1. |
Guardian
03:41
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Guardian
Covering the windshield with a shirt
To shade the sleeping child reclined within
Red-tails circling over the driveway
Eyeing wyandottes and orpingtons
Those wings out of the corner of your eye
They’re no angels
You’re the only guardian here
Beside the ancient maples
Pale against the shade, some stubborn leaves
Waving with the wind chimes’
random phrases
Compost is condensing in its cage
Transfiguring the forms back into traces
[Chorus]
Nail it down...
Still, it goes
Neighbors congregating after the flood
To rate the momentary muddy lake
Culverts are compacted with plastic debris
The contours of the creek scoured
and reshaped
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2. |
Timaru Blues
03:19
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Timaru Blues:
The Timaru brickworks closed long ago
But the bricks still stand on High Street Row
The one-percenters are getting old
And the mongrels are moving in...
Girl in a Bargello sweater
Where the 17-year-olds come together
A bit of age makes the black clothes
look better
On either a man or men...
Hanging out at the Timaru track
Where the racers never crash
Where the fringe is hidden from view
The Timaru blues ain’t all that blue...
Grandmother never drank a drop
But Auntie Bettie drank quite a lot
And they both lived years before
they stopped
Knitting cozies for the hotties...
One-pot screamer in an attic band
New curtains and a new mic stand
Beetlejuice from a Milo can
Saturates the body...
[Chorus]
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3. |
400
04:24
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You’re still looking for some peace in
your time
For a blessing on your monumental crimes
On all the crooked in your paralyzing path
On all the loot you’ve so lazily amassed
There on the man living out of his car
Is the brand of your iron and your signature in scars
You’re looking for forgiveness for your massive moral debt
You’re the only one surprised that you haven’t found it yet
You won’t find it in your backyard
You won’t find it in your bed
You won’t find it in your bank account
You won’t find it in your head
You won’t find it anywhere...
There in the wary prostitute
Is the ruin of your seed and the imprint of your boot
You hunt for validation, permission to forget
You’re the only one surprised that you haven’t found it yet
You won’t find it in your mansion
You won’t find it on your jet
You won’t find it on your island
You won’t find it in your head
You won’t find it anywhere...
You know what is right...right?
[1st Chorus]
You know what is right...right?
You know...
©James M. Davidson
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4. |
Disco Years
04:08
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Disco Years:
I turned back on the static in the disco years
I didn’t shed no tears
I didn’t even think of you
The thought I’d been thinking it seemed a lot like fear
It ran fast and clear
Turned out to be right and true
Anyone who looked would see no
damage done
They wouldn’t look long enough to stare straight at the son
Standing up in this courtroom a gold coin in my hand
I’m on the witness stand
Trying to be where I am
Tried to find myself in the path of your friendliest side
Our two worlds collide
Was there an impact on you?
I didn’t know that a mirror ball would
have so much to hide
I would have thought you had tried
To show me a way through
[Chorus]
The court appointed counselor went back to school
Now I count my breaths and I stay away from fools
Judge’s bailiff Randelman’s a new friend of mine
He says I’m not that bright but he calls me on time
I sank every beer can with the crack of my gun
I didn’t know I should run
Seems kind of funny but it’s true
Every step that I take is a step that you
never done
Well I wish you’d begun
I wouldn’t think any less of you
[Chorus]
©Robert N. Brown
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5. |
New Shoes
04:26
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6. |
Crawl
04:40
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Crawl:
Black and white screen
The unbelievable beat
Still, shades of Coventry
Hang in the hollows
Up in the field
Knocking down the wingstem and the horse-nettle
And pushing through
To all that will follow
The silence in the downstairs hall
Awash in adrenaline
Coursing cortisol
Summer’s semi-numbered days
Slowing to a crawl
Staring out past
The dust on the old sliding glass
The August garden’s a mass
Of unharvested tangles
[Chorus]
We sail off the map
Sometimes…
Well, we don’t know the half of it
What we hold inside
What other life
©James M. Davidson
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7. |
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8. |
One Man's Trash
03:24
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One Man’s Trash:
One man’s trash
Is another man’s wet dream
Full of magazines of a certain nature
One fat sack made of polyethylene
Just outside the reach of the legislature
An avalanche of implements
Falls to the floor
Thermometers on calendars
Your rich reward...
