1. |
Burden of Proof
03:15
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A rest top night under parking lot lights
Somewhere in Missouri
This truck-bed shell ain’t home but hell
Some nights it can be cozy
I came to at half-past two
To a diesel engine’s roar
It was hard to sleep in the humidity and heat
So I got up and drove some more
And where I’m coming from is a full tank of gas away
I always go ‘cuz I don’t know how to stay
More billboard signs tout god’s design
Dial 855-FOR-TRUTH
Little do they know they’ve got nothing to show
To lift the burden of proof
They turn bucket seats on the highway to pews
They gotta have people to tell what to do
Country radio all rhymes with bud light and chevrolet
The bible belt’s talking to itself all night on the FM waves
A land hypnotized by highway lines
There are crosses along the flats
They look to me like blades unsheathed
And stabbed into a back
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2. |
Anthropocene
03:24
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Where will I go
When I don’t want to be
With idle hands awaiting catastrophe
Here in the Anthropocene
How will we escape this hell we made
How will we escape this hell
Is it a park is it a plaza where do I need to be?
Is it a pipeline is it some refinery?
Well change ain’t coming down from above
I’ll no sooner hold office than a molotov
How will we escape this hell we made
How will we escape this hell
Pick your poison or pick your pride
Soon there’ll be nowhere left to hide
Well soil is cleaner than money
We need bees for more than their honey
How will we escape this hell this lunacy
How will we escape this hell
How will we escape this hell they paved
How will we escape this hell
etc
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3. |
Falling Water
03:18
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I don’t know myself
I don’t know my face
Never seen a stream so smooth it could show me
And it’s falling water they say
That has something to sing
And they say we’re mostly water
So la di da da da
maybe I’m falling
La di da da da
Could I be rain?
La di da da da
The center is calling
I’m heading to see the ocean again
I don’t know my way
I don’t know why I came
From this place Columbus Indiana
But it sure does feel strange
Coming from a place so named
After a killer and a misnomer
So la di da da da
maybe I’m falling
La di da da da
Could I be rain?
La di da da da
The center is calling
I’m heading to see the ocean again
Here we go more of the same
Caught in the grind, caught waiting for change
Day after day it’s all at stake
And I don’t know which way out
Every day is laced with doubt
I’m the latter if the former is found
So la di da da da
maybe I’m falling
La di da da da
Could I be rain?
La di da da da
The center is calling
I’m heading to see the ocean again
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4. |
Chain of Command
03:03
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Better you than me
Said the dog to the sheep
Keep your place in the pack
Or else my teeth at your back
If there’s a wolf in the night
It is me who will fight
You’re mine to have and to herd
I live and die by my master’s word
You will fall on your sword
You will do as you’re told
Just a pawn on your knee
Lemme hear you beg and plead
You will do as you’re told
You will work and get old
You will die in your time
You will pay your master mind
Every day my greatest bane
Is a chain of command
And it can be found around my neck bound and
Held by a human hand
(again)
Better you than me
Said the dog to the sheep
Keep your place in the pack
Or else my teeth at your back
If there’s a wolf in the night
It is me who will fight
You’re mine to have and to herd
I live and die by my master’s word
(again)
Every day my greatest bane
Is a chain of command
And it can be found around my neck bound and
Held by a human hand
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5. |
Throw Down
04:01
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6. |
Canary in a Mine
03:39
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I gotta go
When that whistle blows it’s me who sings
Deep and low
Like the bond of a wedding ring
My wrench turns
My body into
something stronger
Than it’s ever been
It’s hard it’s hard
But necessarily so
Of course it don’t feel too good to me
This wrench ain’t the same as a hand to hold
I’ve seen something darker than night
Just black and the occasional passing light
I’ve seen fear in miners eyes
As the canary of their coal mine
I feel the cage
I feel the weight
As the gas takes
Its necessary toll
I gotta go
There will be no more time to sing
Deep and low
Like the bond of a wedding ring
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7. |
New Gardens
03:17
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Being industrious seems a must
But not the way our grandfathers learned
a great new dust bowl is gathering its gust
when the ground clouds come where will we turn
Sue you will always be my pretty lady
even with work’s wrinkles round your eyes
but if the work we need take me away from ye
don’t you waste no water, don’t you cry
so when new gardens need growing
we all should be knowing
no one need be a hoeing alone
save the fences for the rabbits, if you need a tool you can have it
there’ll be room for everyone and we all need a home
but if we’re gonna eat us any pears or beans
we’d better keep that soil where it is
everybody know our plows have cut far and deep
But don’t yet reminisce of the things you’ll miss
When new gardens need growing
we all should be knowing
no one need be hoeing alone
save the fences for the rabbits
if you need a tool you can have it
there’ll be room for everyone and we all need a home
but if in the dust when the dipper loses its might in the night sky
just remember that it needs a human hand
if it’s to scrape anything from the pan anyways
cuz when new gardens need growing we all should be knowing
no one need be a hoeing alone
save the fences for the rabbits, if you need a tool you can have it
there’ll be room for everyone and we all need a home
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8. |
Picture from Spain
02:45
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I met her in a crowd
there she was
we caught each other looking ‘round
it was enough
we talked till late that night
I walked her home, debating gun rights
we put our differences aside
under the parking lights
two years soon passed
she sent a picture from spain
on a stone street a seedling
was growing in a storm drain
“a familiar plight,” I said
she left me on read
I had a thought but then it was lost
I dropped my dream in a stream
I had a whim and I saw it end
Yeah I had a smile for a while
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9. |
River and Stone
02:53
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Gotta know how to hold you
Gotta know how to let you go
River and stone,
River and stone
My love and I have parted ways
But there ain’t much for me to say
So goes the river unto its home
So grows the moss upon the stone
Gotta know how to hold you
Gotta know how to let you go
River and stone,
River and stone
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10. |
Welcome/Goodbye
02:09
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Hey there hello can I talk with you
Neighbor I don’t know what to do
Shit’s fucked up, even Elon Musk
Seems to think the growing storm is gonna be too much
I hate to say it so plain
but this truth is like a poison in my veins
and I need help to get it out
you’re an antidote no doubt as it’s slowly eating me away
I fear my fellow human is too trapped in this growing plan
and this is the last leg on which we stand
So welcome to this record
And goodbye to this world
may a new one soon unfurl
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