1. |
Water Run Through
04:04
|
|||
|
Newborn baby opens her eyelids in the nursery
Momma couldn’t decide on a name until day three
Dad was in the city
It was busy season at the job.
She went off to school, got turned around
As kids are prone to do.
Papers said “untapped potential,”
“Not good with rules.”
She said, “doesn’t anybody here
Wonder what happens outside these walls?”
She started singing:
“I am not distant
I am not aloof
I am not disconnected
No, I am part of you.
I’m not the exception
I am the rule
I won’t pass your inspection
But I’m newer than new
I’m the water run through.”
She said, “I think I have some paintings
I’d think I’d like the world to see,
But I don’t feel like sharing
every step of my odyssey.
I’d like to go somewhere
If I had the currency
That everyone else seems to
Every else does.”
“I pay these people compliments
And they just wonder the cost
But all their bitter ironies
Get lined up and bought.
I’ve been unalone, but unafraid
but unsupported for one too many days.
That’s why I’m singing…”
“I am not distant
I am not aloof
I am not disconnected
No, I am part of you.
I’m not the exception
I am the rule
I won’t pass your inspection
But I’m newer than new
I’m the water run through.”
Walking down Division as the woman who she would become
Hair had grown shorter, grown darker
Since she was on the run
I guess she’s still running
they’re all just so far behind now.
She said, “ain’t it funny,
All the things I was so ashamed about
Now are all the parts of me I wouldn’t live without”
When I see kids playing in the lawn
Now, I’ll sing my parents song
It goes like this,
“You’re doing it wrong.
You’re doing it wrong.
I was once young like you
I got dirt on me, too.
Just let the water run through.”
|
||||
2. |
Blackhawk Farms
04:07
|
|||
|
I’m not one for secrets
There’s a place you all should know
On the border of Wisconsin
Where daddy used to go
They’d roll the cars off trailers
And find some solid ground
And leave behind their failures
And put some rubber down
I’m talking about Blackhawk Farms
Where the sun hasn’t set
And the light hasn’t left you
Blackhawk Farms
Where the Michelins sing
And the phone doesn’t ring
Oh, Blackhawk farms
Where the road still turns and bends
But in ways we comprehend
How his heart was on the mend
Behind that wheel.
We’ve got them in the corners
They’ve got us on the straights
For every inch of engine
They’ve got miles of mistakes.
I’ve never paid attention
to the plots of mice and men
gonna take some more king’s horses
to make me whole again.
Blackhawk Farms
Where the sun hasn’t set
And the light hasn’t left you
Blackhawk Farms
With the tires on the rack
And the dogs out back
Oh, Blackhawk farms
Where the road still turns and bends
But in ways we comprehend
How his heart was on the mend
Behind that wheel.
I’ve got my limits
And I’m sure you’ve got some too.
It’s just, mine are at the office park
Not the trees off of turn two.
Sometimes it can feel like
They set this world to self-destruct
that’s why I’m coming back
To a world that I can trust.
|
||||
3. |
Serious Times
03:26
|
|||
|
I’ll be waking up in the backyard baby
Nothing they can say will convince me I’m crazy
I know what they say about pride.
But I’m not wrong, as I’ve been typing all night
one more quip will convince them I’m right
I should probably just go outside.
We live in serious times
Oh, so serious times.
These are serious times
Oh, so serious times.
Told your uncle that you’d like to live like him
the songs of the 60s, a grin on your chin
To have heroes, at least ‘till they fell.
He said “you take some, ya gotta take it all
The draft and the gunfire, the nuclear fall-out
I mean,
We were scared as hell.”
“We lived in serious times
Oh, so serious times.”
Now these are serious crimes
Committed across state lines.
I was walking past the flower shop,
there was a family setting up
The next time I walked past there,
they were being rounded up.
We know it’s wrong.
but we’re yelling at our phones
And filling wind with piss.
just been thinking big times
could be bigger than this.
We don’t belong.
We live in serious times
Oh, so serious times.
These are serious times
Oh, so serious times.
|
||||
4. |
Time Found Me
03:28
|
|||
|
Couldn’t find time to write one page
So I wrote ten.
Couldn’t find time to love myself
So I loved you instead.
Couldn’t find time to ease my mind
And know where I should be.
Oh, I couldn’t find time
But time found me.
Time found me with my walls and my cupboards bare
Time found me in a state of disrepair
Oh, we hurry
Oh, we worry
Oh, we work.
And when the last sand falls
And our maker calls
We get what we deserve.
Couldn’t find time to find my way
So I went theirs’.
Was killing some time in a stranger’s maze
Then it took years.
