Kevin Herig
Lyrics
Spending time like cold hard cash
this world will nickel and dime you
for all that you have
two steps behind
picking up all your tabs
We'll get so desperate for time
We'll trade everything we have
just spending time
But with you, im happy, spending mine
Stars in her eyes
clay from the heart of the earth
she puts out the good fruit
never weighs you worth
Yellow spanish frames
14th century pews
breaking the silence
laughing in a church with you
just losing our minds
But with you, im happy, losing mine
Barcelona mid-breath
empty allies and stoops
every soul in its own bed
no heavy hearts on the lose
every echo has faded
every candle burned down
you're breathing in while the city is slowly breathing out
like it had taken its last breath
but with you, im happy, taking mine
1. SS Palo Alto
Has it really been two years
Since I've set my anchors down
Has it taken all of those two years
To set my feet on solid ground
The star that was guiding burn and died, happenstance, this coast i'd find.
The waves that wrap around the bow,
are your hands over my ears
The water peeling back the bow
are your hands over my ears
Drowning that ticking talk, that flooding noise wedged between my gears
I heard stories of your power
and I've seen the aftermath
I've retold all those stories of your power
Sailed the exhale of your wrath
You made grown trees your debris, you made rivers out of rocky paths
It’s a blink between the tears
How those treasured moments pass
It's the tears between the laughs
Good God, pain never last
It takes a waves that breaks your heart to feel a true love rushing back.
Has it really been two years
Since I've set my anchors down
Has it taken all of those two years
To set my feet on solid ground
Captain prayed for me drought, seconds before this sailor drowned.
Let me tell you something, dear
Here on the eve of 28,
I'm gonna tell you something, my dear
If a stubborn heart could have its way
I'd lasso down that guiding star, let it burn, and take us far us away.
2. Matchbox
I couldn’t hear you; a loose truth in the wind
I’d never catch you floating by on a whim
I couldn’t see you through all the smoke
I’ve been at the bitter end of a heart that you broke
Your love is a thunderstorm but you are the calm
Holding tight, the wick to keep you warm.
It’s bound to burst your palm
I’ve never once won, at your double-dealing games
I’ve never doubted what you thought and what you said were the same
I never caught on, I never caught on to your underhanded jokes
I saw them look the other way, a crab clenched to their coats
Your love’s a delicate coup; a castle of cards
When you’ve got a joker and a short fuse, it’ll fall flat to the start.
I’ve been watching you; how you savor something good
But it grows stale over years of always waiting longer than you should
I tried to find you; you’d been gone for so long
Found something I never knew, it was me you were hiding from
Your love is a mountaintop and your crown is the sun
Reaching higher atop a matchbox,
it’ll burn your soul if you run.
You were hoping an angel’s haunt, but you got the ghost’s
Set a fire to what your heart wants;
dust off what you need most
3. Honey-Less Bee
You cut your thumb, and missed the whole ride up,
were the last to get your grub.
Swimming in a crowd, a song of fading love drowning them out.
You’ll grab my shoulder when you’ve had enough,
when the day’s parades catch up to you,
but for now you ate it up.
Have you no hive, Have you no queen
A honey-less bee
Such a simple curiosity
And not an ounce of what you thought you’d need
And you found everything.
Heavy eyed and tousle haired
We wend our way outside of town,
chasing damp and static air
One by one, coyotes howl,
the canyon grabs our shouts and stretches them out.
We echo higher now above the ground,
just tiny specks forever falling down,
but oh how big we felt.
Have you no hive, Have you no queen
A honey-less bee
such a simple curiosity
and not an ounce of what you thought you’d need
and you found everything.
The first thing to go’s the need for answers that we needn’t know
then it’s what your hands hold
Truth will be as patient as she needs to be
Her whisper is loud, but only when you’re listening.
Have you no hive, Have you no queen
A honey-less bee
such a simple curiosity
and not an ounce of what you thought you’d need
and you found everything.
4. Rigmarole
Yes I know the world is small,
and we’ve reduced it to fit inside the trenches of our palms.
Can you read it, what does it say, what does my future hold?
If it weren’t a code that couldn’t be broke, is that something you’d like to know?
What is it then that you’re asking for,
if not to be seen as something better than how you see yourself,
to cast a light upon that shadow that’s been casting doubts,
to mask your hand around their mouths,
and say something yourself.
You’ll trade all your time
(So little we hold)
For a barrel of lies
Like the crabs as you reach for the edge of the rim, they’ll pull you down
The solace you found
(It’s fools gold)
The king and his crown
Much too deluged with the weight of the jewels and the power they hold
They’ll pull you down.
The older we grow, more rigmarole
Ripples of loathe, we’re losing control
A gamble of soul, for a bottomless hole
Soon all we will know, is rigmarole
You’ll trade all your time
So little we hold
For a barrel of lies
Like crabs as you reach for the edge of the rim, they’ll pull you down
The solace you found
It’s fools gold
The king and his crown
Much too deluged with the weight of the jewels and the power they hold
They’ll pull you down.
5. Little brother
Always think about what you're singing, honey,
what your mind is brewin, what your heart is holding,
and where your feet are running
After where they've been, coals they’ve walked through,
what's a little fire gonna do?
