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1. |
I'm Not Leaving
03:33
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You always skip before you run
I’m not why you came undone
Scratch the floors take the door off the hinges while you’re young
A little soup on your tongue
You got burnt more than some
And there’s a room that is empty when your time comes
It won’t help to keep it open
Not the slightest little crack
I am not leaving, I’m just not coming back
You’ve been taken for a ride
You were pain’s shotgun bride.
You might roll with the punches but you can’t let them slide
The heart goes bump in the night
Tends to bruise in the light
Brings the sky down to hold the roof on tight
It won’t help to keep it open
Not the slightest little crack
I am not leaving, I’m just not coming back
Go and give the guard a break
He’ll never get what I won’t take
I’m not leaving you I’m just not coming back
It’s time to give up this old ghost
I see you’re tired of playing host
I’m not leaving you I’m just not coming back
It won’t help to keep it open
Not the slightest little crack
I am not leaving, I’m just not coming back
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2. |
Desert
03:01
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The desert plays with a young girl’s heart
The things that are close seem so far apart
You swear you’d never pass that way again
So you keep standing there in the middle of the road
Telling and retelling every lie you’ve been told
‘Til you’re certain every chance has blown away.
She ain’t near here/ only fears dear/ you left her for
Your own relief/ hawking fake grief/ door to door
Know what it means to be carried, know how it feels to be hauled
Know what cold sweat sees when it meets the wall
Dust don’t settle in the loud light of the day
You’re a tough old lion, you’re a sweet old lamb
I see you’re falling apart just as fast as you can
The devil’d offer his hand but he can tell you know the way
It’s not the sheer fear/ the constant dark here/ that makes her smile
It’s when you’re nowhere/ life can seem fair/ for a while
Counting all of the times you weren’t around
You helped her pass right through this world without a sound
With her eyes on the ground
Charity rots in the garden with the bleeding hearts
Try all you want baby it won’t pass for art
When did you start to trade your pain for pay?
Pretty tired of talking to the back of your head
She makes so damn much of what little you said
Now there’s only one wolf that can keep your sleep at bay
You can go now/ you don’t owe now/ traded less for more
Dug herself out/ there’s no doubt/ she was never yours
Counting all of the words you never said
Laying odds she’ll live though she was born dead
Laying odds in your head
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3. |
Three O'Clock
03:40
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It’s a sunny night. Nothing works out right.
And anyway you wouldn’t know
How to spend the time. Hell, the waiting’s fine
You either stay or else you go
3 o’clock 3 o’clock where will you be when you get off
Might be coming round the block at 3 o’clock
I’m the one you think you hear when nobody is standing near
I’m the one who disappears at 3 o’clock
Little baby in her room, temperature rising
Temperature soon you’ll be higher than the moon at 3 o’clock.
You took the shot you had the fun, how would you like to see her run?
How would you like to make her gone at 3 o’clock?
You need my help this time Your life’s an awful crime
You need my help this time of night.
What can I say to you, nothing we ain’t been through
You need my help this time of night
It’s a lonely day, or a good copy anyway
That sits here numbly in the hall.
They come to read to you or at least you presume they do
But you’re not sure you’ll match them all
You say the words that tie you down, you peel the skin off of this old town
You might be stronger than you sound at 3 o’clock
Here to heaven’s a long hard way. It’s better left to another day
Start adding up the hell you pay at 3 o’clock
Was each of us a souvenir, a quiet victory you held dear?
Why suddenly weren’t we so clear at 3 o’clock?
The lucky ones have their houses robbed, come home to find the decks all swabbed
You still face the same old mob at 3 o’clock.
You need my help this time Your life’s an awful crime
You need my help this time of night.
What can I say to you, nothing we ain’t been through
You need my help this time of night
… The lucky ones have their houses robbed, come home to find the decks all swabbed
You still face the same old mob at 3 o’clock.
