Citywide Serenade 

Put me on a bus baby please put me right down to bed
I think that last Citywide finally got to my head
Think I've had enough of working think I'll just drink here instead
Baby please put me to bed

Well the barlights are dimming but I know they'll grow brighter again
As Wednesday approaches and Tuesday slurs down to its end
One more for the road became two more to stay in one place
And I thought you were smiling but I found that I can't feel my face

Put me on a bus baby please put me right down to bed 
I think that…

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The Songs I Never Sang For You 

I toss and turn I freeze and burn here in my bed
Sounds and noises whispered voices in my head
Of all the ways I could have stayed and made it new
But now they're gone the songs I never sang for you

The man he said you must be ready when it comes
Don't slow your hand or take for granted where it's from
From where you've been look out the window at the view
Where they belong the songs I never sang for you

You were dusty
You were drying
You were withering
Falling off the vine

I stayed inside and tried to hide the things… Read more

Country Highways 

I like to drive country highways
The you go your way I'll go my ways
See how time forgot our American byways
I like to drive country highways

32 to 23
5 and 20 headed east
Farmland closing in on Main St
Far as anybody's eyes can see

You can keep your toll roads
Your eight-lane wide got no soul roads
I'll take the quiet small town slow roads every time

Fading houses with cherry red doors
Christmas tree farms general stores
Open quarries and shuttered-down resorts
Churches built before the wars

You can keep your toll roads
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Eyelash Wishes 

It's a new year but with the same old times
Gonna write a new verse with the same old rhymes
Saying this time will be different I know my life can change
Still got the same old body still got the same old brain

Eyelash wishes that she blows off of her fingers
A prayer for grace or love or peace the world can bring her
A moment stolen dreaming all her favorite singers
Those eyelash wishes that she blows off of her fingers

We need to catch a break
We just can't live this way
Can't stay this uninspired
Can't carry all… Read more

Moon Over My Shoulder 

1:41 in the morning
Driving home from the show
I hope they all liked it
Sometimes I don't know
I just wanna reach somebody
Maybe brighten up their day
If my voice and my fingers
Can take on a little bit of that weight

I've got a piece of shit car that's all filled up with gear
I've got a girl wants to live anyplace else but here
I've got nine hundred dollars til the rent comes up due
I've got nowhere to land and nothing else I can do

But I've got the moon looking over my shoulder
I've got the roads all to myself
I've got… Read more

Guy Fawkes Day 

Remember remember the fifth of November
Sleeping in the other room
If ever if ever I knew where the end was
Our house might not seem like a tomb
Leaves are blowing out the window in the darkness
Lit up by last year's Christmas lights
You asked me if there was still room left in my heart then
Couldn't look you in the eye

Remember remember awful things I can't contend for
Hanging right over my head
If ever if ever I thought there was redress for
I could come back to our bed
Longing for some kind of deeper understanding
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Live It Down 

Chin up baby ain't no mountain too high we can't climb
Don't cry darling we can make some changes anytime
Dry your eyes sweetheart if we just keep believing we'll be fine

It's a hard time when your heart pines for another
Kinda life you always dreamed about the real one only wants to spin you round
It's a far cry from the warm side of your covers
Pull them up off of your head time to get on out of bed and live it down

I know you feel alone but you ain't alone not while I'm around
And I know it feels like years but… Read more

I'm Afraid Of My Heart 

I'm afraid of my heart
Want to give it to you
What if it don't last
What if it's ever untrue

I'm afraid of my heart
This traitor in my chest
That only wants to love you
Hope it never rests

I'm afraid of my heart
I'm afraid of my heart

I'm afraid of my heart
So many ways it can betray me
Give up on you or give up the ghost
Lead me astray or break or slay me

I'm afraid of my heart
I'm afraid of my heart

Wanna give you all my years
But how many have I got left inside
Say I'm too young for all these fears
But I don't know how my… Read more

She Says 

Breathing in the seasons changing
She says I worry about you sometimes
Purple silence echoes after her voice
Like the sunrise replaces the night
Maybe you can sing me to sleep
Maybe I could write a book about weightlessness
Maybe I could just get onto a bus and
Find a new place to start myself over again

She says are you all right
I'm fine I'm fine I'm fine
She says do you miss me tonight
I'm fine I'm fine I'm fine

Open window invitation
And it looks like the world's all stop motion animated
And she comes and goes and I
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Two Lanes 

I've been lost and I've been found 
I've been singing my songs in bars and I've been around
I've been away from you as long as I'd ever want to go
God willing and the gas holds out tonight I'm coming home

Second star to the right 
Two lanes of nothing
Straight on till morning

When you're leaving in the darkest hour of night
Every city looks the same the closing bars the lights the cars
Made another left on Main St cuz I thought I saw a sign
Left some miles back behind me got you on my mind

Second star to the right
Two… Read more

Train 

So I'm barely awake on a midnight train
Got a virus holding hostage in my head
Thinking for sure I'll be fine with a whiskey cure
Like the last time and the time before

