1. |
Blue Mountain Haze
04:35
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Verse
The sun’s coming up over the ridge.
Blue Mountain haze burning thin.
There's a tragedy on the horizon.
And that's how it's always been.
You sat there watching the dust,
Just cover your town.
Now nothing shines and the walls are peeling thin.
A union sticker fades upon an empty tin.
Gone the black streaks under your eyes,
Still a scar across your chin.
Your father left each night for the winding hills,
Sports radio hummin’ beneath the road.
The owl shift turns the night,
Into someone else's gold.
Burned for steel at the end of a rail,
In some town you’ll never know.
Chorus
Scraping the long wall,
No sun upon your back.
Kerosene life lost in a sea of black.
You can push hard,
When you're bound to protect.
When everything’s gone you let it all to heck.
Verse
The campaign signs have you looking for ghosts.
In four more years they’ll come ‘round again.
Knockin’ on plywood doors in a town on government checks.
Lining the sides of the highway,
With letters and lies in the ditch.
Ghost and myth hang all around us.
We lean to faith in the days we limp.
A preacher knows to speak,
To the empty eye in the room.
A desperate heart will fall for you,
Don't matter if you're true.
Chorus
The writing was on the long wall,
Before the company’s letterhead.
A midnight drive and then you never went back.
There ain’t no God, no love, no president,
To give you any more but heartbreak,
To the still of your town’s breath.
Verse
The sun’s going down over the ridge.
Blue Mountain haze closing in.
There’s a tragedy on the horizon,
Comin’ round again.
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2. |
Barstow to Reno
05:33
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It’s been two years running,
Counting my change.
Marking up the classifieds,
And typing my name.
The walls are plain here,
Each room the same.
But the water runs warm,
And the nights are safe.
I’m paying them late each week,
They cut me a break.
But they gotta draw the line,
There’s a living to make.
And I’m about 70 shy,
Of waking in the truck.
I’m digging around Reno,
For an honest buck.
I held my pride once,
My wife held a job.
Now we’re just sifting,
Through the desert rocks.
Now we’re just searching,
Two desert hawks.
In these brown hills,
The sun’s ablaze.
There’s nothing much going,
Hasn’t been for days.
There’s nothing much growing,
Just a handful of snakes.
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3. |
Friday Night
05:00
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Lights are glowin’ on Friday night,
And the town is out to do as they’ve done.
Cheerin’ on the stars chasin’ for glory,
Until the lights go out and there’s nowhere to run.
In all the moments only lookin’ so far.
Could you have run in a different direction?
Where the lights are dim, but they burn all night.
In the city where the dreams are unbound.
Where the work is clean,
And the strangers walk by.
And the rules they don’t hold you,
To the roads you’re used to drivin’
And the cops don’t know you,
No one knows all your crimes,
And the heart that you’ve mended,
Won’t fall back in line.
Paycheck comes and it’s Friday night,
And the tavern’s fillin’ up after the game.
The drinks are steady, as steady as deep.
And the classic rock ain’t stoppin’ till the hour hand hits Three.
No one dances, but they’re tappin’ their feet,
So we all have our own way to run.
People tryin’ to make sense of defeat,
Isn’t that everyone’s story in any town?
Where the work ain’t clean,
Not a stranger walks by.
Where the past it might own you,
But it’s somewhere to hide.
Where the sheriff knows you,
And he gives you a ride.
In the snowfall when you’re crawlin’,
And crossin’ all the lines.
The drive is quiet at night once everyone’s gone home,
The headlights come across nothing much.
Both hands know this road.
The drive is quiet at night once everyone’s gone home,
The lights have gone silent,
All just silence.
Where the work ain’t clean,
Not a stranger walks by.
And the past it might own you but it’s somethin’ to ride.
And the sheriff knows you,
And he knows all your crimes
But he knows that you’ve been workin’ hard,
In even harder times.
Where the work ain’t clean,
Not a stranger walks by.
And the past it might hold you,
But it’s somewhere to hide.
And the sheriff knows you,
And he gives you a ride.
In the slow fall when you’re crawling,
And crossing all the lines.
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4. |
Molasses River
04:23
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I get back to the county roads,
Where I once dreamed,
Where I might go.
When the sun drops, and the fire touches low,
The clouds are embers puttin’ on a show.
The air is thick, the river is slow.
Nothing for a postcard but it’s what I know.
I get back to a harvest moon,
Roll down my sleeves,
Summer is through.
Fold my arms so tight,
Cold broke on through.
The fields are empty, my worries few.
Gun metal blue, the air like steel.
Leaves are fallin’, Fall beneath my heel.
The air is thin.
Molasses River.
I remember walkin’ next to you.
I get back to a land I knew.
Made you a stranger,
Pushed to the rear view.
Last time you saw my back,
Now I’m passin’ through.
Move like the seasons,
Comin’ back to you.
Gun metal blue, the air like steel.
Leaves are fallin’, Fall beneath my heel.
The air is thin.
Molasses River.
I remember walkin’ next to you.
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5. |
Southbound 319
04:16
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It’s white across the flatland,
And the hedge rows are naked.
Rhythm of a steel track,
Southbound 319.
Christmas Eve on a Friday,
December’s on the run.
This land graced by churches,
But I ain’t graced a one.
Back to see my brothers,
Back to stir my blood.
I start feelin’ that itch in my boot,
Well, I guess that’s why I’m gone.
I didn’t mean to forget,
How it all felt as a boy.
But this could be a Dakota,
If it wasn’t Illinois.
All those old traditions,
They got buried in the snow.
I stop myself in a mirror,
From trying to wear my old clothes.
If sentiment is a road map,
Some might say that I’m lost.
If I shed a tear that don’t surprise me,
Well that’s a tear that I don’t want.
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6. |
Journey On
04:22
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The plow just falls in the middle of the day,
And the earth you were moving,
Goes under shade.
Alive in the wind on the rhythm of the rain,
When the creek is rising,
On the earth now green.
I bet you were a fighter,
I remember your strength.
Now you’ve earned your peace,
And you gave what you gave.
I bet you were a fighter,
I remember your strength.
Did it ease your pain?
Journey on,
If it’s just your name.
To the place of your dawn,
Oh the prairie’s grace.
Journey on,
If it’s just your name.
To the place of your dawn,
Oh the prairie’s grace.
The plow just falls in the middle of the day,
And the dust you were movin’
Holds for the grain.
Alive in the wind on the rhythm of the vane,
When the storm is rising,
And the clouds burn green.
I bet you were a fighter,
I remember your strength,
Now you’ve earned your peace.
And you gave what you gave.
I bet you were a fighter,
I remember your strength.
Did it ease your pain?
Journey on,
If it’s just your name.
To the place of your dawn,
Oh the prairie’s grace.
Journey on,
If it’s just your name.
To the place of your dawn,
Oh the prairie’s grace.
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Brian Granse Portland, Oregon
Brian Granse is a singer and songwriter in Portland, Oregon. He released his first EP,” 0.5,” in 2001, and then Earthrise (2004) and American Nobody (2006). After touring and piecing together construction jobs, Granse performed full-time from 2007- 2010. Granse now teaches beat production, audio engineering, and Social Studies at an alternative high school, producing Hip-Hop with Portland youth. ... more
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