Brown Bird

(click here for The Devil Dancing lyrics)

Fingers To The Bone (lyrics by David Lamb)

I’ve worked my fingers to the bone
not a pretty little penny have I got to show
I ain’t looking for much
just a little bit of rest by the side of the road

I lift my voice to the forces above
the Lords of labor and the Goddess of love
ain’t I been a good, hard working
faithful servant and son

then the sky turns black
and it cracks with a thundering voice
work is what you are when you’re breathing in and out
til your final breath falls to the floor

so swing down that sledgehammer through the wood
a little test of mind over flesh oughtta do you good
get up off the ground
you can lay down when the day is done
and on the seventh day
you can lay in the morning sun

I want to make my home on a mountain high
just me and my lover and the big old sky
I ain’t asking for much
just a little bit of rest before the day that I die

I lift my voice to the forces above
the Lords of labor and the Goddess of love
ain’t i been a good, hard working
faithful servant and son

then the sky turns black
and it cracks with a thundering voice
work is what you are when you’re breathing in and out
til your final breath falls to the floor

so swing down that sledgehammer through the wood
a little test of mind over flesh oughtta do you good
get up off the ground
you can lay down when the day is done
and on the seventh day
you can lay in the morning sun

Chairkickers (lyrics by David Lamb)

We fight til we fall, us chairkickers all
we cling to these coils and curl in a ball

the harbor is teeming with commerce and crime
I own only what owns me
this place ain’t my home but i’m calling it mine

there are cracks in the minds
of our own humankind
that are leaking out poison and hope
which we choose to imbibe
is our own to decide
be it internal life or the ghost

blazes cane lady lively
a trail through tiny downtown
cane baton twirling wildly
mows the mundane all down

will the admiral answer
when Will and I call?
place your bets on the limits
of a beast’s appetite
and the loser buys all

there are cracks in the minds
of our own humankind
that are leaking out poison and hope
which we choose to imbibe
is our own to decide
be it internal life or the ghost

Bilgewater (lyrics by David Lamb)

It don’t matter if the cold wind blows
I’m gonna wind up working in the thick of it
sunshine through the rain and snow
there’s an oily brine bilge water baptism waiting below

that’s just the waves slamming against the topsides’ sound
don’t let the ever rolling motion go and get you down
don’t let it shake your steady thread cutting hand
keep stealing ribbons from the steel and giving hell
to every halyard you can

in spite of all the wherewithal
to fight it all I will face it all
in spite of all the wherewithal
to fight it all I’ll embrace it all

when everyday’s like a war between the will to go on
and a wish that the world would spiral into the sun
turn your head toward the storm that’s surely coming along

if the sun was always shining and our load always light
we’d be shaking like a leaf with every God given night
and we’d break under the weight of any pressure
that was ever applied

will you be ready when the straw boss calls?
he’s got an ever loving bone to pick with one and all
don’t let his condescension get you down
just have the strength to know you’re wrong
and when you’re right the strength to stand your ground

in spite of all the wherewithal
to fight it all I will face it all
in spite of all the wherewithal
to fight it all I’ll embrace it all

when everyday is like a war
you find no strength from your usual source
there’s no peace, there’s no rest
your fortitude is feeling put to the test
when everyday is like a war between the will to go on
and a wish that the world would spiral into the sun
turn your head toward the storm that’s surely coming along

if the sun was always shining and our load always light
we’d be shaking like a leaf with every God given night
and we’d break under the weight
of any pain that ever came in this life

End Of Days (lyrics by MorganEve Swain)

winter caps the rooftops
and shrouds the earth in silence
skadi howls and mourns
and revels in the whiteness

my world is so small
inside our cozy walls
so warm and so threatened by the end of days

the time will surely come
when all is blown undone
but I will still be with you my love
this deafening quiet
may grasp around my chest
but I will pry it’s bony fingers free

silver lines the windows
cobwebs in the corners
of the homes where once human minds did dwell

the earth is thrown asunder
the god’s deafening thunder
sweeps over and crumbles all we knew

the time will sure come
when all is blown undone
but I will still be with you my love
cold may come surround us
death’s hand try to bind us
but I will pry his bony fingers free

the time will surely come
when all is blown undone
but I will still be with you my love
this deafening quiet
may grasp around my chest
but I will pry it’s bony fingers free

Blood of Angels (lyrics by David Lamb)

I can’t make my mood match the weather
I can’t make the weather do what I want
so I’ve resigned myself to pry that big old sun out of the sky
and I will live my days in darkness til I die

I tried to be good I was a failure
so I took to taking all the good men down
it wasn’t hard to do
I just huffed and puffed and blew
until all the two-shoes scattered underground

you could be right
they might come for me at night
in angry mobs with torches bright outside my door
for all my spite
I might never win the fight
but I will rage against the light forever more

I drank the blood of angels from a bottle
just to see if I could call the lightning down
it hasn’t struck me yet
and I would wage my soul to bet
that there ain’t no one throwing lightning anyhow

