Ashes
(peterson)this song came from a really familiar place and for some reason was one of the harder songs i've ever written... i think we all have our moments of doubt. i've found myself spending a lot of time supporting others in those moments. this is my take on the frustration... and hope that i try to maintain within that experience.
i heard you when you said
that you're impossible
when you said that's not all
you spent time seeking silence
to find your own way out
and i spent time waiting sideline
for you to break on down your doubt
and i heard you when you said
you couldn't get outside your head
and right then i learned that my say
had no space inside of it
and in time you'll burn away the heaviness
that holds you down
and when you finally break free
you'll cast the ashes all around
i heard you when you said you're suffocating here
your lungs too small too hold the air
four walls inching closer
with each breath you breathe in
how could you help recoil
further further further further further within
i heard you when you said
that your impossible
i chose to ignore you
when you said that's not all
Dear John
(cleaver)Somewhere between watching dolly parton on the grand ole opry live and seeing kenny chesney shake it in those tight jeans, I realized I wanted to find the honky tonk inside me and let it shine. This song is an ode to my tortured honky tonk inner child.
My minds been talking in circles
playing your voice inside my head
I need to hear that its over
then get the hell right out of my bed
Cause I am tired of waiting on you
to show up and make it all right all right all right
Chorus
No way no how will I let you let me down easy
Not now not ever will I settle for less than I needed
You let me think I’m hard to handle
to rough inside to love
Not open wide enough to let go of taking care of myself
but you lied you lied you lied each time I let you
let you creep inside
Chorus
They say you get what you give…say you get what you give
But you got to know what you want…you got to know what you want
I’m not sure what I want
So is this all that I get…Is this all that I get
Chorus
You looked perfect on paper, sized you up on an 8x10
Measured up alright later that night
But your words didn’t stop to
listen to what your heart had to say
Till it was too late, it was too it was too,
it was too goddamn late
No way no how will I let you let me down easy
Not now not ever will I settle for less than I needed
Not now not ever will I settle for less than I needed
Said and Done
(peterson)hard hard heartbreak.
how do i miss you so well
my heart’s as empty as a long lake michigan cold spell
didn’t i love you so well
we’d wake up singing like summertime
even when the snow fell
babe did i ask for too much
were you sitting at home waitin for phone
chorus
if there’s a place then there’s a way you could come back home
try to forgive all the rights that i made wrong
just settle in and remember when it was our simple love
when all we had was what we had and it was always enough
babe you were the one
it was said and done it was said and done
it was said and done
and the same way winter takes me by surprise, every time
you looked me in the eye
you said I tried
you said I tried
chorus
babe you left me high
I still close my eyes to the sight of you
laughin in the sunlight
Wont you just give me one more try
We can get by I think we’ll get by or I’ll die trying
chorus
Scars and Anchors
(cleaver)Like many songs on this record this song was birthed over a few months. This song breaches the space between feeling worn, disconnected, and emotionally empty to feeling like you can finally begin healing.
I’m feeling worn through
bones bare from the cold of old souls
touching earth and…knowing.
That growing old means feeling less and taking life lost
to learn to live sometimes….
Sometimes it all feels hard.
chorus
We all have scars and anchors and sandbars
Just below the surface
hidden from the shoreline
deeper than what you and I can see
Lies a steady place
to rest your bones
a constant in the sea of change
a place where only love prevails
Love prevails
This Letting go is growing old
I’ve been holding onto knowing hope will…die last
It’s the waiting here that seems unclear
long after your story has been told and retold…
It’s the sad songs that come out slow
chorus
All these feelings are lonely…and hard to deal with
All these feelings are making me…hard to deal with
Hard, hard, hard
chorus
solid side
(peterson)my first successful attempt at a real love song. inspired by a strong steady pull that stretched over long distances.
I can feel you reaching down to
The bottom of my silent side
I can feel you reaching
for parts of me so unrefined
chorus
I want to hand you everything
hands shaking, blood swelling
come here please take it, take it from me
lets be all the things we dreamed we dreamed we dreamed
Your love is and airplane in my chest
you love like a freight train racing west
you are the sunrise over a curvy skyline
and I will drive and drive and drive
until you are my night time
chorus
I can feel you soaking into
the center of my solid side
The Leaving
(cleaver)This was one of the hardest songs I have ever written and the most difficult to fully explain. I watched a dear friend pass on from cancer this year and while in the thick of her leaving I wrote this for her and her partner. This was an effort to express to them my love for them and to relate the helpless feelings that take over you in that process. Recording this song was a deeply spiritual process for us all and we hope you feel the presence of something that stretches our human experience in this song.
I’ve been skipping stones on the
shores of lake Michigan
Watching the tide roll in and out again
The light in the light house burned out while I was waiting for your ship to come in
The tic tic tic of the toc toc toc
The tic tic tic of the toc toc toc won’t stop
Chorus:
Its been a year of leaving and
I’ve started breathing for the both of us
Its been a year of leaving and
I’ve started breathing for the both of us
The tic tic tic of the toc won’t stop
I’ve been wondering around the back yard late at night
Laying on my back staring up at the sky
Clouds rolling by started raining before I could find you a silver lining.
