1. |
Let the River
03:38
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Let the River
If your heart’s been abandoned
in the window of a store,
faded blue by the sun, and no-one goes there anymore,
let the river wash you clean.
And if you’re dry in the wind,
and burned by the snow -
if you’re caught out on the road, with nowhere to go,
let the river wash you clean.
This is a fine, sweaty life, but it’s the blink of an eye -
take your troubles to the river, and wash them goodbye.
And all the love and money?
It came and it went,
and it jingled in your pockets, like change you should have spent -
let the river wash you clean.
This is a fine, sweaty life, and it’s over way too soon,
so take time to wish on stars, and look up at the moon.
And be careful what you whisper
from lover to lover,
because love’s a kind of sickness, some people never recover -
let the river wash you clean.
Let the river wash you clean.
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2. |
An Alphabet
03:29
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An Alphabet
When I hug my father we hold on tight.
If he forgets who I am, well that’s all right -
A is for Alzheimer’s.
B is for books,
C is for coffee.
You ponder your choice and you place your votes -
you get the same old knives at the same old throats.
D is for democracy.
E is for Elvis.
It’s an army based on blood connection,
armed to the teeth with love and affection:
F is for family.
G is for guitars,
H is for hard work.
You type it or you write it, but you get it down -
it’s all there’ll be left when you hit the ground.
I is for ink.
J is for jazz,
K is for kindness.
It’s an investment you just won’t believe:
The more you put in, the more you receive -
L is for love.
When you think you can’t face another day,
they pick you up and carry you all the way:
M is for mothers.
N is for north,
O is for the ocean.
P is for poetry,
Q is for Quebec.
Sunshine, windscreen, rolling fields -
wind and rain, and the way that it feels:
R is for the road.
S is for sugar,
T is for television.
U is for up,
V is for Valentine.
And if W stands for all kinds of weather,
and X is a kiss that you send in a letter,
Y is for yes.
When you enter this life, this is what you bring,
and it’s what you take with you after everything:
Z is for zero.
When I hug my father we hold on tight.
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3. |
The Shepherd's Daughter
01:56
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4. |
Sleep Like a Soldier
03:08
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Sleep like a Soldier
I saw the lights of my hometown, as I was coming down the hill.
I saw the blue of every TV on every window sill.
Street signs and phone wires and a broken white line,
and a tree that I planted in a garden that was mine.
I saw the wind turbine blades reach their hands up to the stars,
and I wound my window down, and caught some music from the bars.
Saw a stray dog at the station with the last train gone,
saw the river kiss the bridge and roll on.
I breathe it out and I breathe it in,
and I swear I see you walking on these streets again.
If you would fold me in your arms once more,
I would sleep like a soldier coming home from the war.
I smelled the roses down in Anderson Park
Where the little desperadoes used to hide out after dark.
Felt the blood sweat and tears coming back through my skin,
so I turned the music off and I let it back in -
that night I tossed and I turned in my mother’s spare room,
where the ghosts and wardrobes stood around in the gloom.
The branches tap their fingers on the window frame,
and I soaked myself in nightmares - and I waited for the flame.
I breathe it out and I breathe it in,
and I swear I see you walking on these streets again.
If you would fold me in your arms once more,
I would sleep like a soldier coming home from the war.
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5. |
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The Night Prayer of St. Augustine
After three days of morphine visions
in the hospital, Tuesday night,
you recited the books of the Bible,
just to show that your head was all right.
It was a trick you had learned as a youngster,
some Sunday in some dusty old hall -
you were golden as the sun on an acre of corn,
when nothing really mattered at all.
Such a succession of prophets,
of letters and gospels and names:
Corinthians, Romans and Hebrews,
The Acts and Revelation and James.
And then you told me the Sisters of Mercy
had been with you the previous day,
and they left this little card on your table,
in case you decided to pray.
Now you're gone but I still keep it with me,
in the hope that I’ll get away clean.
Some nights I sleep with it under my tongue:
The Night Prayer of Saint Augustine.
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6. |
Square Eyed Boy
02:11
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Square Eyed Boy
Well you bring home sweets
for your little square-eyed boy -
he sits in front of the screen,
when he should be out playing…
I’m just saying.
And everybody tells you
he’s putting on weight.
But he loves those detectives and cowboys
- and the vicious cartoons
in the afternoons.
Last night there was a blonde
handcuffed to a wheel
that spun as a blindfolded man
threw knife after knife.
She looked just like your wife.
And the Christmas Eve weatherman
says it won’t snow.
You hang chocolate coins
on every branch of the tree,
and turn off the TV.
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7. |
The Candidate
02:17
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The Candidate
A politician spoke to me once,
from a speaker on top of a Hillman Avenger.
I must have been ten years old –
to me he sounded like he
could have been a contender.
I could see him in the passenger seat,
talking on the mic like a TV detective.
His face was on every lamppost,
promising change and a whole new perspective.
And he showed up two days later,
in a tan raincoat with a big rosette -
standing outside the butcher’s,
handing out leaflets
and cigarettes.
I could hear him as I went to the shop:
Saying ‘privatisation was an economic cancer’.
I asked my father what that meant.
