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The Familiar Song

by The Widow's Ride

supported by
Metallurgical Fire
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Metallurgical Fire Instantly picked up both albums. I’m a metal head but I like everything. I love this band. Won’t be listening to anything else for a bit. A variety of influences intersect to bring you some truly special songs from The Widow’s Ride. Favorite track: Let the Lights Burn.
josh bustamante
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josh bustamante God dang it's so good
Coberras
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Coberras The best stuff I've heard for quite a while
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    Digital only release for now. A limited edition book is now available with expanded artwork and lyrics!
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  • The album "The Familiar Song" was conceived of as a narrative -- part myth, part murder ballad, part spooky bedtime story -- and to suit the theme we have commissioned a limited run of 28 page hardcover books! The lyrics for each song are accompanied by an original illustration by Mikey Wheeler on the facing page. Each high-quality hardcover book has been signed by all members of The Widow's Ride, and comes with a download code.

    Includes unlimited streaming of The Familiar Song via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality download in MP3, FLAC and more.
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    edition of 30  1 remaining
    Purchasable with gift card

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1.
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.”
2.
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.
3.
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.
4.
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.
5.
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.
6.
Dead Hand 04:27
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.
7.
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.
8.
Chisos 02:05
9.
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.
10.
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.”
11.
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.”

about

A story about a poor cowboy who makes an ill-fated deal with a mysterious stranger.

credits

released October 31, 2020

The Widow's Ride is:
Paul Atwood
Justin Muschinske
Joe Newman
Matt Wargin


Recorded, mixed and mastered by Justin at Sad Cowboy Studios, Kansas City, MO.
Produced by The Widow's Ride.
Artwork by Mikey Wheeler.
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The Widow's Ride Kansas City, Missouri

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