1. |
Free Little Bird (trad.)
01:48
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2. |
Angels
04:05
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I was born on the wide prairie
with it's wheat so wild and strong.
I left my home when I turned twenny-one
Still dunno if I was wrong.
'Cuz I know a girl down in southern Illinois
Who has me tangled up like kudzu vines
One good look at her shinin' smile,
You can tell she'll never be mine.
And to tell you the truth, I miss all the laughs
Of lovin' one another like sociopaths
So I'm waitin', I'm waitin', I'm waitin', I'm waitin',
For angels to carry me back home.
If I was a bird, I'd tear up my throat
Throwin' songs across telephone wires.
If I was a dog I'd rattle my chain,
Let my handlers decide how I live, how I die.
I'd howl at the wind, and piss on the grass
So they'd know who I was.
Ask me why I leave a dying trace,
It's either for fear or maybe because,
Well to tell you the truth, I can't go free:
I need the master's leash more than it needs me.
So I'm waitin', I'm waitin', I'm waitin', I'm waitin',
For angels to carry me back home.
And I think I've arrived maybe once every year
When I'm laughin' with friends before we leave.
I think that I love you, I know that we're dyin...
Why the fuck should that be what
we alternatingly believe?
What makes one feel holy makes another feel broke,
Like I'm mostly my hat, like I'm mostly my coat,
And that lovers will lie is one thing you can trust,
So what we ain't said might still save us.
I'll be ashes if you be dust.
And to tell you the truth, I think god's there still,
In a sweet lovin' westland over the hill.
So I'm waitin', I'm waitin', I'm waitin', I'm waitin',
For angels to carry me back home.
So I'm waitin', I'm waitin', I'm waitin', I'm waitin',
For angels to carry me back home.
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3. |
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Well after twenty-nine years, I can say
I never thought it'd turn out this way.
I stumble and I stutter, stutter and I cry
Ain't gonna figure out a reason why
The song hurts my throat, the banjo cuts my side
Hear the road cryin' out to the railroad ties
Road cryin' out to the railroad ties
That well love your light don't show
Down by the truckstop highway glow
Lord knows where I'll go
When the road cries out what the rocks don't know
Road cries out what the rocks don't know.
All my friends in Arkansas, all alone in Maine
Six-to-one, half-dozen's the same
Back-Bay sailin' or the Great Divide,
Mississippi deep, Rappahannok wide,
Angels wings on a Wal-Mart sign,
Angels wings on a Wal-Mart sign.
And well love your light don't show
Down by the truckstop highway glow
Lord knows where I'll go
When the road cries out what the rocks don't know
Road cries out what the rocks don't know.
Kansas City rib shack baby you're mine,
Gimmie the pig the cow and the swine,
My weight is my love, my shimmy, my shine,
Damn I found Jesus in a barbecue line,
Damn I found Jesus in a barbecue line,
And well love your light don't show
Down by the truckstop highway glow
Lord knows where I'll go
When the road cries out what the rocks don't know
Road cries out what the rocks don't know.
Well, I'd like to see the world in livin' color,
But one color's just the absence of the others.
To get the whole spectrum of horror and elation
Call good time numbers at a Conoco Station
Good time numbers at a Conoco Station.
And well love your light don't show
Down by the truckstop highway glow
Lord knows where I'll go
When the road cries out what the rocks don't know
Road cries out what the rocks don't know.
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4. |
Prospect
02:36
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Why should we start and fear to die?
What timorous worms we mortals are!
Death is the gate to endless joy,
And yet we fear to enter there.
The pains, the groans, the dying strife
Fright our approaching souls away,
And we shrink back again to life,
Fond of our prisons, fond of our clay.
Oh, if my lord would come and meet
My soul would stretch her wings in haste
Fly fearless through death's iron gate
Nor feel the terrors as she passed!
Oh, Jesus can make a dying bed
Feel soft as downy pillows are!
And on his breast I'll lay my head,
And breathe my life out sweetly there.
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5. |
Boy Howdy, Hot Dog!
03:18
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6. |
Kristin on the Side
04:41
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She's a pastor's daughter, nobody loves her.
She's two-hundred and fifty pounds,
And not one of 'ems muscle.
Nobody got her any braces like the others,
So she's still gaptoothed like my mother.
It was the summer of 2007
When I mistook a half-rolled joint
And her lips for heaven
I guess I'm not that into it, nothing to compare
It was easier to lie to myself when she was there
But I'm still seeing Kristin on the side
But I'm still seeing Kristin on the side
She's the only one who even knows what's on my mind
But I'm still seeing Kristin on the side
We'd go to church on Sunday
and write notes in our hymnals
In a red pen we'd draw up all our future tattoos
Then spike the coffee afterwards with stolen spirits
Say here's my body, here's my blood too.
