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Age and Wonder

by The Waxwings

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engeight
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engeight I Never expected to be hooked to bluegrass until I listened to this gem because I liked the Cover. Kudos, The Waxwings. Favorite track: The 5,000 Flames of John Shaw's Hell.
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1.
Left my home one winter's day, some business in the town Walking back I lost my way as the sun was going down As darkness fell I scanned the sky No stars did shine, no moon to light my way No compass and no map had I Just the blood out on the streets and the doubts inside my mind I wonder if I'll ever make it home tonight Foreign tongues and hungry eyes on every stranger's face Dangerous and compromised by the hard edge of this place Maybe they were once like me Lost along the road to somewhere else I won't surrender quietly: I might be stranded here forever with no hope of getting out I wonder if I'll ever make it home tonight Crickets stop when I pass by, the night birds mock my plight I cannot stop, I will not lie, though no trail ahead seems right All I have are your last words to me to keep my footsteps light Your last words to me... I wonder if I'll ever make it home tonight
2.
Flight 202 03:47
Early in the morning I think I feel your hold But the bed there's empty and your side is cold It's only Saturday, but I miss you my dear You're flying high, and I've disappeared I can see you across the eastern sky so blue Takin' him out in sunshine to play But there's no one here you see Just these ghosts a-tellin' me That I am the fool who sent you away Call in the doctor, call in the nurse Am I getting better or just getting worse? I've been on a blind date since I met you my dear You're doin' the two-step, I'm on the wall over here ... Late in the evening I want to hear your call But the sun keeps on setting, there's no call at all For years I've been thinkin' I was riding your train But I've just been standing watching you pull away ...
3.
I walked through Northwest in the morning The sky, blinding cold and so blue I hadn't thought twice, I didn't sleep in the night And I, so much younger than you We were two lovers crossed by recklessness and inhibition No innocence lost, but how could I know? An abstract collage of impulsiveness and intuition: Oasis or mirage, how could I know? I waited at home over New Year's For the echo of you to fade out But the records you played on that December day Filled me up and left no room for doubt And from that moment on, my priorities and my ambitions Have always been drawn in the ink of our love I never put it past the authority of my convictions I never had to ask: Which way towards home? They said you'd break my heart And maybe you did once or twice But love's a sharp knife, the proof of my life Happiness bought at such a small price The party came to an end: my recklessness, your hesitation I said it depends on where you want to go We were headed straight in to a flood of heavy implications But we'd only just begun, we had so far to go
4.
They call me coolie number 139 My name’s been erased and a number assigned On a ship bound for Cuba, out of old Macau To work the plantations of sugar and tobacco The coolie master’s paid five dollars a head To deliver us alive but gets nothing for the dead A more cold hearted man I swear I never saw This coolie master’s name was John O. Shaw Number 326 was a hard fightin' man In the Opium Wars he defended Foshan But he took up the habit just after the war And that’s how they lured him away from the shore When five weeks at sea the supply it ran out He screamed and he wretched and he twisted about He jumped overboard on the 47th day That was five dollars less for John Shaw’s pay Number 7 worked the fields a harvesting rice A quiet sort of man I heard him speak only twice Once of the fortune they promised he would find And once of the girl that he left behind He’d send back for her just as soon as he got free But the slow fever took him he was buried at sea A black haired girl’s waiting in a yellow silk dress And old John Shaw get’s five dollars less 220 was a fisherman from the Pearl River’s shore Like his brother on the Kate Hooper four years before He conspired with 6 others to blow up the ship So they put him in Irons for the rest of the trip Refusing to eat, the master tried in vain To feed him full of cungy but he died there in chains Never to return to his Shenzhen Port And old John Shaw’s another five dollars short Sailing from February on into May And a month of quarantine in the Havana bay The doctor is drunk and the food’s all gone bad We’re sick & we’re dying & we’re stark-raving mad From consumption and dropsy and opium withdrawal The number of dead was one hundred in all Never more to see another red sunset And that’s five hundred dollars John Shaw won’t get This is but one of a thousand more tales Of deception, abduction and death under sail Robbed of our home and deprived of our will By unscrupulous brokers with quotas to fill The dead among us envied by those who stay alive For the darkest fate awaits you after you arrive The misery of slavery no tongue can ever tell But there’s five thousand flames in John Shaw’s Hell