I walked in the room and felt it move
Oh, I heard the melody
It went: “I couldn’t find time
Oh, I couldn’t find time..”
But time found me as I worked out my 10-year-plan
Time found me with a wide world in my hands.
Oh, we hurry
Oh, we worry
Oh, we work.
then the final boss
Of love and loss
Surveys the cost
And we find out what it was worth.
It found me
Mmmmmmmmmm time found me
Like a lark, she flew
through clouds and centuries.
I hope we live so long, we can learn how to lose our minds
And after all
We’ve still got time.
|
||||
5. |
Number One
04:03
|
|||
|
He walked to the lighthouse to call his own name
Couldn’t hear a thing in the sideways rain
Waited ’till morning, when no echo came
That’s when he started humming.
“My love is not wrong.
My hope is not gone.
The bastards can’t take it from me.”
They say you cannot give when you’ve had enough
You cannot pour from that empty cup.
Look outside at the rising sun
Then take a hard look at number one.
So he’ll post the words from some book he don’t know
The one in his head says “this is all for show.”
We push it all down, when we’re falling below
we just want to have it made.
Or at least, to look that way.
But he’s got bags for eyes, got a hitch in his step
got a hole in his heart that his father left.
got a basement with boxes where dreams are kept
and plans are made.
he’s hearing them say:
You cannot give when you’ve had enough
You cannot pour from that empty cup.
Look outside at the rising sun
Then take a hard look at number one.
We’ve got blood in our veins, kept like secrets within
Some things we can do if we just don’t give in
A mark we can make if we stop waiting for when
The time is right
With a shake of the trees and a song in his chest
And that stubborn thing of “no, I won’t take less”
He knows to take care of him is to take care of them
But the time’s never right
“My love is not wrong.
My hope is not gone.
Those bastards can’t take it from me.”
They say you cannot give when you’ve had enough
You cannot pour from that empty cup.
Look outside at the rising sun
Then take a hard look at number one.
They say you cannot give when you’ve had enough
You cannot pour, not from that empty cup.
Look outside, they’re all singing, son
Then take a hard look at number one.
|
||||
6. |
||||
|
We better learn to love our children
Our long-hair, drifting sons.
We better learn to love those babies
‘Cause God himself was one.
Lately I’ve been worried
That you’ll try to be like me.
But if i could choose
I’d rather be like you
And while you’re still little
Can we meet in the middle?
Can we meet in the middle?
I met you on a winter morning
The sun kept beating down
I met you on a winter morning
The nurse kept coming ‘round
And since then i’ve been worried
That you’ll try to be like me.
But if i could choose
I’d rather be like you
And while you’re still little
Can we meet in the middle?
Can we meet in the middle?
My mother told me that even the sun does burn
My father just said “boy, you’re gonna learn.”
We better learn to love our children
Our long-hair, drifting sons.
We better learn to love those babies
‘Cause God himself was one.
|
||||
7. |
Damn Mess
03:06
|
|||
|
On my own, I went walking
On a street cold and mean
And just for a minute
It felt like you’d left the scene
My hands started shaking
My heart rate just grew
Oh, I would be a damn mess
if not for you
I mined gold in the mornings
Drank wine by the day
Wrote songs by the millions
While you were away
My misery broke me
Like it was meant to do
Oh, I would be a damn mess
If not for you
Don’t you know that my sanity
Is tied up in your hair
I’m not rough ‘round the edges
I’m rough everywhere.
And you don’t dull me down
No, you’ve made me your knife
And things won’t go to shit
With you as my wife
No sleeves, no pockets
No quarters, no dimes
No love, no sleeping
No reason, no rhyme
To not fall apart
what a hard thing to do
Oh, I would be damn mess
If not for you
They say you can’t prove a negative
But I know that’s not true
‘cause I would be a damn mess
If not for you
If not for you
If not for you
If not for you
|
||||
8. |
The Chosen Ones
03:18
|
|||
|
I’ve seen you walking lately
I’ve learned your name
I found a secret lever
Controls the rain.
I’ve got the algorithms
I’ve got degrees
I’ve got the power in me
To change the leaves.
The kingdom come,
That setting sun,
All thanks to us,
The chosen ones!
I’ve seen the latest data
I’ve seen the trends
We’ll never have to wonder
Just how it ends
My love’s a silver shadow,
A nice refrain
I’ll never touch that bubble
You’ll never change.
The kingdom come,
That setting sun,
All thanks to us,
The chosen ones!
We love you, baby, just the way you are
We’ve been searching for ways to rearrange the stars
They’re too far.
These eyes are up for auction
These tears are too
Come try the new concoction
to change your mood
If it won’t move the needle
Like yesterday
We’ve got the shoes you need to
just walk away.