It's following you
All alone
But for that stone that you’ve got stuck in your shoe
The time that we steal
Kick up the dirt
Each second burns just like the thread on your wheel
Retrace the trail, seldom used, past the breaks,
Wipe the dust off flowers never bloomed
Replace the pain of 32, you're as strong as you are honest,
and that truth is slowly killing you
It's following you
All alone
But for that stone that you got stuck in your shoe
The time that we steal
Kick up the dirt
Each second turns just like the spokes on your wheel
Tethered waves, September moon
Thoughts that dwell on top of thoughts on top of thoughts
You've got the wrong idea, belief is not what we choose.
It's a shadow cast, eroding stone, it’s an undertow, it's like loving you.
It's following you
All alone
But for that stone that you got stuck in your shoe
The time that we steal
Kick up the dirt
Each minute burns each turn inside of that wheel
It's following you
Little brother
Watch you jump, Oh man, he's jumping too
6. Lost Boy
Groans of the cranes, totems for today, moving up, moving up
Soon all we'll have to remember is the rambling of our elders,
And the pictures that we've cropped.
Were just nails and screws, building anew
A hired hand shakes the crooked man’s,
And now he’s building you.
It grows higher what you feed, a wildfire that we breathe.
With hands more dirty than are clean;
I feel just like a lost boy.
Air was free, now it’s cheap, in a world with no trees, and you no means.
Bated breath blows soil like dust from your fingertips.
Soon it won’t be a dream.
It grows higher what you feed, a wildfire that we breath,
with hands more dirty than are clean,
I feel just like a lost boy.
Hear the echoes nestle into one,
we found the warmth that was stored for us from the sun,
collect its power, and what we can’t tote,
we’ll devour with the last of our hopes.
With the last of our hopes, that was the last of our hopes.
It grows higher what you feed, a wildfire that we breath,
with hands more dirty than are clean,
I feel just like a lost boy.
7. I Will Be Here
I stare, it was only a couple of seconds that you were there
But i swear, it felt like you were sleeping for a year
I hear the rustle of the world i was left in
Outside the turbines spin, overcast and wind
The branches brush against the roof
Their arms will creak and ached
Their shadows reach across your room
And their fingers paint your name
Spinning past the record groove
Digging deeper inside of you
And that sound will resonate
The static renders your escape
Your heart sinks
Past me
Beating
I will be here
Hands tied
Lost time,
It’s fleeting
I will be here
When we’ve drunk the last of our sun
I hope the breeze that tears us off will settle us upon a stream
We’ll stop only when we must
We’ll be exactly where we are, right where we are supposed to be
And mother tree will hum her song until her final leaf
And that sound will resonate
The static renders your escape
Your heart sinks
Past me
Beating
I will be here
Hands tied
Lost time,
It’s fleeting
I will be here
Leave me
Dreaming
With each breath
I will be here.
I stare, it was only a couple of seconds that you were there
But i swear, it felt like you were sleeping for a year
From here I watch you wake, stretch out your arms and legs
Outside the engines die, and blue skies break
8. In the Shade
The illusion is the cup,
if there’s room we’re gonna think it's not enough.
Delusions’ what we use to fill it up,
we dilute it and consume,
only getting a sip of the truth.
Limb by limb, we get tossed into the fire,
You’re striped of your loot, all that cash growing on you.
And inch by inch those walls are getting higher
Throwing stones into the water
skip by skip
Interpretation fits snug on your feet,
If the sun were our sins we’d block it out with the raise of our hand,
but we’re not saved, we’re just fools in the shade.
Limb by limb, we get tossed into the fire,
Plucked of your fruit, cut from the roots growing under you
And inch by inch those walls are getting higher
Throwing stones into the water
skip by skip
I’m a castaway all alone on my own little island,
growing old collecting all of the diamonds,
when it’s time to be saved,
I’m sure to sink with the weight
Another day and then another till you’re ready,
retrace your footsteps back, their getting heavy,
and now look at all that time that you waste.
Limb by limb, we get tossed into the fire,
You’re striped of your loot, all that cash growing on you.
And inch by inch those walls are getting higher
Throwing stones into the water
skip by skip
9. Patience, kid
Load your soul in that wagon, opaque with age.
You retrofit metal stallion. No hints on your face.
After all of those miles you’ve trekked
Showing only the smallest of cracks,
still that rust collects.
So far so good, hell, you’re still alive
Your virtue’s not your grace, but your will to survive
Spun up in a cloud of dust, in a fleeting final thrust,
Infant stars surrounding us.
Drive til dawn
Spinning wheels will dig
So far gone
All of those pieces you hid
But just keep on
There’s grace, no matter what you did
Just be patient, kid.
Anointing oil and sacred imbibe
Corner pew for your coffee, same bar stool in your dive.
Routine in measured feet, insanity repeats,
A lost soul in every seat.
Drive til dawn
Get your fill then you're gone again
Your sad song
The only station you get
But just keep on
There’s truth inside the suffering
Just be patient kid.
10. Shiver Home
There’s comfort in your doubt
a gust of wind could knock you down
It shakes when it blows,
shivers through your brittle bones.
I’ve withered away from my home
to sail your breeze,
a lonesome leaf.
Woke up on a trail we trudge uphill “a little further”,
I would tell you, then came the rain.
The earth then tore apart and water rushed into its heart,
we washed our feet
and threw that rock back from where it came
I’ll fall to the depths of your sea,
till I hit home,
a sinking stone
It would be ok to say that all I have is you.