The tick tic tic of the toc toc toc.
The tic tic tic of the toc toc toc won’t stop
Chorus
My hopes been riding in cars out on the highways
Overpasses, out on the byways.
Ended up on empty just short of
the light at the end of the tunnel.
The tic tic tic of the toc toc toc.
The tic tic tic of the toc toc toc won’t stop
What if your time felt like the right time
But what if our time feels like the wrong time
What if your time felt like the right time to leave
That if your time felt like the right time
But what if our time feels like the right time
What if timing is everything and nothing in the same
Pangea
(cleaver)Im California, you’re the fault line
You shake my insides
Baby baby
what if I fall off
Would you be the ocean
Wrap around me hold me steady, steady
Chorus
You make me feel like
I never screamed before
Never had feeling never let go
You make me get lost in moments
In feelings of being left wide open
We’re making mountains
Folding over, each other
Building up from the inside
Pulling closer, making rock out of sand
Falling through our hands
Chorus
Im California, you’re the fault line
You shake my insides
Baby baby, you
goodbyetomichigan
(peterson)its sad when best friends move away. this is one way i keep them close.
You packed up your car
You said goodbye to Michigan
The winters here are too damn long
you couldn’t keep warm anymore inside your songs
now its 4 am
By now we’d have 4 bottles down
But it would take three long days
To drive to your house
Chorus:
Im holding on to this family
With two tin cans and a kite string
But the most important thing
Is how the west is giving you everything you need
A year and a half later
You said goodbye to Michigan
Something bigger than you had called it
But now the spring has arrived
This is our time this is our time
Now it’s a good long plane ride
Chorus
No matter the distance I got your words when you forget
im right behind
And you will make my songs easier to finish
ease my mind
And we’ll continue to exchange our perspectives
in our own time
And we’ll grow into better people because of it
Where we are is where we should be
Its still three arms length times too many
smaller taller
(cleaver)It was exciting to finally record this in a studio after a year or so of playing it out at shows and developing it. We already had a great handle on it so we could just have fun singing it and I think that really came through in the recording. It was also great to have a bunch of friends come in at the end of a long day of recording and sing their hearts out at the end of the song. And then having girlyman on it was a true honor!
These thoughts only creep in before sleeping
hold me up till the break of day
leave me waiting wanting willing more distance
left hollowed out inside
chorus
I was smaller smaller smaller smaller so small
you were taller taller taller taller so tall
we were wider wider wider than a single sound
and one day we all fell down
Trust is an island and im a submarine a missle
aimed right at the core of denial
I pull the trigger but im rising sinking rising
can hold a steady hand
chorus
sometimes I think I hope I will let go of parts of you
but love makes habits out of part me and all of you
three months after still have trouble letting go and breathing
its funny how hearts can turn
no one told me this love could burn
and I got this feeling
cant shake this feeling
I was feeling
I was
chorus
Evolution Automate
(peterson)after 8 years of gw and a good n' healthy amount of npr, i was driven to write this song. for the longest time i've struggled with how to express my activism. i think that there are a thousand ways we all do it every day. in essence, that is what this song is about... we all have tools to make change in small and large ways, im constantly negotiating different ways to keep mine workin.
Sometimes I lay in my bed an hour after I wake up
Contemplate the irony of my idle nature
Because the voice in my head is a righteous silent actor
Who only shows his face when it’s safe
And I can only dare to speak the things I know I know
But if you dove inside my head
you’d swim the seeds I sew
Mostly I leave my life up to fate
Imitate majority waiting, hoping for change
Chorus
Is there a way to understand
the intent of what we’ve each been handed
And can we collectively see past our difference
And bring light to understanding
I could let the morning turn to day
Evolution automate
Lay silently challenging me to be the voice I long to be
And may I find it in between
Chorus
Bring light to understanding
Is there a way to understand the weight of what we have
Bring light to understanding
can we see past our difference to find some peace
To find peace
Bring light to understanding
find peace
‘64
(cleaver)This was inspired by my fathers (who is a Vietnam veteran) work volunteering to educate high school kids about conscientious objection. He is an amazing man that has inspired me to find ways to be proud of my country. We also had the amazing opportunity to debut this song while opening for utah phillips a few years ago which was an extremely powerful experience.
Its been a while now since I’ve felt my blood pumping
Felt the pavement hold my feet as I’m stomping
And I’m tracing my mind back to the first time
I thought, what am I fighting for?
I’m remembering late april 64
Fueled by a passion to go out and see the world
I joined up, shipped out, and found myself in the birth of a war
Too scared to ask what am I fighting for
Chorus:
This is a chance for greatness
a place to belong
This is a hope for salvation
right or wrong
I was once you and that time still lives in me
Taught my girls ways to be proud of their country
To stand up, speak out, and be counted…
lest they be forgotten
Chorus
My country tis of thee sweet land of liberty
To thee I sing let freedom ring let freedom ring
This is a chance for greatness a place to belong
This is a hope for salvation right or wrong
I know there must be so many
who love and fight for their country
Like my father, his father, my mother and her father too
They must have asked this question too.
lake erie, late summer
(peterson, cleaver, giang)this is the sound of good friends hanging out.