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4. |
Nothin' Doin'
03:56
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When the rocks go red it's the sunset
When the rocks go black it's the dawn
I would just like to ride with you
From now on … from now on
It took ages to get here
You swear you ran and you ran
Well, lie right down here beside me
We’ll bury our heads in the sand… heads in the sand
Tell the cars not to stop for the light
The man in the bar’s saying it's his last fight
We’ll never make it home alright
‘Cause nothing is the only thing worth doing tonight
Nothin's the only thing that's right
They come 'round lately to tell us
They come 'round lately to say
You can be new for a short time down here
But if you stay you pay… you pay to stay
It’s hard to party without you
Hard with the snow coming down
You were the belle of the ball
With your eight-inch gown… the queen in her crown
Tell the cars not to stop for the light
The man in the bar’s saying it's his last fight
We’ll never make it home alright
‘Cause nothing is the only thing worth doing tonight
Nothin's the only thing that's right
You were still standing when it was closing time
But the piece of art we called your heart
Like the flower of the lime
Froze before its prime
I'll admit that I'm lazy
I'd much rather sink than swim
I'd like to think you'd come back for me
If you could see the state I'm in… the state I've been in
This is a short time living
Next to a long time dead
Up against the coldness right along the tracks
Where we turned the world on its head… the world on its head
Tell the cars not to stop for the light
The man in the bar’s saying it's his last fight
We’ll never make it home alright
‘Cause nothing is the only thing worth doing tonight
Nothin's the only thing that's right
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5. |
Voice Like Mine
02:46
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Why didn't you come for me?
Why didn't you ever call?
There are things in life that are free
There are things you can't have at all
You coulda had some life,
A place up on the wall
Bled quick by the knife
Palest of them all
Summertime
The heat blows the streets know
A voice like mine
Should beat low should meet no
Resistance from the night
Would you have believed
The winner of the fight's
The one who's most deceived
The price for crime:
A window where dark grows
Concerned by rhyme
A light show, we danced toward
A backwards climb
The cocks crow, when you glow
As dull as diamonds
Kids in tow, how nouveau
Summertime
The heat blows the streets know
A voice like mine
Should beat low should meet no
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6. |
Branson
05:19
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Houston, much like Jackson
Strip malls on every lane
Scarsdale, a garage sale
Portland’s in rehab for rain
Crownsville, just an oil spill
Backups down to Cape May
Springfield, real high corn yield
Minot, triple rooms at Days Inn
I hear the pasty boys screaming ma-ma-ma
I hear the country bands playing Elvira
Take me to Branson
Not Glendale, a suburban hell
Angels choke on the flames
Reno, dark casinos
Steamboat springs knee pain again
Bad books on tape
through the Southern States
Attila the Hun
Stands on 21
If you really want to help me now
If you think we’ll work it out somehow
If for you life’s been undone
Take me to Branson ma-ma-ma
Branson Elvira
I hear the pasty boys screaming ma-ma-ma
I hear the country bands playing Elvira
Branson (Missouri)…la la la la la… REPEAT
(c) Meghan Hayes and Rich Hayes
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7. |
Four Tables and a Chair
03:08
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You and me with our submachines
You and me and our submarine
Racing our way to the bottom
Little lady with the microphone
Is saddled with a default loan
You smell failures 'fore you spot 'em
It's just four tables and a chair
Just four tables and a chair if you got 'em
Counting change the other day
When shuffling Lucy came to say,
"The baby's in deep water, can you hear him?"
I said you're welcome to all I got
Just keep that boy out of earshot
I'm scared to death to go near him
It's just four tables and a chair
Just four tables and a chair if you got 'em
I did not intend to try
But there were just four tables and
Winter nearly blew me out
But spring had a lot of clout
Burning its way through the shutters
As we wash slush and sweat away
I strain for what you say
You get more done when you mutter
It's just four tables and some stairs
It's just four tables and some stairs that are rotten
Bocce in the living room
Bean bags in the afternoon
Queen Jane, bring me a mirror
The smell of willows, ill-used broom
The slice of snow that iced our tomb
Made each and every one of us a dealer
There’s just four tables and the pair
Just four tables and the pair of us plotting
Candidly, I don't believe
We're wanted by the ones we grieve
But you can be so insistent
Go and break yourself in two
You'll see there's much more you can do
When solid ground is distant
There’s just four tables and the pair
Just four tables and the pair of us plotting
There's just four tables and the pair, just four tables and the pair, just four tables and the pair of us plotting
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8. |
Tin
03:42
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There’s a room of tin that she sits in
Where the smoke is fat and the lies are thin
She’s the youngest one she’s not old by far
She’s the brightest star with the deepest scar
One by one against the wall
It takes years to forget them all
And then years of hope the end will soon begin
There’s a field of snow where she had to go
When the ice blows through, then she thinks of you
With the headlights on at the crack of dawn
But your door was closed and she nearly froze
One by one they’re in the street
Trying to knock her off her feet
Lead her to the start and never let her go
The sky’s so high and the wall’s so tall
She can’t see her self at all
You’re so low that your love don’t show
Will you pay the fine to undraw the line?
