1. |
Heat Lightning
04:26
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Saw something strange last night, I don’t know what it was
Maybe some trick of the light or some kind of fairy dust
You were standing right next to me, I can’t say if you caught it, too
Your eyes went straight back in your skull like they’ve been known to do
Ooh, heat lightning
Someone’s disappeared again and now they’re dragging the reservoir
The crowds have started circling like flies in the abattoir
Spirit photography on a closed circuit TV screen
A blast of snow and static, that’s the last he was ever seen
Ooh, heat lightning
He’s a bright white boy with bright white teeth so this time the reporters came
Heat lightning rushing through the streets, the flashbulbs all aflame
“He wouldn’t just leave the cat behind,” said the lady from next door
And the missing posters watch the scene, impassive evermore
Ooh, heat lightning
Do you want to come upstairs? My roommate’s never home
I swear I’ve never been so scared, I can’t bear to be alone
The helicopters throbbing, God, it sounds like the living end
I just need to get some sleep, I could really use a friend
The graffiti in the underpass — “Your soul will see the wind”
I just need to get some sleep, I could really use a friend
I could really use a friend
I could really use a friend
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2. |
Don't Wait Up
04:41
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Marie’s gone missing, didn’t show for her shift
Left the Volvo perched on a steep snowdrift
Pointed due north when she blinked off the grid
And everyone’s still talkin’ ’bout what Jennifer did
Do you know where your mother hides the brandy?
Do you know what goes on behind the trees?
Do you know how to go a little crazy?
Baby, please...
Climb down, climb down from the window
We’re all meeting by the bend in the stream
Heard the search party screaming in the shadows
Baby, maybe it was just a dream
Nora brought the Moonlight in Vermont
Lila’s voice drops every time she takes a call
Heard she’s going with a guy from two towns over
That’s not all, that’s not all
Climb down, climb down from the rafters
And lie with me here on the ground
The dogs are circling the farmhouse now
They’re breathing down our necks, don’t make a sound
Do you want for the night to last forever?
Do you want to wrap yourself around the moon?
Do you want to maybe run away together?
Baby, soon…
Marie’s gone missing, left a note on the fridge
Daddy, don’t wait up for me
Daddy, don’t wait up for me
Daddy, don’t wait up for me
Daddy, don’t wait up for me
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3. |
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Full dark descended and the snow wasn’t far behind
Five o’clock on the first of December, 1949
With a wave of the porter the Greyhound was rolling
Route 7 South, from St. Alban’s to Bennington
A soul in every seat
Fingers of ash and elm brushed the window
Where a soldier was leaning, his coat for a pillow
Sleeping just as sound as if beneath an eiderdown
Do you think he was dreaming or was it just black?
Was he seeing his sweetheart? Was he bringing her back?
Pearl’s run off to the general store
And nobody’s seen her no more
Nobody’s seen her no more
With the heat from the bodies, the light from the lanterns
The Greyhound was glowing, a rumbling aquarium
Drifting through the dark
The chatter fell silent when all of a sudden
The depot appeared and loomed like a phantom
The soldier’s seat was bare, only an open timetable there
The bleary-eyed passengers couldn’t believe
The driver exclaimed, “It’s the damnedest thing!
I swear there was a man there before.”
And nobody’s seen him no more
Nobody’s seen him no more
James Tedford was elderly by some accounts
And by some he was just back from the war
I’ve seen his last name spelled three different ways
But I guess it don't matter much anymore
If no one records the details of a life
Can you tell me then what’s it all for?
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4. |
Driftwood
04:01
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We got eyes on the smokestack of the sugar mill
There was movement for a moment then suddenly still
Is there still someone waiting for you?
We got a roof overhead and yet the damp gets in
The snoring chorus comes apart when Louie’s engine starts to spin
I want to see it coming
I want to look it in the eye
I want to know what hit me
I want to blow a kiss goodbye
If this mist ever lifts we’ll row the boat ashore
Steady as the nurse’s footsteps in the corridor
In the dark we can be all alone
That woman came again today, oh what’s her name again?
She was singing songs from long ago, I don’t know where or when
I want to see it coming
I want to look it in the eye
I want to know what hit me
I want to blow a kiss goodbye
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5. |
Desaparecido
04:53
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Estoy buscando a mi marido desaparecido?
Desaparecido…
Well, he’s six feet tall though he’d tell you six-one
His hands are raw from the fields and the sun
And he’s got a smile that can knock you flat
He’s always in a cowboy hat
And he’s got my name tattooed on his arm
He tells me I’m his good luck charm
Have you seen him? Have you seen him?
Let me know if you see him
And I pray that tonight he is safe
That wherever he is, he is among friends
And I pray, I pray they haven’t been chased
That they haven’t been scattered to the winds
Desaparecido
There’s a little birthmark across his right hip
And it’s just the size of a fingertip
And I trace it every single day
In an absentminded kind of way
There’s a patch on his chin where the beard won’t grow in
And the hint of a scar just under the skin
Have you seen him? Have you seen him?
Please, God, have you seen him?
And I pray that tonight he is safe
That wherever he is, he is among friends
And I pray, I pray they haven’t been chased
That they haven’t been scattered to the winds
Nobody vanishes into thin air
Somebody knows why and somebody knows where
The hills, the rocks, the rivers, the sands
I just want to know
The boneyard of the borderlands
I just want to know
The holding cell, the shelter floor
I just want to know
Or naked in a metal drawer
I just want to know
Desaparecido
Desaparecido
Desaparecido
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6. |
Lose This Number
04:29
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Lose this number
We don’t know each other anymore
Whatever that was, that was before
And now it’s done
Oceans crashing
Galaxies collapsing in the hum
From here to wherever you’re calling from
Lose this number
I gotta run
What have they been telling you?