5.
Walker Cory was a heated boss Couldn't bear the Stumptown rains Nary spoke a pleasant word The dampness filled his veins He had no love for the jacks who toiled Beneath his stony glare Would not abide the man who bled He'd shoot you on a dare So I packed it in for Illinois Been away too long Shout so long to old Bull Run And tell the chief I'm gone Friday night in a Sandy bar When all the boys were high The foreman's blood was runnin' hot And no one asked him why Cory bellowed set me up The last call come and gone The barman Lyle cut him off He'd never see the dawn ... He flew into a fit of rage And swung his fists around So me and Mickey banged him good His forehead struck the ground The barroom filled with silence All the drunkards fled the place And only Cory's lifeless body Filled the empty space ... I guess I'm bound for Naperville My hometown family fold To fit my face with a joyful grin My loved ones can behold
6.
Blind Train 05:22
Boy hit by train in Maryland Walking home along the tracks one November afternoon Walkman playing a tape, his new Rites of Spring LP Sunset at his back, he was starin' straight ahead Couldn't he feel the earth tremblin' at his feet? Didn't he see the long shadow loomin'? Blind Train, Blind Train Blind Train come to take him away Oh, did you know him? Did you see him that day? Before the Blind Train come to take him away? The next day at school the police were asking questions About a possible suicide, but his friends all said no way Word was getting around, pretty soon everybody knew His presence never stronger, now that he was gone And all our pent up teenage grief for innocence lost and the assault on our souls Found focus for one cold moment in the death of one of our own ... The sun was going down The evening commute had begun Trains headed out of the District out toward Baltimore We walked the tracks for hours Til we came to the spot A dozen or so punks were already there Someone had a boombox Someone lit a fire We stood there sayin' nothing by an old tumbled down brick wall And every time a train passed by we hurled those bricks as hard as we could Shattered the windows and dented the sides, made the passengers jump back After three or four trains like that, the cops showed up, everybody ran Scattered into the night, it was over Blind Train, Blind Train Blind Train come to take us away Oh, did you know us? Did you see us that day? When the Blind Train come and took him away
7.
8.
Dust to Dust 03:35
Workin' the land—Worn out boots and blistered hands Out in the field—Our labor turns to something real Deep in the corn—All wet with dew before the sunrise I disappear between the leaves the earth and the sky Driving a load—country songs on country roads Summer evening sky—thunderclouds and fireflies Sometimes I see—That work is love and love is work now If only everyone could be so lucky We live but a moment between the dust and dust We sow our seeds and hope against the worst Call it a day—Call it a life already Fading away—One step forward, two steps back Can’t stay afloat—with so many tryin' to pull you under now You owe your life to the ones who bite the hand that feeds We live but a moment between the dust and dust We sow our seeds and hope against the worst
9.
Across the universe he flies Master of his own disguise Looking for that one true love Hanging at the shopping mall's Like swallowing a cannonball Of popcorn and angel dust Diamonds, you're mining for Bring dynamite and trucks of gold Of all the stupid acts to pose Everyone there got a bloody nose I wish I had hit you first Across the stars and meteor dust Your Hercules there, he's turned to rust All your great heralds fall Diamonds, you're mining for Bring dynamite and trucks of gold Through the ancient mariner times You were my best friend Now there's a sea of monsters between us Shaking their ugly, deceitful, jealous head Because diamonds they do sparkle And glitter bright with age and wonder But you and I, lost that luster You and I, we've lost that wonder
10.
