Lyrics

Welcome!

I picked a few choice cuts to feature the lyrics on. Check out the hyperlinks for a deeper insight into the songs. If there’s a song you’d like to see here, just let me know!

My Heart Will Stay (Leonora’s Song)

Oh look at my Leonora
Most beautiful girl in the world
When my soul goes to my maker
My heart will stay here with her

Heaven spins faster above her
Stars stoke their fires up bright
Just to get Leonora
To turn her gaze to the night

Mountains stop pushing upward
Hurricanes pause for a while
Just to watch Leonora
In case they might see her smile

I know every daddy probably feels the same
But that only means that there’s a flower for every drop of rain
My soul might go to my maker
But my heart will stay here with her

Rain falls down from the stormclouds
Wind flies over the land
Just to reach Leonora
In case they might brush her hand

Years turn the boulders to soil
Grass pushes out of the clay
Just in case Leonora’s
Feet might take her their way

I know every daddy probably feels the same
But that only means that there’s a flower for every drop of rain
My soul might go to my maker
But my heart will stay here with her
My heart will stay here
My heart will stay here with her

Genius (from the album Jewels & Tinware)

I wish I was a genius
I’d quote Kirkegaard
I would condescend to strangers
I’d know things that are hard
I want to get beside you
and find out where you are
I want to be a genius
I wouldn’t have to believe in
crazy things like you

I want to set fires
in literary circles
I want to burn like Jesus
I want to rule the world
I want to get in your pocket
and find out what you keep
I want to be a genius
I wouldn’t have to believe in
crazy things like you

You didn’t earn it so you don’t deserve it do you?
But you’re gonna take it cause fakin it’s not what you do
You see the sins of another lover come back to you
And the next one you take you’ll mistake for the last one you knew.
You’ll do it too.

I don’t mean to disappoint you
I did not mean to mean
You ain’t at all what you look like
You ain’t at all what you seem
I gotta get in your closet
and find out how you sleep
I want to be a genius
I wouldn’t have to believe in
crazy things like you

You didn’t earn it so you don’t deserve it do you?
But you’re gonna take it cause fakin it’s not what you do
You see the sins of another lover come back to you
And the next one you take you’ll mistake for the last one you knew.
You’ll do it too.

So I wish I was a genius
I wish I was a genius
I wouldn’t have to believe in
Wouldn’t have to believe in
Crazy little things like you

I’m a Pistol (from the album Jewels & Tinware)

I shot down old ugly hat on a street in Charlottesville
She watched me from the crowd and said I love the way you kill
Now you come home with me, you could use a little rest
I holstered my guitar and I fell asleep on her breast

But the tractor-trailers haunt me as I come around the turn
Man you hit the brakes so hard, you think by now I’d learn
I’m burning gasoline, but I don’t need to say goodbye
I’m a young man, I’m a pistol, and I’ll never die

They say I never had a chance to be a kid
They say I used to smile and then I never did
But I settled all that on the road to West Virginia
You can’t stay angry once Monongahela hits ya

Then a runaway from Staunton said don’t fix your mistakes
Let the cracks be cracks, the cracks are where the soul escapes
Then he poured me a melody so cracked it made me cry
I’m a young man, I’m a pistol, and I’ll never die

My uncle Alexander gave me his name
He gave me his pocketwatch, where he had it engraved
They found his body but they never could explain it
He took the secret of his death to his grave

But a hotel room is as good a place to go
as any railroad man or roaming picker ought to know
It’s a hell of a thing to wander and never wonder why
I’m a young man, I’m a pistol, and I’ll never die

Disorganized Religion (from the album Jewels & Tinware)

Red shift, blue shift how did you do this
Can’t believe how perfect this universe is
God Shanley, you got it right
Let’s go out into the starry night

Keep me strong, keep me safe
Keep me always in your grace
Keep me free, keep me whole
Thank you for my blessed soul
And my disorganized religion

1 to 1.618
Keep me up and wide away
And in my western spiral home
You will know I’m not alone

Keep me strong, keep me safe
Keep me always in your grace
Keep me free, keep me whole
Thank you for my blessed soul
And my disorganized religion

Cause I don’t need no convincing
I can feel you complete me
Oh Lord you always been with me
Now I’m gonna be with you

God I love ya, God I do
Thank you for the honest truth
Thank you for the sun today
As long as I’m 8 minutes away

Keep me strong, keep me safe
Keep me always in your grace
Keep me free, keep me whole
Thank you for my blessed soul
And my disorganized religion

Cause I don’t need no convincing
I can feel you complete me
Oh Lord you always been with me
Now I’m gonna be with you

Never Get Lonely (from the album Jewels & Tinware)

I’m broken right through the middle
and my two halves don’t wanna have nothing to do
with each other
mother, take me back into your arms
tell me again all about the stars
and how they’re so far apart from one another
but they never get lonely

I’ve been with too many women
who lit the fuse, lit the fuse, lit the fuse
and ran for cover
lover, I’m enamored with your grace
tell me an atom is mostly made of space
and the particles are so far apart from one another
but they never get lonely

Time and space, I never think about it
Your embrace, try not to think about it

I know we’re a bunch of young kids
looking for truth, looking for trouble
looking for giving
living under this blanket of the night
seems like the stars are holes
transmitting the light
we feel so far apart from our creator
love her, hate her or don’t even believe
that there may be some design to what you see
you see, we’re so far apart from one another
and sometimes we get lonely
sometimes we get lonely
we’re never alone but sometimes we get lonely

mother, take me back into your arms
tell me again all about the stars
and how they’re so far apart from one another
but they never get lonely, they never get lonely
sometimes they explode
but they never get lonely