Had a woman she was magnetic north to me
But I guess I got lost guess that makes sense
I was thinking about all the things I never say
She packed her bags and she went away

And I'm so tired of being apathetic
In the cool antiseptic of October nights
And I'm so tired of shrugging my shoulders
Pretending I'm older and everything's fine
And I look up and… Read more

Motionsick 

Better keep moving or I might fall down
Wish I didn't get so motion sick
I'd give up my kingdom for a break in this town
Nothing that I'm throwing out seems to stick
I've been sleeping like shit
I've been wasting my time
I've been trying to throw my pearls before swine
And I'm tired
I'm so tired

But tonight all I want is you

I've been drinking doesn't mean I've been thinking
Acting like I'm 19 feeling like I'm 41
I'm hiding out in the big city blinking
What was I thinking when I said we're done
My stitch is in time
But I… Read more

To Reason Why 

I don't remember what you told me late last night
But it seemed to still be weighing heavy on your mind
Letters to your parents letters to your friends
Letters like you'll never speak to them again

Ours is not to reason why
Ours is not to reason why
It's do or die

Far from home and feeling all alone
Feel the highway running underneath my bones
It took time to make my mind recall which state I'm in
Lost in West Virginia praying for the ways I've sinned

Ours is not to reason why
Ours is not to reason why
It's do or die

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Vapors 

And we saw in the new year 
And then we kept on drinking
Still had time to think
And time to keep on sinking
When the gin ran out 
We all took to the streets
All these discussions of sin and doubt
And regrets we're trying not to repeat

All the hours I'm wasting
Can't get them back 
Am I on the wrong track
Or did I let it distract me
The sounds you were making
The way she was shaking
Another year older
Deeper in debt
Later to bed
All of this living inside my head
Like I think I'm beholden
To the stories I've told you

And our… Read more

Twelve 

I've lost my time
Lost my frame of reference
Missed my sign
All the things I've never said
All the things I've never said

Inside out spinning with my head and my heels
Point in the wrong direction
Point in the wrong direction

Got too drunk last night
I'll make it up to you
Had thoughts of another life
I'll take it if you want me to
Til I find my way
I don't care anymore
So I'll see you when we're playing
Sing for you like a thousand times before

Inside out spinning with my head and my heels 
Point in the wrong direction
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Inventing the Game 

Windows open wide
Let the wind blow out the dust that's inside
Skin against skin
Breath follows breath
Under ambient light

And we'll play it out again
And we'll stay the same until it ends

And it's come on so badly that I can't remember my name
And you catch on so quickly it's like we invented the game
In the daylight we'll have to speak have to reconcile
Naked without shame and our clothes tossed off in a pile

And we'll play it out again
And we'll stay the same until it ends

You fight with your weakness
You love with… Read more

The Thing About This 

Let's not make a thing about this
Don't know where I will be next year
It's not like I think about it
Not like your voice is in my ears
Maybe it's better this way
I've been lost and I've been gone and you've been afraid
Except the lightning out the window in the sky
Underlines your eyes as they swim up into mine

And it's time
It's all about timing
It's time
And what's on your mind

Let's not make a thing about this
It's only the summer wind creeping in
Making our bones feel lighter
Dizzy on each other like the air is too… Read more

This Old Town 

Sunday night I heard the sound

Late night sirens all around

Wonder whose life come crashing down in this old town

 

Think I need some help to maintain

Cuz the cigarettes ain't enough for me these days

And everybody's gone away gone to stay in this old town

 

Blinded by the city lights

I need some darkness in my sky

Star light star bright wanna see you tonight in this old town

 

This hunger at the core of me

Is really starting to bore me

Tell me what can you do for me in this old town

 

Cuz it seems…

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Boundary Blurring 

I'm down and done
And the evening is just begun
Sick to death of the sun
Saps my will I
Run for the hills I'm
Numb on the pills so 
Dumb it just kills me

Oh tie me down
Oh twined around me
My boundary's blurring

Come on let's go
I'm tired of all this slow
Don't think you'll ever know
What I'm needing
Smoke that I'm finding
The hole that I'm bleeding from
Makes me so cold
Summer makes me feel old
Your fingers upend me
Sold down the river
Stoned like a sinner
So bold I feel you shiver
Alone I deliver

Oh tie me down
Oh twined around… Read more

My Father's Watch 

And so it was
You said I think this feels right
And I guess it does
Cuz it sure helps me sleep at night
And if in time
It helps your sleeping too
I think you'll find
That I don't much like sleeping 
Unless I'm sleeping with you

And it's sick How slow the days go by
And the tick
Of my father's watch as it shows me time
Hasn't stopped
And I think I've been robbed
Think I better call the cops
Cuz this aging deal
Give it up as a real bad job

And it's sad
How much I miss you
And I think it's too bad
That you're so far away
When I… Read more