There are men in here whom she’s learned to fear
When you dream out loud, seems to draw a crowd
She’s the saddest pearl that’s been fed to swine
Drink her up like wine, have her back by nine
One by one they’re on the loose
And she’s all but tied the noose
Would you break her fall?
Will you catch her if you can?
The sky’s so high and the wall’s so tall
She can’t see her self at all
You’re so low that your love don’t show
Will you pay the fine to undraw the line?
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9. |
Constantine
04:35
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The first day the bottle was green
The next day it was blue
The pot of gold across the creek
Hung round my neck like you
Buttercups melted in the air
The angles were all true
And when the boys said they were willin'
I was willin' to
You were not the best around
We were the least that we could do
But since you shot the pillow down
The bible's quoting you
Catherine built the wheel she rolled
Barbara had her eye on you
Do you bristle bright like Sebastian?
Does the bell toll just for you?
Constantine, constantly
Can't escape the ice
Can't you see
Turn him in and
Cash her out
Take your mark off me
Constantine
The willing boys take butter now
And cups of air from you
The melted angles of this hell
Test my will and yours too
The first green bottle held a lot
Pushed back the wind that blew
In stormy times I held the pot
In the creek while gold ran through
Constantine, constantly
Can't escape the ice
Can't you see
Turn him in
Cash her out and
Make your mark on me
Constantine
(c) Meghan Hayes and David McKittrick
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10. |
Simple
04:14
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The house falls behind
Kids are the kind
Who grow up the poles
Who plug up the holes
Crows in the trees
Scream at the breeze
The sky is untrue
Crooked, unglued
It's simple
The things that I do
You'd bar your door too
It's simple
I lean hard on you
And I buy shoes
Toes in the shag
The pale bully brags
When he takes your heart down
You can't make a sound
It's simple
The things that I do
You'd bar your door too
It's simple
I lean hard on you
And I buy shoes
There is the grass
And the bones that you pick
And the salt that you lick
From the muse
Little tiger, you're everything new
And I buy shoes
The fever, the fence
And eight presidents
A square on a quilt
The blond hairs tilt
It's simple… It's simple…
(c) Meghan Hayes and Shyam Telikicherla
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11. |
The Brighter They Come
03:39
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The first time that you met him you knew you’d never leave
You still don’t know what that boy had up his sleeve
There was a needle on the record and another in his arm
The brighter they come, the darker the harm
Too tired to be your brother, too good to be your sis
But not too cheap to criticize your kiss
There were other islands out there and you were drowning in the sand
He said “I’ll make it easy, baby, just keep playing out your hand.”
Where now
There’s nothing like the hunger at the edge of the abyss
There’s nothing like tallying the things here you’d miss
We had a way with weakness, we had a way with lies
But he offered me some comfort and it was just my size
When the blood goes quiet, if the tempers ever cease
Are you in love with the beauty that’s a strangling beast?
If you knew the day was over the minute that he rose
Would you soon become whichever one of you he chose?
Where now
I hear that party’s over or it’s headed out of town
We made a lot of noise but we didn’t make a sound
You wouldn’t recognize me if you passed me on the street
Where the quiet crush of love paves the ground beneath our feet
Call me up a doctor. Call me up a priest
Call up your old lovers have them over for the feast
If we haven’t fled by breakfast, we’ll all be drunk by noon
And if we say our prayers right will you bring him home soon?
Where now
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Meghan Hayes Nashville, Tennessee
Meghan Hayes is a singer-songwriter, Nurse Practitioner and landscape designer living in Nashville, TN. Her most recent record, Seen Enough Leavers, is a bruising post-divorce document of pain, anxiety and loss, that has been lauded as “one of the best Americana albums in recent history.” Hayes is currently interviewing producers for her next record. ... more
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