Where have those flowers gone?
When the world is cleaved in two
Whose side will you be on?
Rome is burning
Even so, it’s home and here I’ll stay
You’re hoping the flames won’t spread your way
I’m sure you’ll be fine
How with this rage?
I’ve worked my fingers raw
What have you done?
If I can’t trust you, I can’t trust anyone
Lose this number
I’m sure you’ll be fine
What have they been telling you?
Where have those flowers gone?
When the world is cleaved in two
Whose side will you be on?
When they come for me, and they’re going to come
Don’t you come running to my aid
When they come for me, and they’re going to come
Don’t you come running to my aid
Oh, when they come for me, and they’re going to come
Don’t you come running to my aid
I’ll be gone by then, long gone by then
Long gone, long gone
So long...
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7. |
Sawdust Trail
05:05
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He was gone before the dust had even settled
He was gone before the paint was even dry
He was gone before the crib had been assembled
Some men just don’t know how to say goodbye
And I wonder if I inherited his stature
You know Mama was so short and frail
And I wonder if he found what he was after
When he left us for the sawdust trail
There’s a frame on the wall without a photo
There’s a silence at the center of the town
There were stray dogs dancing in the meadow
On the day they finally tore the foundry down
I was happy to abandon all that history
To see it swallowed by the swale
No, there wasn’t anybody left to miss me
When I set out on the sawdust trail
On my way from Walhalla to Bear Wallow
I saw a man who glistened just like a mirage
He waded out into the water and I followed
The bracken and the brush our camouflage
And he led me by the hand and the sinews
And his hair hung in his eyes like a veil
And we found a rented room to sink into
Such stunning views along the sawdust trail
He was gone before the dusty light of morning
He was gone before the sweat had lost its sheen
He was gone before the memories finished forming
I’ve forgotten if his eyes were grey or green
So I headed north and I stopped at Sunset Diner
As the drizzle on the windshield turned to hail
Thought I recognized the man behind the counter
The mind plays tricks along the sawdust trail
Now I got a chain of ghosts I drag behind me
And nobody here knows my name
Well, I fell into a job down in the valley
Oh, that always seems to be the way
But you gotta put the work in while you’re able
You gotta bring the hammer to the nail
“Sorry” don’t put food on the table
And we’re all starving on the sawdust trail
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8. |
Jennifer
05:28
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Last I heard she was going by Jennifer
But who knows who she is now
Some days I’m sure I must have conjured her
From whole cloth, somehow, somehow
The trail went cold on the warehouse scene
Some policemen came and picked her bedroom clean
There were blurry photographs on the evening news
And whispers in the halls of whereabouts and clues
And now a hangup call can turn my dreams bizarre
Feeling someone’s stare on a subway car
I did everything I could, I think that I did
She had an exit plan, she hit a desperate skid
We were only boys back in Baltimore
We were only girls on the run
We kissed and the horizon would melt into the floor
Oh, Jennifer, tell me what you’ve done
The lines went down and the air was sweet
A swirling storm in the summer heat
We danced out on the lawn while limbs hit the ground
The tethered world spun loose when Jennifer was around
She would change her name with the seasons
But she’s forever Jennifer to me
Whatever she has done I'm sure she had her reasons
I hope she made it far and made it free
Her mother still calls her Jeremy
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9. |
Never, Never, Never
04:42
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The radio’s just static though I thought I heard a song
There’s nothing here but headlights, I think we should move along
Thunder on the blacktop and across the mountain’s face
We got matches for the cigarettes, a flashlight just in case
And he’s never, never, never going to find me
He’s never, never, never going to find me here
You did all the driving so I’ll take the couch tonight
I can’t sleep here in the country, there’s no noise and there’s no light
Back home my building rumbled like the belly of a boar
You hear secrets through the ceilings when you live on the first floor
And he’s never, never, never going to find me
He’s never, never, never going to find me here
We still got half a tank, can we take it all the way?
We still got half a tank, can you take me all the way?
(Can you take me all the way? Can you take me all the way?
Can you take me all the way? Can you take me all the way?)
He’s never, never, never going to find me
He’s never, never, never going to find me
He’s never, never, never going to find me
He’s never, never, never going to find me now
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10. |
All My Sisters
05:24
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All my sisters are dancing upstairs
You can listen to their laughter through the night
Hear them planning their summer affairs
While outside the moths are diving in shallow pools of light
A sleeping bag in the crawlspace
And smoke blown in a ring
You’d better call Marie
She’s missing everything
We are pushing a hundred down the shore
Your corsage is rusting in a paper cup
Kick my heels off and leave them by the door
The horses on the stairs always wake Mother up
Some nights come in so clearly
Like songs on a radio
Some nights get blown to smithereens
Who knows where all those pieces go?
I’ll meet you at the top of the ferris wheel while Dreamland crumbles below
Everything that you remember is as good as real
But you can’t take it with you when you go
All my sisters are still dancing, though the song is softer now
And that old house has since been razed to the ground
You’re still winding through my memories and breaking like a bough
I’m the last of the immortal girls around
I’ll meet you at the top of the ferris wheel while Dreamland crumbles below
Everything that you remember is as good as real
But you can’t take it with you when you go
And I don’t know if my soul will see the wind
I just hope that I see you again
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Matthew Connor Boston, Massachusetts
Matthew Connor is a crooner for the 21st century, writing heart-wrenching songs that combine the windswept ideals of classic
American balladry with stark depictions of modern-day alienation. The Boston-based Connor has a haunting voice that conjures ghosts of past heartbreaks, and he pairs it with spectral guitars that recall country tearjerkers and alt-pop brooding.
—Maura Johnston
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