1. |
The Familiar Song
02:13
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Come gather around me my friends. Before the fire dies.
Pay heed to my words for my lesson is true, so the same won’t happen to you.
A stranger appeared before me, and offered me silver and gold,
But all this fool ever wanted was a love to call my own.
Stay here by the fire tonight. It won't be safe till dawn.
The Stranger wanders the black of the night.
If you listen you can hear his song…
(the familiar song)
“Make a promise to me. I’ll make you a rich man, I’ll make you a king.
If you’ll say just a prayer for me.
Then you’ll find what you seek.”
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2. |
Let the Lights Burn
05:20
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The chapel was empty. The walls crumbling away.
The bells hang high up above us, and in the wind did silently sway.
You would have stood across from me.
You would have been dressed in white.
We would stand there hand in hand,
But the light left your eyes.
All my days, I’m out there searching.
And all my nights, I’ll let the lights burn for you.
Praying you’ll come back home.
I went back to your grave to say goodbye one last time.
When the night came you were by my side,
But by dawn I was alone and you were nowhere to be found.
And if you're out there somewhere, I hope you can hear my prayer.
And if you’re out there somewhere, come back. Into my arms.
Listen to the bells.
Find your way out of the night.
Break faith with the dead.
All these wrongs I’ll make right.
You’re somewhere out there.
I can hear your laugh.
Like you did when you were mine.
Like you did when your eyes faded to black.
All my days, I’m out there searching.
And all my nights, I’ll let the lights burn for you.
Praying you’ll come back home.
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3. |
Belle of the Ball
04:37
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I was weathered and dirty the day I quit the hills.
So I stopped to pick you daisies and yellow daffodils.
I spent my days searching for something true,
And waiting each night for a girl just like you.
When I saw you high up in your window I knew
That the promises made to me must be true.
I wanted to give up my guns, my horse, and the sky
Just to go dancing with you tonight.
Come dance with me beautiful
It’s on you I’ve come to call.
I’ll put on my finest shirt
And you’ll be the Belle of the Ball.
Come dance with me across the starry skies
And into the lights.
She was unlike any girl I’ve ever known.
Skin fair as summer, her hair locks of gold.
With eyes like thunder and a voice like rain,
She was perfect in every way you could name.
She lit down from her window and to me she came to greet.
When I saw her before me I nearly fell at her feet.
She threw her arms around me and held me tight,
And said “Of course I’ll go dancing with you tonight!”
Come dance with me beautiful
It’s on you I’ve come to call.
I’ll put on my finest shirt
And you’ll be the Belle of the Ball.
Come dance with me across the starry skies
And into the lights.
I’ve wandered the night
I’ve weathered the storm
I’ve heard the birds sing
A stranger’s mantle I’ve worn
I’ve heard your laughter calling to me
Sounding a promise that one day I will be free.
We set off for Marfa to the grand dance hall.
On my horse you’ll ride and I’ll walk by your side.
The skies darken and thunder and lightning appear,
But with me by your side you’ll have nothing to fear.
I’ll never want again as long as I have you.
For you there is nothing I won’t suffer through.
I want to give you the dawn and all my days till I’m dead,
And tomorrow to the courthouse we’ll go and be wed.
Come dance with me beautiful
It’s on you I’ve come to call.
I’ll put on my finest shirt
And you’ll be the Belle of the Ball.
Come dance with me across the starry skies
And into the lights.
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4. |
A Hundred Hills
02:52
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We will have a home by the sea
Green fields for you and me.
A place to spend all our days
A place to watch the children play
I will build you an arbor,
And plant you cherry trees.
And tend to our garden
By the sea.
Silver and gold I have none
I’m just a poor man and a widows son
I never had much more than god would will,
But I will give you a harvest
On a hundred hills.
Each day will break on our sandy shore
Our love to fill Arcadia, forevermore.
Our love to warm our home, here by the sea.
There will be you and me,
And endless fields of green.
Silver and gold I have none
I’m just a poor man and a widow's son
I never had much more than god would will,
But I will give you a harvest
On a hundred hills.
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5. |
Sooner or Later
03:49
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Sooner or later She’ll be coming for you.
When she finds you, She will run you through and through.
She don’t care about forgiveness
She don’t care what’s true.
Sooner or later,
She’ll be coming for you.
You better run
You better ride
Until the blood fills the skies.
She will follow you all through the night.
What you've done, you can't undo.
You can bet the dawn she will be coming for you.
Her hands are full of steel
She calls death a friend
She is a nightmare riding the wind
She will be with you until your bitter end.
Sooner or later the dark will fill your eyes.
When she rides you down no one will hear your cries.
Sooner or later her dawn will fill the skies
There's no escaping this.
There is nowhere left to hide.
She don’t care about forgiveness
She don’t care what’s true.
Sooner or later,
She’ll be coming for you.