The kingdom come,
That setting sun,
All thanks to us,
The chosen ones!
|
||||
9. |
U.R.Y.
03:15
|
|||
|
I’ve been right,
I’ve been wrong,
I’ve walked away,
I’ve played along.
The air is thick
But the world is wide
And you are the reason why.
In this dirty castle
The walls are closing in
Would save us a lot of hassle
If they’d hurry up the end.
I’ve been right,
I’ve been wrong,
I’ve walked away,
I’ve played along.
The air is thick
But the world is wide
And you are the reason why.
I’ve met a million people
And 5 or 6 met me
I’ve heard a million reasons
A dream didn’t come to be.
I’ve been right,
I’ve been wrong,
I’ve walked away,
I’ve played along.
The air is thick
But the world is wide
And you are the reason why.
And I know you,
And you know me.
To think we almost passed
Like ships at sea.
I was just a baby
When you walked through this mess
I’d seen the face of Hades
I came back unimpressed.
But I knew my love was coming!
I knew my love was true!
I heard her engine running!
It was telling us what to do!
I’ve been right,
I’ve been wrong,
I’ve walked away,
I’ve played along.
The air is thick
But the world is wide
And you are the reason why.
|
||||
10. |
A Crowded Place
06:05
|
|||
|
They taught me how to shave in the 55th Illinois
With my colonel’s blade and a rag off some dead boy
Never thought I’d see the day I’d live to see all this
This was a crowded place
‘Till you walked in.
With nothing left to burn, they said our job was done
So I went back to Chicago to try and be someone
The years went quick—just five or six—till that city burned down too
My heart looked like the rubble, but nothing looked like you.
So my hands got back to building what they had been tearing down
And my heart got back to yearning for what it had not yet found
I was lonesome in the ballrooms; I was lucky to have been
This was a crowded place
‘Till you walked in.
Then with grayer hair, at the world’s fair
I was tired, I was old
I went back for the last time
To have my fortune told
The white city was gleaming
Looked like heaven late at night
Full of man’s inventions
ferris wheels, electric lights
But I knew God made something better
When you put your hand in mine.
And Joplin started playing something
we still will sing sometimes.
Never thought I’d see the day I’d live to see all this
This was a crowded place
‘Till you walked in.
Wouldn’t you know, a few years ago, after millions had been through
As we were having dinner, the white city burned down too
You said that was for the best, to clear off this old land
Put the past beneath us and make it new again.
So when the preacher says we’ve made it
through harder times than this
We’ll just recall, that no not all
not all of us did
Their spirits all surround me;
their blade’s still on my chin
This was a crowded place
‘Till you walked in.
|
||||
11. |
Serious Times - Reprise
01:18
|
|||
12. |
||||
|
It seems to me
This balcony
Is placed right where it should be
I think
As you walk through some leaves
I look east, i look west
Down the streets I know best,
as you
Appear in the dream.
What a shame,
what a shame
We will leave this old place
Let’s leave a few things ‘fore we do
A few kids,
a few songs
A few more rights than wrongs
Our ashes
In that river green-blue.
When the world drinks us in
It laughs and grows dim
And says “child,
we’ve been waiting for you.”
|
||||
Derek Nelson Chicago
“Derek Nelson has been one of Chicago’s finest songwriters for about a decade now … [He] delivers a few lines of shocking honesty and vulnerability and continues to roll on so easily you have to go back and listen again to make sure you heard it right.” - Music Defined ... more
If you like Derek Nelson, you may also like:
The Edge of the Land
by Katie Spencer
Spencer's indie folk sophomore album was recorded live in the studio over the course of two days.
go to album
A Place Like Home
by Mr. Alec Bowman_Clarke
The new EP from Scottish songwriter Alec Bowman_Clarke goes deep, setting vulnerable lyrics to gentle melodies & stripped-back arrangements.
go to album
I Used To Be Sad & Then I Forgot
by Mr. Alec Bowman_Clarke
Alec Bowman perfectly captures the dark soil under the pastoral world of British folk with this collection of melancholy originals.
go to album
For She Who Hangs The Moon
by David Luximon
Expansive music that has the gentle hush of ambient and the insistent pulse of post-rock; enveloping and absorbing.
go to album
Michelle Stodart’s folk music captures hope in melancholy, addressing the transformational aspects of the most challenging times.
go to album
Stunningly beautiful songs wrought with pedal steel and nylon-string guitar that cast mesmerizing melodic shapes.
go to album
The Flowers That Bloom in Spring
by Kieran Kane & Rayna Gellert
Kieran Kane & Rayna Gellert offer up a stunning minimalist country record, conjuring huge emotions with little more than vocals & guitar.
go to album
