Lyrics

Sunrise

All lyrics (c) Brendon Matthew Thomas

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pulling away
santa fe sun go down to rest over the house that once was ours. i’m willing to bet that nothing will ever be as hard as pulling away from you. i know i didn’t have a lot to say to help you understand... why my wild heart tears me away from this lovely life we had. baby it makes me sad. hell i’ve never been so sad as driving away from you. it breaks my heart to be this free but i know that this what i need and im so sorry. just know this wasn’t you... did all that you could do. you are something special and i failed to make you know. its a mystery to me and it will likely always be that i only shine my brightest when im all on my own.

sunrise left
carry this body. tumble deep into the night. run with the wounded-hearted crowd and dreamshot eyes. perfect souls aren't we all? just some with trouble on the mind. don’t come down on yourself my friend, you’ll be alright. you've got some sunrise left inside you. buy a round of drinks. two or three. sometimes it takes a little more to put your mind at ease. step outside. light a smoke. feel the cold and just dig those stars. in a t shirt and jeans on the sidewalk with the buzzing bar sign glowing lonely. in this town you make your escape. you can’t just wait around. the longer you stay the more that comfort locks you down. voices grow loud in the dark and they're screaming at you now. you know you've got something to prove, you just cant see how. you love what comes easy but man it don’t get you far. locked up in your room keeping secrets in that guitar. well that high hard road will lead you to gold, though its buried by years, no guarantee from the world... but if you listen to your heart i think you will know. before its all smoke burning off in the wind. before you’re just smoke.

red bird
sing like an old jazz tune. don’t you fly away for good. sing me something for my tumbleweed blues. i’ve been rollin’ on the breeze but i ain’t got much say in where i cruise. some days are just no fun sittin’ stuck up on the fence, til that wild wind comes howling in and sets me free again. some days are just no fun on the fence, and that wild wind might be my only friend. ain’t no justice for a man when the law breaks the truth. he might do what’s right in his own mind but sometimes baby, that still ain’t no good. i know i'm just a tumbleweed but baby, i feel so misunderstood.

love against the grain
beneath a maple tree i watch the dying leaves let go and tumble down on the blacktop street. got some wild fire in these early morning eyes. there’s a shift in the wind and all the colors rush in. i let it fill my heart till i feel it split. hit the road in just these clothes and get away. drop the everyday, make some love against the grain. this nation is stitched up with christmas lights, billboards dogmas and sex shop signs, strung along these roads we drive with haste when i need to slow down. and there’s a hurt that dwells in each town i pass, where a silent war broke the working man; left with little more than pink paper and rain. just trying to find the way back to shore again. but what gets me the most is that hint of love that perseveres in the face of just giving up, and that alone my friend is beauty you can’t buy. the darkest places fill with the faintest light. so i pull off slow to the truck stop glow. kill the lights and just listen to the highway moan, like grandfather time singing blues to the western wind. i fill up the tank and have a look around, and i love what i see because its all right now. go inside and give my money to a girl with soft brown eyes. though i hardly speak a work ‘cause she froze me up inside. and i curse the way i fall for everything. walk back to the car and let my secrets sting when the butterflies become a swarm of bees. it’s a delicate pose i taught myself to hold. no chance for love without letting go of this free heart, unbound, chasing selfish dreams. i’m just a lonely soldier on the road the greater things.

montana
the montana mountain skyline holding up its gracious arms. breaking clear on through to heaven to let some light in through the dark on an old rusted airplane that took a dive back in the summer of ‘73. they said the pilot was from missoula in pursuit of the great spirit on lsd. they never found him. 10 years to the day i was a newborn babe in a bundle back east, where the mountains aren’t quite as tall but they were three time as green, and when i opened my eyes it was clear that i was back again. but soon enough i forgot, as we tend to do, the places i had been. they say the calendar has cancer... believe what you will. i feel blessed to be here even if the world tilts. i'm walking barefoot through the back field on a lucid summer night, where the breeze incites the willow trees but i don’t hear nobody cry. oh god in the heart of man, let us be real and true to one another now. be you a spirit, thought, song, dog, cloud, dream, or piss under the stars. all i think i know for sure is maybe you really love us all. and the sooner we reflect that love the sooner the illusion will fall like a cool steady rain on a warm summer day. you smell it fresh on the pavement. put some more rust on that old airplane, way up there in montana, until it all goes back to dust. then she’ll really fly.