One man’s career
Is another’s acre of hell
With whistles and with bells
But devoid of meaning
A long span of fear
Doing time by doing well
Just inside the cell
What’s the point of reading
In the lines, if you find
You’re not at home
You’re up the creek, major league
You’re not alone...
One man’s trash is another
man’s madonna
Who’s willing if you want to get to
heaven early
One fine friend with the full-on benefits
Full of vinegar and piss and a dose of dirty
Treasure hides, most of the time
It’s covered up
And there it goes, fully exposed
Is that enough?
On the passenger side we spot our quarry
As the drizzle shines the street to a
dazzling black
We make the haul in the spray of the streetlights’ fury
We’re laughing and running with one
man’s trash
©James M. Davidson
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9. |
Heard You Got Married
04:00
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Heard You Got Married:
I heard you got married
Well, I guess you’re off the market
I heard you got married
And you got registered at Target
I heard you got married
Now your house is full of junk
I heard you got married
And put the gown up in the trunk
I heard you got married
It was the next illogical step
I heard you got married
To some eccentric architect
I heard you got married
And now your hand is heavy with rings
I heard you got married
But I guess I’ve heard of stranger things
Whatever minutes are left on our side
We count ‘em down to that last one
Whatever sense you’ve got that the past is alive
Is all illusion and done
I heard you got married
Now you’re taxiing the kids
I heard you got married
You’re taking pills and playing bridge
I heard you got married
You’re getting up at 5 a.m.
I heard you got married
It’s just starting to sink in
[Chorus]
I heard you got married
Yeah, it’s a little bit of a shock
I heard you got married
After you told me you’d sworn off that proverbial knot
I heard you got married
And though I knew the day might come
That I heard you got married
It still makes me miss you some...
©James M. Davidson
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10. |
Sleeping It Off
03:08
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Sleeping it Off:
It’s in the blindness of the minders
In the graft of the guard
In the hoax of the hallowed
In the hate of the hard
It’s in the vanity of victors
The self-worship of the strong
It’s in the triumph of the traders
In the reign of the wrong
The rank royalty rolls on, rolls on
In the lap of lethargy
In the seat of sloth
In awe of the augury
In the claw of the cloth
In the mind of the mendicant
The novocaine of the norm
In thrall to the threadbare
In the sway of the swarm
The rank royalty rolls on, rolls on
Over you...
Fed up with the upscale
Sated with the stars
Awake to the takedown
Weary of the wars
Come up from the basement
Climb off of the couch
Put some cracks in the pavement
Get it out, get it out
The rank royalty goes down
By your hand...
Get out...
©James M. Davidson
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11. |
Winner's Circle
03:49
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Winner’s Circle
Living in a town of wild-oat farmers and believers
Every day is Halloween among the bottom-feeders
And the pace is slow
For the champions of aiming low
This almighty stock exchange might get
what it deserves
Worshiping the easy future, praising the absurd
In the smoky churches, in the butcher’s paradise
When you go home a mess
Like some roadhouse deluxe
If you’re still stuck in the nest
No wonder that you can’t remember ever growing up
In the shop there’s hangovers with dirty mugs in hand
Everyone is cracking lines, but no one makes you laugh
And behind the loading dock
The highest goal is 5 o’clock
Whiners on the softball field are on a bully mission
They showed up to demonstrate the downside
of competition
They’re one-up tough
And if you’re not good, you’re not good enough
When you go home at last
With your friends undefined
Putting pressure on the glass
You notice that the ruling revelers are never kind
Devil-may-care nights into cemented days
Charming aberrations out on prominent display
Attracting clones—
With crooked pheromones
All the downtown players dressed up for the
fancy funeral
Hit the barroom, hit the bottom
They’ll have the usual
In the winner’s circle, congratulations all around
When you go home at night
With that weakness in your breath
Under the cold bathroom light
You notice that your peerless peers are scaring you to death
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The Worthless Son-in-Laws Boone, North Carolina
“The songwriting...is through the roof here both melodically and lyrically, bolstered by a band that nails the songs with
pinpoint perfection.... The vocal delivery...is rock solid on what can only be deemed one of the most pleasantly surprising releases of the summer. This one rests near the very top of the ‘highly recommended’ list.”
—Bill Hurley, The Alternate Root
... more
The Worthless Son-in-Laws recommends:
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