1. |
I Know
04:44
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Everybody talking
Talking around in circles
Circles around a space that can't be filled
Everybody feel it
Feel it in the morning
A hunger and a hope that can't be stilled
Everyone is still looking for the dear ones that have already gone
Each of us alone has to choose to carry on
I know
Maybe you stay silent
No one knows your secrets
The anger keeps you safe, and it keeps you free
to move and to be weightless
nobody can touch you,
and every mask they wear is plain to see
Maybe without trust you just can better take the hits
the harder that they come
and promises mean nothing now no matter where they're from
I know
Everybody talking
Talking around in circles
Circles around a space that can't be filled
Everybody feel it
Feel it in the morning
A hunger and a hope that can't be stilled
Everyone is still looking for the dear ones that have already gone
Each of us alone has to choose to carry on
I know
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2. |
Tunnel Cloud
03:35
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Teleport me through the tunnel cloud
I appear where quiet thoughts are loud
Turning the key to the August sound
of crickets ringing round the silent mounds
Underneath the world I navigate the maze,
pulsing along lightless waterways
Cities born of thought, empty as a hole,
conjured by an echo in a begging bowl
Resonating purpose, flourishes of pain,
simultaneous collapse and arising
Creatures born of questions
to answers out of reach
Placeless destinations no teacher can teach
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3. |
Disappear
04:04
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Talk with me black July
beneath the humming night
Smooth silver stones still warm
Red embers rise
Disappear
Gun powder flowers bloom
Herons circle and cry
Dark waves that paint the edge
I follow you
Disappear
Oh the lies I have told myself
Oh the lies that I have told
Camouflage
Constellations will spin
Ashes will all go cold
Stories that leave my mouth
Walk like a ghost
Disappear
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4. |
I Come Dancing
03:58
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When you move, black cloud,
I come dancing
When you call you shake the ground
and I come
I've got open eyes
I see your lightning striking down
the strong and weak without design
You heed no prayer
I understand you are coming here
When you laugh, blind fire,
I come dancing
Here we go
You light the ancient pyre
and I come
I've got open arms
I feel your burning swallow whole
the cruel and kind
unswayed by charm,
unmoved by fear
I understand
When you die, warm embrace,
I come dancing
You leave me an empty space
I've got all I need
I know you well
I know you without words
When you move
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5. |
Disillusioned
04:25
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The stranger's face that I call my own,
upturned to the dappled sun
The moment before I laugh
Walking through a photograph
Stairs up to a burnt down house
Sentinels in kudzu crowns
Stories from the talking bones,
hear them underneath the corner stones
If it is realization that you want
you're better off disillusioned
you're better off with the pain
Come see me this early hour
through falling, rising, rattling wings
Stand up straight and have no pride
Hear her calling from outside
Into the infinite kaleidoscope
You thought you knew the nameless name
but the god of the great absurd
keeps making punchlines of your holy words
If it is realization that you want
you're better off disillusioned
you're better off with the pain
Your psychedelic travelogue
is all shit nobody needs to read
Your temple is an amusement park
All your saviors just jump the shark
I put a phone call out to all my psychic friends
Try to read my mind at the Waffle House
I'm getting high, I connect the dots
I still see only stripes and spots
If it is realization that you want
you're better off disillusioned
you're better off with the pain
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6. |
Who Are You Now
04:45
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When you were young and the world was bright
you clothed yourself in the river and it spoke to you at night
With your naked light and your weightless words
did you let your love fly with you as a thousand silver birds
over sleepy buildings, beyond fence and field,
and you did not know to conquer,
and you did not know to yield
to the wrath or dread of what comes with time
When you were young and nameless
and your heart was not a crime
Ah la la
Who are you now
Everybody knows that it ain't no use
to move against the river, that no one can refuse
the relentless force and the grinding down
to sand upon the shore
all our precious little crowns
You can call it right, call it true
You move with the mighty river
or the river swallows you
Make no mistake, everybody knows,
there is one way to the river,
only one way that it flows
Ah la la
Who are you now
Did you ever think you'd feel young and old
and you'd know that you were dreaming as the gentle thunder rolled
from a great distance through her silence vast
and that would be the name of your strange river at last
A child reeling in unbounded joy
An old man beholding the follies of a boy
Did you ever think she would hold you near,
you would fade sweetly from her story,
and the river would be here?