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6. |
Dead Hand
04:27
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There was a trail of bones in the sand
Picked apart and scattered by the beasts
That once presided over the land.
And at the end there was a mummified arm
Skin brown and paper thin
And in its hand a black and shriveled heart
I gathered stones and set them in a circle
Around this heart in hand
And set it on fire
The smoke was thick and foul and curled its way up to the heavens
And there i whispered a prayer
“Ride easy stranger.
Surrender to the sky your heart of anger.
And may you ascend back to that tower of grace
And next to the lord reclaim your place.
And may you find your way through the dark.
May your curse be lifted and your brother forgive your mark.
May your days of wandering come to an end.
And once again call man a friend.
Open up your ears and hear my prayer.
Break down the gates of Eden,
And I will see you there.
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7. |
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Bring me all your wasted years,
Your faded photographs and broken souvenirs.
And I will burn them all.
For you.
Curse me and I will wave goodbye.
Don’t wait for me on the other side.
And my heart will no longer break
On your shore.
And I hear there’s green fields on the other side
Or so I have heard from hell.
And I hear the sun always shines
Or so I have heard from hell.
Dont bother to remember me.
Your ears were deaf to my beggars plea
Just like christ this love will stay in the grave
I gave you all the love I could give
I sang for you every song I knew
And spurned all the gifts
That the wisemen brought to me
And I hear the storm will calm and subside
Or so I have heard from hell.
And I can hear the savior calling my name.
From the other side of hell.
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8. |
Chisos
02:05
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9. |
To Begin Again (Part 1)
04:40
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Here is my story my tale not so tall
Of the night they say I murdered the Belle of the Ball
Of only thing I’m guilty and only one thing I know
I should have never let her go.
Every head turned as we walked through the door.
You could hardly hear the band play over the storm.
I was the beggar and she was the Belle of the Ball
La reina of the old dance hall.
Back from the shadows the stranger appeared
And asked me for her hand
I couldn't refuse for he had brought her to me
And I knew we would never be free
So I had me a drink
Bring me some whiskey and the mescal too.
Till there is a fire inside me that will burn down this room.
The stranger has put as spell on my one true love,
And she laughs like he came from above
I shouted “I’ll splatter his blood all over these walls,
His teeth I’ll scatter across this hall
He’s nothing but a vagabond and a drifter to me
That’s got his filthy hands all over my queen.”
Then a darkness came down and put its arms around me
And dragged me down to the boards
The last thing I saw was The Stranger’s boots
Never touching the floor.
And she was laughing at me.
When I woke up the rain had finally ceased
And the Belle of the Ball lay dead next to me.
Her fingers wrapped stiffly and deadly around my own,
I could feel their chill straight down to the bone.
I wanted to run and I wanted to hide.
I could never escape the look in her eyes.
I saw the savior the stranger I saw hell and the flames
And on her blue lips there was a refrain
(the familiar song)
You made a promise to me
I loved you and loved you and did until the end
And I just want to begin again
And that’s when they came for me.
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10. |
To Begin Again (Part 2)
02:34
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They took me to a cell of iron and stone
And across from me a stack of bones
A sudden chill came over me
And i knew I was not alone
I prayed it was the stranger who had heard my plea
And who had come to set me free
But i could face no man with what I had done
And then the bones rattled and whispered to me
“If you could start again
If you could unring the bells
If you could unspeak the words that have bound you to hell
If you could lift the mark
And by blood or by love wash away your sins
Would you want to live again?”
I would do anything to have her back in my arms
To take her home with me and to be set free
But now she is gone and I cant move on
So tell me now, what happens to me?
“Where will you go and on what hill by the sea will you find your new home?
Justice will be done
As it was to I
You will swing at dawn
And she will be there to watch you die
As to what happens next, I am blind.
But Lazerus was raised up from the dead
So we could watch him die
One more time.”
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11. |
To Begin Again (Part 3)
04:22
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I climb up the stairs
And stand beneath the gallows
I look through the noose
And i see you there
Leading the hangman’s dance
And conducting the fanfare
Amongst my friends
The lovers, the vipers, and thieves
And the memories of once good men
Now made low with the authors of iniquity
And the cast outs, the vagabonds, and captives of the sea.
Oh to be washed away
To be forgotten by the righteous
And to remember only sunny days
Oh to have had you one last time
And to have never let go of the reigns
Oh to have turned my back on the pearly gates
And to ride back to the west
Back towards Eden
And to start from the beginning again
And to slay the angel with its own flaming sword
But the sack is pulled over my head
And the noose is fastened around my neck
And in the dark I hear the birds sing
And like Lazarus I dream
Of beginning again
I wake up on that far away shore
And I see the lanterns pull away into the night
The ferryman sings a song familiar to me
And in the Stranger’s voice he calls
“I’ve made you a rich man
And I’ve made you a king
Of these shores
And these skies
And all things in between
Where you can reign forever
And wait for your queen
To find her way back
Into my arms.”
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