And she never spoke in tongues,
but her tongue said what I would not
She never spoke her mind so her mind was lost on me
But I kissed her brother at her nineteenth birthday party
I never felt so alive or so free
But I'm still seeing Kristin on the side
But I'm still seeing Kristin on the side
She's the only one who gives damn what's on my mind
But I'm still seeing Kristin on the side
I could have the life wrenched out of me
But I can't jimmy anyone's heart
I could go back to the girl
that's known me from the start
I could crumpled fifty bucks inside my pocket, I could say goodbye
I could stroll to certain bars downtown with a cold look in my eye
But I'm still seeing Kristin on the side
But I'm still seeing Kristin on the side
She's the only one who gives a damn what's on my mind
But I'm still seeing Kristin on the side
She says boy, say why be lonely
When you could just come home with me?
I guess that she's more the adventurous kind.
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7. |
The Cuckoo (trad.)
02:31
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8. |
The Bear
02:52
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I'm trying to remember a simpler time and place
We'd let our knees bleed into our roller skates
The rockets and the rock-fights, the white bones of a squirrel
Three acres and two dogs and a hundred tiny worlds
You were sitting on my shoulders, we were travellin as a pack
Throwing hedge apples by the railroad tracks
When a bear came from the woods, he was lookin' for a feast
He was frightened away by a two-headed beast
If the truth's a moving target, I don't want to shoot to kill
And hang it's head up in a house I didn't build
They say that love will save you, and I'm glad that we're alive
If I'm lost in the woods, I hope it's you and I
I was station first in Kandahar, at least that's what I could say
We were set to be married on your 21st birthday
The rockets and the IEDs, the white bones of a man
Nothing much to do but think in a thousand miles of sand
We were married on a Tuesday, you were comforting to me
I never mentioned much about the IEDs,
But I'd lie in bed at night and I'd admit that I was scared
You'd hold me close and remind me of the bear.
If the truth's a moving target, well I hope that I don't miss
Goddamn god bless the percoset and every time we kissed
They say that love will save you, I don't think that I'll survive
I'm lost in the woods with a loaded forty-five.
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9. |
A Certain Kind of Fool
02:34
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Well you say you'll die for Dixie
Brother, I'll take you at your word
The only risk in stars and bars is getting flipped the bird
But they're throwing bricks through windows man! Let it all unfurl
It takes a certain kind of fool to make a difference in the world
So here's to every poet, every drunkard, every whore
For the girl who keeps a loaded gun in her underwear drawer
It ain't there because she's angry, it's there because she's bored
It takes a certain kind of girl to be a lover in this world.
At 2AM on Sunday she's got blood on her hands
Tryna make it better with a better looking man
She'll hate herself for Jesus but she wont love what I am
It takes a certain kind of man
A certain kind of man
So here's to every thought and prayer wasted on the poor
For the women and the children killed in long drone wars
When God comes in the whirlwind, it's not to settle any score
It takes a certain kind of god to make a ruin of the world
It takes a certain kind of god to make a ruin of the world
It takes a certain kind of god to make a ruin of the world
Sol you say you'll die for Dixie
Brother, I'll take you at your word
The only risk in stars and bars is getting flipped the bird
But we're throwing bricks through windows man! Fuck what you heard
It takes a certain kind of fool to make a difference in the world
It takes a certain kind of fool to make a difference in the world
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10. |
Blueprints for Heaven
03:29
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We plug in our outlets, we lock the backdoor
We're gonna do our own dishes, pile clothes on the floor
Our bank accounts are separate, our beds are the same
She'll take my affection, but she wont take my name
I make dinner for one, and that's mostly my plan
Coors Lite from the bottle, cheese from the can
She comes home from the barroom and the handsome young men
Her lovin' makes me love her again and again
But if you go to the backroom, you might be surprised
We're so happy together we got tears in our eyes
If there's a blueprint for heaven it's too dark to read
And that's why we're together if it ain't meant to be
A light for the darkness, a house that's burnin' down
If there's a blueprint for heaven we'll build it somehow
When the bonfire was over, there was ash in her hair
She was cryin' and lonesome and ashamed I was there
If you think it's all roses, buddy boy you don't know
There's a heart-shaped place where old loves used to go
And I'm all pecker and feet, she's all ticker and brain
She can sniff out my bullshit from ten miles away
We're carvin' our way, but the kitchen knife's dull
We drank the whole bottle of glasses half-full.
But if you go to the backroom, you might be surprised
We're so happy together we got tears in our eyes
If there's a blueprint for heaven it's too dark to read
And that's why we're together if it ain't meant to be
A light for the darkness, a house that's burnin' down
If there's a blueprint for heaven we'll build it somehow
Maybe God's not a builder, and we've wasted our time
What if God's just a gambler, and we're the small blind?
Then, don't call her my lady, this girl's my best friend
And we're savin' up for heaven
So we can pay to get in
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11. |
Warfare (trad.)
02:25
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12. |
30th Year
02:32
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In my 30th year of life
I took my heart to be my wife
And as I lie in bed at night
I have my heart for my delight
No one else can my heart estrange
My heart changes as I change
And it is bound and I am free
And with my death it dies with me
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Willi Carlisle Fayetteville, Arkansas
Folksinger/poet from the Midwest and upper South. Free Dirt Records.
Contact
Willi
willicarlislemusic@gmail.com for insults, commentary, phone numbers.
Contact jatamian@teamwass.com & TAlexander@teamwass.com for bookings/inquiries.
... more
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