Ah la la
Who are you now
Who are you
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7. |
She Walks by the Lake
06:23
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I show you a picture
She walks by the lake
through a cloud of cottonwood as I come slow awake
I come slow awake
She turns through all dimensions,
time a carousel
You all know the story,
I don't even have to tell
I do not have to tell you
Loving a woman
too good for me
Beneath the rolling surface of mercurial light
she holds her breath a moment,
and rises to the night
She rises
Naked on the stone she watches the thunderhead
I'll show you a picture
but I won't tell you what she said
I will not tell you
Loving a woman
too good for me
Some love goes to church
Some love prays to power
Some love bows to nothing
except the final hour
Except maybe the final hour
I show you a picture
She walks by the lake
through a cloud of cottonwood as I come slow awake
I come slow awake
Loving a woman
too good for me
much too good for me
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8. |
Giants
05:10
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Oh love show to me your secret heart
I read the clouds,
it is a good day
I will be the knight of wind
and you the queen of stinging rain
Phantoms in the street, a ragged fox
This empty town is all our own
So far from home we have wandered
Now to turn the world inside out
Here is the wheel of time
the burning stars,
the churning sea
We are so small
Standing at the edge of radiance,
the jester moon
Laughing in bursts of light,
in barefeet,
I'm shivering and alive
I would go anywhere with you
Now to turn the world inside out
Oh love looking out
the lighthouse
The rising tide is freezing cold
Giants singing hymns in ancient tongues
You take my hand
Will I disappear when you awake?
Are you dreaming me?
We fall asleep in my silver van
Now to turn the world inside out
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9. |
Awful Good
03:45
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Old dog in the doorway
Maybe she'll die tomorrow
Maybe she'll die today
Maybe it's ok
Old dog in the doorway
Maybe she'll die tomorrow
Maybe she'll die today
Good dog anyway
Go lay down
Awful good
Old dog in the doorway
Maybe she will be quiet, maybe she will cry
when it's time to die
Old dog in the doorway
Maybe she will be quiet, maybe she will cry
No one will know why
Go lay down
Awful good
Old dog in the doorway
Maybe she will remember
Maybe she will forget
Maybe not just yet
Old dog in the doorway
Maybe she will remember
Maybe she will forget
Just a silhouette
Go lay down
Awful good
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10. |
Let Yourself Fall
05:30
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Will you come to meet me here,
or will I go alone
Autumn chimes, the time draws near
The sycamore to bone
Feel the chill, the dimming vault,
beneath the hunters' canopy
Will you hide your face in your hands,
or will you come to me?
Let yourself fall into my love
Outside of time
you broke the seal,
drove down to the shore
Took your hands off the wheel
You are not pretending
Spread your arms with the wind
to move along the stone
The blazing red of sailing leaves
no one will ever own
No one
Let yourself fall into my love
The rain stops
You shut your eyes
You don't know who you are
Just before you turn around
to walk back to your car
Seeing things that you barely remember
moving through the deep
There comes a night
when you can no longer rock yourself to sleep
Let yourself fall into my love
Fall into my love
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11. |
Tell Queeny
03:59
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Saturday morning, October sun
I hear you downstairs
The coffee is on
Call Queeny, let's go for a walk
Call Queeny and we can talk
We can talk
Saturday morning, October sun
You've gone for flowers and I am alone
The clock is kissing the morning goodbye
Soon we'll see Queeny to laugh
and to cry
To laugh and to cry
Saturday morning, October sun
and we will go soon as the house work is done
Take the old dog and coffee to share
Tell Queeny we're almost there
We're almost there
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12. |
Listen
04:45
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Well I tell you what
Can we get out of here?
I suppose I should, but I just don't seem to care
I've got a haunted look
I've got a weary stare
The hour glass is running out
on some damn fool's dare
A wasted heart, she says,
is just a shame
and I don't want hear you begging for a beat down
talking about the next hard round
of what looks like a losing game
Remember way back when I was a quiet man
working in a little box
for castles made of sand
Now they watch me bleed on cue
The real thing every single time
but how am I supposed to carry my love
with a pocket half full of nickels and dimes
A wasted heart, I know, I know,
is just a shame
But ain't it real romance to take a fleeting chance
to bring the grieving to dance
like children in the pouring rain
Maybe you folks don't know
but I don't sleep well
My head is a house full of shades
That's why I look like hell
Yeah, but I clean up real good
I put a feather in my black hat
I ain't made of smoke and mirrors
You ain't got time for that
You and I know a wasted heart
ain't nothing but a goddamn shame
It ain't why somebody smiled at your bright new eyes
and gave first breath to your ever loving name
I'm breaking my heart
for you
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Tenzin Chopak Ithaca, New York
“An unmistakably singular sound”
No Depression Magazine
Tenzin Chopak is a singer songwriter
from East TN, now based in Ithaca, NY. The roots of music in the American south resonate through his voice, emerging at once as hauntingly timeless and fully his own. His lyrics have been described as “incandescent”, “cinematic”, and “stunningly beautiful”, and are the beating heart of his music.
... more
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