Too many tries at tempting fate to call it over
and you get to thinking fate’s got different plans
like maybe i’m not born to die
but to bring darkness to the sky
and pull that goddamn sun down anyway I can

you could be right
they might come for me at night
in angry mobs with torches bright outside my door
for all my spite
I might never win the fight
but I will rage against the light forever more

and oh the hopelessly tender hearted
tend to sing the loudest of love
but my sweet temptations turn their songs into a lie
I fold the grass over all they’ve started
to never see the light of the sun
as they dwell in darkness so shall I

don’t try to come around here
spreading sentiments of cheer
you told your last white lie
everything is not alright
you hope, you pray
you love the light of day
but there’s no one up there listening tonight

you could be right
they might come for me at night
in angry mobs with torches bright outside my door
for all my spite
I might never win the fight
but I will rage against the light forever more

Ebb & Flow (lyrics by David Lamb)

all I’ve seen for forty nights
ebb and flow
ebb and follow
the waves’ reflection of our lights
ebb and flow
ebb and flow
how small I am in this wide world
ebb and flow
ebb and follow
how a mind can come unfurled
ebb and flow
ebb and flow

if I should die out here at sea
ebb and flow
ebb and follow
would anyone be mourning me?
ebb and flow
ebb and flow
or would I leave this world unknown?
ebb and flow
ebb and follow
salt for salt and bone for bone
ebb and flow
ebb and flow

Come My Way (lyrics by David Lamb)

this mask of laughter’s your true self’s disguise
if it fools your God then your God has no eyes
your costume can’t cover what your eyes expose
you’ve left all your wretchedness closed

the more you ignore the more pain that you feel
the air is thick with the thoughts you conceal
the whole world’s undressing in front of your eyes
as you add to your senseless disguise

come my way and hurry along
I’ll take you soaring with the angels and gods
leave your prison chains on the wall
you’ll live forever and you’ll never fall

first you writhe with the worries there under your skin
then you’re paralyzed by the silence within
though your nightmares may drown in your pools of denial
they seep out ‘tween your teeth with each smile

come my way and hurry along
I’ll take you soaring with the angels and gods
leave your prison chains on the wall
you’ll live forever and you’ll never fall

Thunder & Lightning (lyrics by David Lamb)

I heard the thunder and lightning
struck by your tower today
and though the world wasn’t frightened
you sent the whole world away
and now you cower there alone in your tower of tears
every step and every stone filled with millions of fears
your poison blood and brittle bones
start to clutter and crack
beneath your hell of a home

cut down by the cruel and the crass fold
catch hell from the mighty and high
ain’t nowhere left for the good to go
no truth in a world full of lies
our unforgiving fettered foes fumbling stumble around
gather all their greed to go back to their hole in the ground
to wash their hands of all the blood begged borrowed and stole
to keep a good man down

shake the hands of holy ghosts
dance along an ivory coast
share your flesh with passing shadows
on a bed of broken hopes
be sure to breath in deeply every bit of sin
that your lungs can hold
welcome all your bastard actions back home

why do we cry cry our eyes out
in them low lowly graves
mourning all the times
we would’ve could’ve should’ve had our way
we were hard hearted heathens
to their soul saving saints
spilling blood in the same God’s holy name
we were the heathens to their saints
spilling blood in the same God’s holy name

shake the hands of holy ghosts
dance along an ivory coast
share your flesh with passing shadows
on a bed of broken hopes
be sure to breath in deeply every bit of sin
that your lungs can hold
welcome all your bastard actions back home

Nothing Left (lyrics by David Lamb)

there’s nothing left of this day
there’s nothing left of this town
our time has ceased with such sorrow
there’s no one left here to mourn
there’s nothing left of this day

outside there cry wolves in the night
dark with their howls all around
we’ll just lie here clothed in our sheepskin
trying to pretend there’s no harm

it’s a cold twist confined
to the courage of a catalytic heart and mind
over God’s cry and goat’s god’s goodbye
and I am bloodying the garment
of a ghost inside
making damn sure the body doesn’t die

Cast No Shadow (lyrics by David Lamb)

I woke up
despite my head
to see the trail I blazed last night with the words I said
still she laid there in the charred and smoking wake of fears I fed

then she got up
to look around
muttered words I’d never heard a human sound
then from her hair grew forty serpents
from her eyes a fiery shroud
from her mouth came forty voices and I heard them cry aloud…

I tried my best
to calm her down
there wasn’t any of her left but evil now
I cast a spell, a stone, a tranquilizing needle and a prayer
she grabbed me by the bones and shook my flesh and said I swear

the sun won’t cast no shadow anymore
the willows never weep
and the wind will never moan

now she is gone
I don’t know how
not even sure just where it is I am right now
there’s only darkness and the absence of any air that I can breath
I could’ve sworn that I was warned but how could anyone believe

the sun won’t cast no shadow anymore
the willows never weep
and the wind will never moan