Lyrics to "The Black and the Red" cd. (also songs on Tour cd).

Sometimes We Bleed

You get it, that's right, you get it.
Made a decision gonna scream out loud
Common sense and survival, but you don't get the meaning.
A lie, sacrifice the truth for a good life,
Replace your guilt with gold and deny, while people starve.

The Black and the Red

Got a phone call from you
I was sleeping, you were half drunk
Nearly fell to the floor as I answered the phone
You said you nearly hung up
But I was glad that you called, you were glad I was home
It was good to know you're still alive
Traded heartache, stories and laughter for the rest of the night.

You told me how your life is now,
how you steal everything you need.
And you're making your own history
Under a flag that's black and red.

Clasp my hands in the shape of an island
around the back of your neck.
Whisper stories right into your ear I'm sure you'd rather forget.
About when we were young, when we were dumb
Days when we'd sleep all day long
Wake just in time to see the sunset and stay out until it was dawn.

It's funny how our lives are now
We still steal everything we need.
And we're making our own history
Together under a flag that's black and red.

The story of a hometown

You leave where you're from.
This emptiness wires us for endless searching
and the neverending race.

You stay where you're from
Better fight the enemy you know than the one you don't.

We repeat our grandfather's words
"Fall back to what you know."
Lay new foundations over muddy fields
Our history needs no space to grow.

You hate where you're from.
Can't you see this town keeps me down?
You love where you're from.
What I am is in this soil if I leave it I leave me.

Legacy of Empty Buildings

In my dreams in the emptiest places
where we walked to forget our culture
gas stations appeared at night so gleaming we can't see the sky
for the flourescent lights shining on our faces.

There was no one there to sell
There was no one there to buy
There's no reason except for growth
and a legacy of empty buildings

In my dreams amusement parks appeared in my backyard
and they funded an initiative to preserve the "rural way of life"
through fees on parking lots.

But for now there are no businesses for miles
but where the city extends its legs theres a footprint of what's going to be.

Us v. the world

This just in, class is over.
I fall down into my chair.
Don't talk to me of hatred,
or a world that doesn't care.
I believe in something. I believe in us.
There's always a reason to hold on, if I only believe in us.

Southern Rock Anthem

I watched my textbooks go up in flames,
bonfire hot and dry on my face.
We'll spread the ashes on our garden soil.
Stalks will rise from the words of before.
Our minds had slept in classrooms down the road
from where our parents died of their 50 year workload.
But there's new joy in writing for each other
and we'll learn on our own how to live with one another.

I read their textbooks, they said nothing to me
I worked in their factories, they held nothing for me
What my friends taught me means everything to me
Their sincerity. a southern rock anthem for living.

I threw my toolbelt on the factory floor.
Quit my job and walked out the front door.
I walked the streets for a little ways
The fresh air and the sun on my face.
Now these hands are building something else:
and new life for my friends and myself.
We're taking charge and working together
We don't have much but we've got each other.

Dead End Roads

Another day, can't lift my head and I'm barely breathing.
Been trying so hard to find something that I can believe in.
This old town she's in desperate need of healing.
As a bottle drops in the parking lot I stare up at the ceiling.
Outside the cars go by and streetlights paint the dark blue sky.
I hear the sound of struggles coming from a house nearby.
And like the summered soil the industry's all dried up
to leave the people starving, fighting to survive.

The sunsets in this town seem a lot like the end of a story
There's no answers or heroes for those seeking meaning
or those seeking glory.

We're leaving soon we can't pretend,
All the bridges are out. These roads dead end.

Rest Stop

With 300 miles under your belt, you stop to take a stretch
At a rest stop 30 miles north of Cairo, Illinois
Where two rivers meet and run south.
We'll say "Hey, Trail of Tears rest stop,
Do you really have to commemorate 500 years of oppresion
With a building full of human waste?"
No pictures, no memories, no apologies
Just photos of war memorials, and a well placed plaque
Don't tell your children we killed more kids than Nazi Germany.
Get your candy bars, Get back in your cars.
This is our originial sin.
A Eulogy on bathroom walls
And some movie that we never cried at (because it doesn't exist)
About your family dead on the side of the road
No wonder they hate us.

The song we sing

The best you can do has been put to sleep
There is art in you
Your hands do not advertise naturally
There is more to you
Commercials do not tell our story
The new folk art will be you and me
If I teach you some chords will you teach me to paint over the things that I don't want anymore
If we all know the chords and we all have paint we can all make some noise.

Then the song that we sing will have meaning.

This song is about the fact that art has been taken away from people. Not only has it been taken away from the general public to the point that all we can create are reproductions of what we've seen, it's been taken away from the artists too. It seems the only function of art now is to advertise. Your favorite songs and classic paintings are reduced to slogans. Radio stations exist to serve their advertisers. Most things do. I say that art has nothing to do with advertising, and it's time we took it back. You and Me. Our creativity is not for sale. I'm ready for everyone in the world to have a way to express themselves other than through the things they choose to buy.

Extra songs from tour cd

Can you make planets?

A change of scenery fuels my inspiration.
Romantic novelties lead to loaded questions
This is my home cinder block walls supports me.
I'm screaming my heart out, But is anyone listening to me?
Built to burn we are effigies hanging by our failures.
Not ready to learn from the mistakes we've made before.
I saw a factory on the horizon spilling it's pollution onto the sky,
and into the trees, the rivers, the oceans, and the earth,
to make new things for us to buy.
Items of convenience. Items of laziness.
I just have one question, can you make planets?
Built to burn we are effigies hanging by our failures,
But I'm ready to learn from mistakes we've made before.

The Fire Drill

Stop, drop, and roll! i feel like i'm catching fire.
Watch our sins dance against the wall and flicker out like a burning flame.
Conscience, conscience! i've got some words stuck in my throat.
Things i know i should have said
But in the end you could say i choked.
I've got a hand in my pocket, a hand on the rail.
My head's hung low, and i guess you could say i failed.