Songs & Lyrics

Oak & Iron Bound

Release Date: October 22, 2010

Track listing

Disbanded
Quarter Carat
Things I Didn't Need
Crossing The Line
Drinking Again
Raggedy Ann
Gymanasium
Madeline
Avalanche
Signals (Live)

Disbanded

Woke up this morning to an alarm clock revolution
Last minute stay of execution due to a little snoozing
Solid solution forming in my mind to separate the ways out
Into some kind of binomial distribution

Told myself this ain't that hard, gotta illuminate the feeling
That there're these black and white boundaries lining my combat ceiling
But the built-in greyness is a little too standard
And I don't know how to be any blander
Than a call every night before bed to say "I'm alright, how about you?"

Tip the scales,
You were counting 1 2 3
But it's not over 'til the day I say it's over
I've got some minimal amount of control
And I'm exercising it

Well if I knew I'd be the one to counter all of your fits
I'd never have cast the die so quickly
Cause city walls are so hard to rebuild ground up
And last summer was the optimal situation
There's no living up to it now
I was caught red handed and you disbanded all you couldn't sell

My heart twice lined with lead to keep out the prying eyes
And makeshift lies tumbling out your head
Cause X-ray seeing don't add nothing to your being
Cuts it out instead
When you look a little deeper
You know you're gonna fear her
Every time you're near her, gonna turn a deeper shade of red

Quarter Carat

Hannah, I'm coming over
Could you throw a blanket on the floor for me?
Hannah, we both know your friends
Are friends of the second degree

How long does it take?
I can hear every beat in my heartache

Why don't you pick me up off the shelf
Get a glass, pour me out, and drink me down?
I don't know nobody else
In this tressle town

Hannah, we can take the interstate
To Ohio (carry me)
Hannah, just set the light so I know
So I know

Why don't you pick me up off the shelf
Get a glass, pour me out, and drink me down?
I don't know nobody else
In this tressle town

Things I Didn't Need

I wonder how long it takes to leave here
You could be gone by the morning if you knew the way
I see you look out across the mountains
And in your eyes I know you've gone away

I know I got it coming
I know I got it coming
I know I got it coming
I know
It's a blow I know I'm due

Pull me off to the shoulder of the road
I don't think I'm fit to drive anywhere, anytime (in this state of mind)
Got my genie and wasted all my wishes
Got my genie and wasted all my wishes

I promise you this year
I promise you this year
I promise you this year
I'll be the man

I promise you this year
I promise you this year
I promise you this year
I'll be the man
You fell in love with
You fell in love with

Got my genie and wasted all my wishes on things I didn't need

Crossing The Line

I am oak and iron bound
There must be some common ground
Between all the things I wanted and all the things I've found
Lying in wait
Enough and some to spare

I may be a now and then type
A waiter at the stoplight
Squint my eyes and I'm crossing the line
Crossing the line

Shut my eyes and open my mouth ticking like a motor running out

And all these lines of love that fall from my lips
Descending like smoke to the ground in dramatic movie clips
Well there's no harm done
Da da da da

There was a time I wouldn't let this get so close to drowning
I was a descriptor and you were my noun
But now I feel like my picture's taken and I've been framed down

Shut my eyes and open my mouth ticking like a motor running out

And as the bikes fly up Nelson street
It startles me

Drinking Again

Was Tennesee whisky or Kentucky moonshine
Floating down the Mississippi River full like a barrel of light
So afraid of losing, scared of what I'd win
I guess it's time I gave up drinking again

Found myself living on cornbread and gin
Passing time in a rocking chair cursing this American skin
Got me on tape talkng big 'bout taking it on the chin
No doubt time I gave up drinking again

Here's to all the bottles I've drunk in my time
Waking up in a ditch with my insides intertwined
One for the road then it's shutdown for a new design
I think it's time I gave up drinking one more time

You can only get so far cursing the artifice and its kin
No doubt time I gave up drinking again

Raggedy Ann

Well here I am
Staring straight at you
With nothing left to do
Stunned quiet by the implications
It's a glorious equation - you and I
I'm flying high on the indications
You could be sticking around awhile

I'm alone
When I can't fake it
I'm alone
When my last defenses fall
And I'm alone
And open to attack
Don't make me step back from you
Take me as I am
A crumbling man
I could be a real fixer-upper
You could be my Raggedy Ann
Take me as I am

Sometimes in the afternoon
When I haven't got my fix of you
Across the room I'll hear your voice
And know I don't have any choice
That's just the way it is
When I think about you leaving
It lays me low
It lays me low

Gymnasium

Hair in my face, beer in my shoes
I stumble across the floor to you
The music is loud, it's louder than bombs
You are you and I am undone
The glittering trail of your sparkle sweat
I remember myself not to forget
Voices so loud, louder than love
Inhale your breath so undeserving of
So undeserving of

You're a star on the floor tonight (making waves)

I hold you tight beneath the spinning disco light
Your eyes are loud, telling more than words
Unending sky in the middle of a desert

The glittering trail of your sparkle sweat
I remember myself not to forget
The voices so loud, louder than love
Inhale your breath so undeserving of
So undeserving of

You're a star on the floor tonight (making waves)

Madeline

Hey Madeline
Hey

Party hard on Sunday
I'm all screwed up for Monday
You know I got it coming when I can't say my name

Onetime crime showed the way
You walked by not even the time of day
You got to know most things ain't set in stone
It's a passing tone

Hey Madeline
Hey

First time I met you was sitting at the bar
I was talking shit and knew I wouldn't get very far
Said "it takes a lot of water to flood a well
But it's the easiest way out"

You just rolled your eyes
And got another round
I just stared you in the eyes
And drank another round

Hey Madeline
Hey

Avalanche

If we walk far enough we'll come to the edge of the trees
The chill you feel is par for these low degrees

There's always a way out to the sides
They will see all that we cannot hide

And there's no one here but us
The winds howl and they gust
But there's no one here but us

Signals (Live)

Bar in Wichita I met a girl
she was bright as the dickens
she was bright as I know I'll ever be

Cause I'm from up a dirt road where my momma said
I'll do no good cause I lose my head

Signs
Seeing all the signs
Hearing all the sounds
Picking up a signal
Rock
Picking up a rock
Picking up a sign
Picking up a signal
She better leave this bar before I get too far
Cause she's down deep sending signals

I told her
If she got out fast, it wouldn't hurt at all
It's like a five second rule

In her eyes, I see she's in the skies
Bet she thinks it's love, but she's so far from it

You better leave me alone
You better let me drown my sorrows