snow country
the northern country snow sings an early winter soft like static, down. quaking in the breeze like aspen leaves. silver whispers blanketing the ground. cloak my body in my woolen coat. keep me warm. walk the frozen earth. watch them slowpoke clouds pass like city crowds and carry on in a separate world. the freezing wind tastes sharp. sweet like fire smoke, fixed upon the cold. and this tiny town yields a tiny sound, like fever hands, so fragile in our hold. i walk lonely through the falling snow but loneliness, for now, is what i need. my soul just needs a little space to breathe. the same old season shift. same old townie friends. same old hungry feeling for something more in all of this. but i will wander through this evening. through the passing of all things. over the swinging bridge, fallen road... the icy hill and the fading old brown leaves.

busted rope
my old man had some stories. he told them all the time. he was a wild bastard in a former life and it carried into mine. it broke my heart what he said to me in a call in the middle of the night. said “i hope you know i'm proud of you son. and by the way, i’m running out of time.” it was my birthday when i got the news. a greyhound ticket and some orphan blues. got my girl to feed the dog so i could go back home. the place was still a mess, just like the day i left. only difference being him not around now to leave it alone. there was a half cup of coffee and some hot rod magazines. that shitty little radio on oldies 93. i put on a suit and combed my hair. bought a bottle of whiskey and made my way there to pay my respects to that sweet old bastard of mine. saw some busted rope on an apple tree. just a vague idea of what it used to be. blowing free in the cemetery breeze. i held my distance from the sad eyed crowd and the box that just carried some body now while my old man’s ghost was having a drink somewhere. my mama blew town when i was 3 and he did his best to stick around for me. i hope he knows i love him for that... giving up that wild life for me.

wanderer
i’ve been a wanderer. that’s all i’ll ever really be. i’m a flesh design of sacred memory. i’ve been a grassy hill in the old love light. i’ve been a country road. i’ve been a motor bike. baby i’ve been gone. just like a wild horse laughing in the dark. on the edge of a town that long forgot the stars. i’ll say a prayer for all before i turn to ride... down that long dim trail to the great divide. baby i’ve been gone. i never felt so much like nothing. i never felt so alive as when i found myself so lost in the world and let the sweetness fill my mind. as tall as mountains and open as an old screen door. i’m as jaded as a church and holy as a liquor store. i’ve been hurt so good. i’ve been in love so bad. i’ve been a jealous heart. i’ve been the best she ever had. and i will love them all. probably always will. cause they taught me that true love don’t stand still.

for the light
for the light does shine on me. and all these roads show me love then fade back down to memories. i’ve been counting stars from rail cars. waking up in places far away. you’re either running to or running from, but in the end you’re running just the same. ain’t nobody knows for sure what lies a little further on down the road. the light does shine on me. from open moon cold mountain night to blazing desert devil’s fever dreams. passing time upon a world so fine, how can i choose just one place to stay? i’ve been fixin for love and i been fixin to run but there ain’t nothin i would fix about today. and ain’t nobody knows what lies a little further on down the road.

madfolk
the night is bright. mad folk sing and talk about stuff. i’ve been flailing with the moon a little crazy myself... but there it came to me clear so now i’ve got to hang on. silver dollar on the water please show me i'm strong. have we gone so blind that we can’t see the beauty? are we so stuck in the ground that we’ve stopped moving? i am not a man. that’s just how i get around. and i'll take this wiry body screamin’ all over town. i saw a lonely lost parade in the lions den. i saw the essence of a child in the dark hearts of men. i spoke free to the earth, and man, she listened so soft. then we just sat together quiet and she turned me on. are we so locked in time that we’ve stopped living? are we so deep in sleep that we have ceased our dreaming? i am not my name. that is just subjective sound. and i’ll forget it soon enough anyhow. i've got a universe of love in my heart, but sometimes i’m confused as the stars. just burning in this endless void of different points in time. burning like the fireworks display of thoughts in my mind. have we gone so blind that we can’t see the beauty? are we so stuck in the ground that we’ve stopped moving? i am not a man. that’s just how i get around... and i’ll take this wiry body screamin’ all over town, “i am alive!”

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