go console her and try to take her home So we can make out in her driveway on Silver Spur Road

Before the Rise and Fall : Back to the wall my movement is so much quicker So glad that I’m not going alone No I can’t recall a colder winter Freeze you right down to the bone And I wish I could settle down There’s just no call for this behavior Before the rise and the fall Unconsciousness is the sweetest state in my union Blessed be her mighty queen And all the jesters who line up at her court Taking baths in the gasoline But I don’t think I will stick around We don’t pray to the same savior Before the rise and the fall Back to the corner after the knock down Standing eight count in my head The sound is muffled but I can here the call Before the rise and the fall