Night—settles down like dust on the land Time—buries us under with the sweep of the second hand Gonna send my horses over the hill Bury a jar full of seven-dollar bills Black clouds break with fear and wonder Counting the seconds between the lightning and the thunder Lick your finger and check the wind Looks like the end is about to begin Coin’s in the air gotta call heads or tails Kneel down in the ballast with your ear to the rail It’s comin round the bend It’s comin round. Can’t see where it starts but you know where it ends Right now is all we got Right now is all we need Holding onto you You’re the only one who can get me through We—all pretend we don’t know what we know We—all pretend we won’t reap what we sow How long the fences and how long the walls That keep the world so impossibly small The same earth trembles under all our feet The vandals hit every house on the street If you don’t get it then there’s nothing to get All the hungry people that you never met And the ghosts that haunt the castle walls say For every kingdom that rises there’s a kingdom that falls And we got no place to go We set sail but the stars won’t shine and the wind won’t blow Right now is all we got Right now is all we need Holding onto you You’re the only one who can get me through The Moon so pale the sky so black Birds gone south they’re not coming back Sky so black the moon so pale Light a fire in the belly of a whale South side north side east side west Cow-bird takes the sparrows nest North side south side west side east Sing your heart out in the belly of the beast It’s our only chance We just have time for one more song and one more dance Right now is all we got Right now is all we need Holding onto you You’re the only one who can get me through The curtain’s coming down The houselights coming up Turns out we’re not alone Never send to know for whom the bell tolls
11.
As I look at the valleys down below They are green just as far as I can see As my memories return, how my heart does yearn For you and the days that used to be High on a mountain top, standin' all alone Wonderin' where the years of my life have flown High on a mountain top, wind blowin' free Thinkin' 'bout the days that used to be Well I wonder if you ever think of me Or has time erased your memory? As I listen to the breeze whisper softly through the trees I wonder if you ever think of me ...
12.
600 miles from the mouth of the Hoogly This is the longest, weariest time I’ve ever known To be such a short distance from the Port Where your letters are waiting to be opened Still I often think how wrong it is to complain Of the wind and the weather when we can alter nothing We should be content to take what comes But we complain of trifles if we do not get trials Out of the bay around the cape and cross the line We begin to think we’re almost home Oh what foolish mortals we are So glad to get into port and so glad to get out again September 8th West of the cape A melancholy accident this morning at 2am A boy fell overboard from aloft while furling sail It was impossible to save him Many are the thoughts that I shall have of you As I pace the deck alone I wonder if you’re looking at the full moon tonight Knowing that you think of me, I must be content … Two of the men went to fighting today Brought aft with bloody noses and torn shirts I’ve put one of them in irons by himself in the hatch house For he seems a little dangerous and slightly crazy We go along tonight in a stream of phosphorescent light In the ship’s wake like a fire in the darkness I am reading your letters and writing these lines I hope you’ll kiss the children for me …
13.
You thought you’d beat the worst one You thought your feet could rest Now the cold wind’s got you running again It’s another mortal test One foot before the other Sunset and sunrise We cannot see the home stretch but I’ll match your stride Rivers freeze and rivers thaw They all run to the sea Yes days do break and nights do fall But the carry you and me A hundred miles to go But it’s a hundred miles that you don’t know When you’re running for someone else’s life You know you’re not alone And I hope I don’t mistake The shore for the lake The give for the take The heart…for the ache
14.
Sonora 04:33
Time takes a common toll It wears you out The days push and the years pull And we all try to slow it down To quiet the din Of the seconds’ cold beat And the hours’ mad rhyme So let’s make a sound To drown out the whole loud world We’ll shake off the day And give ourselves up To the song The strength of the strings you strum Now that we’re here Let’s make the night long And sing through these tears Loss cuts a common wound It lays you low The ground shifts and the wind blows And we all try to shut it out To quiet the din Of the unsteady heart And the dissonant mind ...

credits

released August 11, 2011

recorded live on June 25-26, 2011 at Nettleingham Audio
engineered and mixed by Kevin Nettleingham
album artwork and design by Adrienne Leverette
images based on drawings by Pieter Bruegel the Elder (1525-1569)
all songs © 2011 the Waxwings of Portland, OR (except 7,11)

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The Waxwings Portland, Oregon

The Waxwings is a band of friends from Portland, OR. We take our diverse musical influences (classical, rock, folk, what have you) and channel them through acoustic instruments to unearth themes of love, loss and the pursuit of soul-searching redemption. ... more

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