He said ‘never mind son,
‘they’re all a bunch of chancers’.
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8. |
All the Winds
03:21
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All the Winds
If you walk away,
there’ll be no turning back.
And you might fix it up,
but you’ll still see the cracks.
And the words you say,
and the cruel songs you sing
leave their bite marks on everything.
If you thought you could unbreak your heart,
you would rig the rules to win.
You would turn your face to all the winds.
And you remember love
as some kind of broken bone -
remember some heal stronger, and some just don’t.
When you weigh it up,
you think you cover the cost.
But you lay down sure - and you wake up lost.
If you thought you could unbreak your heart,
you would rig the rules to win.
You would turn your face to all the winds.
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9. |
Still Your Man
02:54
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Still Your Man
Maybe I zigged when I should have zagged,
held my tongue when I should have bragged,
I don’t know.
I never know - but I’m still your man.
And I sing for you with a steady beat,
and I dance even though I’ve got two left feet
I don’t know.
I never know - but I’m still your man.
They say the path ahead looks darker day by day.
But I open my eyes to you, and I know we’ll walk it all the way.
When I think about how life could have been,
on Lonely Street like a leaf in the wind -
I don’t know.
I never know - but I’m still your man.
I’ll be at the station when you’re coming home again,
and I swear I’ll see your face on every train.
I was empty as a plate in a restaurant,
the waiter came and asked me what I want,
I don’t know.
I never know – but I’m still your man.
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10. |
Cotton Anniversary
02:17
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11. |
Light From the Stars
02:42
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Light from the Stars
There’s a half of a moon
shining down on the road.
And I’m tired and hungry,
and so far from home.
I’m watching the taillights,
as they disappear.
Rolling on to the bottom
of this heartbreaking year.
And they ask us to say a few words,
when we’re speechless.
Sometimes the light from the stars
is too late to reach us.
And it’s a hard way to find out
if you’ve got what it takes -
slipping over the white line,
with your foot on the brakes.
But it’s the same destination,
in the same straight line.
But you were watching the heavens,
and I was reading the signs.
It’s like Hank Williams wasted his breath
when he tried to teach us –
sometimes the light from the stars
is too late to reach us.
Sometimes the light from the stars
is too late to reach us.
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12. |
Exit Wounds
02:46
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Exit Wounds
My friend’s dad had this pistol,
and he kept it in a bedroom drawer.
Now this was life during peacetime,
I don’t even know what he had it for.
It wasn’t even in a holster,
or any kind of presentation box,
it was just… lying in this drawer,
between his underpants and socks.
Well he checked the safety catch,
and he squared up like a man -
and then he told me it was loaded,
and he placed it in my hand.
My friend had seen this all before,
and he sat at the foot of the bed.
He knew when his dad was on the rum & coke,
it would sometimes turn his head.
Now I’d seen a thousand guns on TV,
held by cowboys and detectives -
but this was real, and black and heavy,
and much more serious than expected.
But I pointed at the wardrobe,
and I practised looking grim,
and then I waved it at the curtains -
and gladly gave it back to him.
His wife was absolutely furious,
when she found out what he’d done - I mean,
come on – a grown man and two twelve year olds
in a bedroom with a loaded gun?
She knew better than he did
how teenage minds unfold -
how if you hold a loaded gun, it’s something
you never really quite un-hold.
But my friend and me grew up loaded,
with our safeties mostly on,
and it’s strange that now the pistol and
the father are both gone;
and the underpants and the drawer,
even the bedroom we stood in.
The bullets, and the trigger and the firing pin.
And in this country full of exit wounds
and heartaches by the ton –
to this day that’s still the only time
I ever held a gun.
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13. |
Sometimes the Night
03:29
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Sometimes the Night
When the sun starts sinking down,
you watch it crash into the sea yourself.
And the shadows start to grow,
looking down on you from every shelf.
In this big connected world,
you never felt more alone – pick up the phone.
CHORUS:
Aw babe, you’ve got to let me know
if there’s anything at all that I can do;
cause I’ve been there, too -
and I know how this one goes:
Sometimes the night,
sometimes the night,
sometimes the night goes on for days…
If you stare at something long enough,
you start to tell yourself it disappears.
And if you cry yourself to sleep at night,
you can drown your own dreams in tears.
In this big connected world,
you never felt more alone - pick up the phone
CHORUS
A light as bright as you should never
Have to face the dark alone, oh babe
- if you were mine, I would shine a light
All of the time
You’d never have to worry, I would only be a call away
CHORUS
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14. |
The River Road
02:14
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15. |
The Pictures
01:09
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Anthony Toner Belfast, UK
An independent singer songwriter and guitarist, based in Belfast.
Anthony Toner recommends:
Superb songs - always arresting and haunting work, recent album 'Plz stay bb' is his best work yet - and there's more to come.
go to album
A gifted writer, player and producer, Matt's 'Lessons of War' is a fascinating collection of collaborations - but he has a great back catalogue, too - and new songs due soon...
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The Guitar Music of Wall Matthews, vols. 1-6 Sampler
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Tompkins Square present a nine-track intro to the gorgeous American Primitive stylings of Wall Matthews—soothing, rustic, and peaceful.
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