VIGNETTES (2025)

ASHES TO ASHES
It’s not easy for me either / It’s not the way I thought it’d go /But it’s become clearer and clearer / Averting eyes but we both know / And you could keep every promise / And I could give you all my hope / But if we’re really being honest / We can’t escape the smell of smoke / Ashes to ashes / We make no sound / Ashes to ashes / We all fall down / There are things we can’t untangle / Extricate what we entwined / So we salvage what we’re able / In little piles of yours and mine / And the rest is a memorial / And the flames are licking high / There’s nothing left to conceal / Smoke signals in the sky

THE SEAFARER’S SONG
The things I fear in you are the weaknesses in me / Swallowed by an angry sea / The harbor's safe / But you can't erase the memories / They glide along the westerlies / The compass and the charts / O the stars by night / They were not enough for me /And in the blue I felt it too / My feeble light  couldn't penetrate the deep / I'm so tired of chasing my whale / Of losing my grip / Of fighting ghosts to no avail / Shall I hang up my hat and cut down my sails / And would you call me, call me home / And would you call me, call me home / We're gaining speed, we’re gaining leagues / To the world’s edge / You talk me down from off the ledge / The bitter end, a quick descent / And I'm falling free / I can't escape your gravity / The sonnets that they'll write / The ballads they'll sing / In twenty years won't mean a thing / The ports of call, the winter stall / The reverie and the longing that it brings // The final sound / The anchor down / Salute the sea /And my bones will find their rest / The promises I made to you / I tried to keep / I could only do my best / I could only do my best

TAMED
What have you done to me / And what shall I ever do / Because the fields and stars look differently / Since the day that I first met you / The footsteps I had heard before / From a thousand people I have known / Will never sound quite like yours / Because now I hear yours alone / For you have tamed me / And I am ruined / 'Cause with the taming / There's no undoing / And I will never / Be the same / But for your love / I am gladly tamed / I see your golden curls in the wheat / I hear your laugh in every starry sky / But what I need most desperately / Is invisible to the eye // And I know that you are from afar / And I know that you must go away / But when you gaze upon the earth / Remember me, the one you've tamed

WINTER
There’s a chill in my bones / Between the marrow and soul /And I’m caving in to the quiet below / Til I forget or accept what I don’t want to know / Gonna close my eyes til my heart beats slow / I can’t remember the warmth of your touch / I see you in dreams but never enough / So let me sleep / I don’t wanna wake up / Til the ache melts away / Til the ache melts away / I speak out your name / In my bitterest cold / I breathe out my pain as it turns into ghosts / And I try to escape but the grief holds me close / Gonna my close eyes til my heart beats slow // They say they’re sorry I lost you

RAISED BY WOLVES
He had been raised by wolves / It’s not as if she hadn’t known  / But on the day they met / She found him quite alone / She led him to her bed / Nursed his bloody hands and knees / Covered him in robes / Taught him how to speak /He had been raised by wolves / He would howl in his dreams / In the heat of argument / He would growl instead of scream /But still he promised her /She’d be his one and only / And she believed his word / ‘Cause even wolves get lonely / He had been raised by wolves / Far from the city that contained him / Was she a genius or fool / To believe that she could tame him / When he told her he was leaving /It came as no surprise / ‘Cause no matter how hard you believe it  / Some people can’t be civilized

THE CURE
She was the girl that he never could forget / He was the boy that she thought of with regret / Should he, would she, could they ever know / But try as they may the thought would never let them go / She was the girl who would haunt him in his dreams / He was the boy she’d compare to the ones she’d meet / “Did he–”, “does she–”, ever miss me, too / Oh I wish I knew / Oh all the things that were never said / Keep me as awake as I lie in bed / The only cure that will ever do / Is you / She was the girl that he knew he always loved / He was the boy she couldn’t stop thinking of / “If she –” “wish he –” was in love with me / Oh I’m always wondering / What can I do for an aching heart / Slowly tearing me apart? / The only cure that will ever do  / Is you / She was the girl whose heart couldn’t help but wait / He was the boy who hoped it wasn’t too late / He said, she said, oh it’s been some time / But oh I couldn’t get you off my mind / She was the girl he asked to be his wife / He was the boy, the one true love of her life / Do you? I do, and you’ll always be / The only one for me / ‘Cause oh I have wandered near and far / Trying to quell my longing heart / The only cure that will ever do / Is you

PLEASE LET ME GO
Parting is  such sweet sorrow / It lingers into tomorrow / You know you don’t love me / I know I don’t love you / Yet here we are / We both know better than this / Too many “one last kiss”es / Every time I go to leave / Your hand is on my sleeve / So here we are / And you get me high / You get me low / But I’m not getting over you / Please let me go / ‘Cause a heart just cannot live this way / Bending  but never a clean break / If I’m gonna stop this ache / You know I cannot stay where we are // And you get me high / You get me low / But I’m not getting over you / Til you let me go

STEINBECK  
In the field, in the sun was a lad of twenty-one / Furrowed brow, hand to the plow / He spent his nights, spent his days on the land which he was raised / Til the dust brought him low, forced him to go / And he said, "O my home, I'm leavin', leavin', leavin'" / And he said, "O my heart is grievin', grievin', grievin'" / He gathered up all he owned, headed west to the unknown  / To workers' fields for a bed and a meal / He jumped the trains with the bums, drank his pay with the drunks / Aimless and tough til he had enough / And he said, "O my friends, I'm leavin', leavin', leavin'" / And he said, "O my heart is grievin', grievin', grievin'" / He fell in love with the daughter of the foreman so he bought her / A wedding band, asked for her hand / But the seasons started turning and the money he'd been earning  / Left with the crops so he left with the jobs / And he said, "O my love, I'm leavin', leavin', leavin'" / And he said, "O my heart is grievin', grievin', grievin'" / But my mama loved him fierce, promised she would wait right there / So he labored and loved, dawn until dusk / They said their vows, shared the bed, but he longed for his homestead / To live out their lives under open skies / And he said, "O my wife, we're leavin', leavin', leavin' / And he said, "O my heart's been grievin', grievin', grieving'" / So I was born and I was raised on the land my father made / With a furrowed brow, his hand to the plow / And he was old and full of years but his voice was soft and clear / When he lifted his eyes and sang the last time / And he sang, "O my soul is leavin', leavin', leavin'" / Don't let your heart be grievin', grievin', grievin'"

THE COWBOY PHILOSOPHER  
Was it fact or was it fiction / Where is the division -- Nevermind / I’ll ask you no questions / Please tell me no lies / I used to sit on your shoulders / But now I’ve grown older / I found you hiding out / Between the lines / And you can’t go back / Cover up all your tracks / You’re a hero, a villain / But I am unwilling / To die on a hill in the past / ‘Cause there’s a man behind the curtain / I wonder who hurt him / Who taught him to run  / When the past knocks at the door / Whether imposter or prophet / The bones in the closet / Are in tow with the ghosts / And they dance up a storm / And you can’t go back / Cover up all your tracks / You’re the hero, the villain / But I am unwilling / To die on a hill in the past / And you can’t go back / To undo the past / You’re my hero, my villain / And I am unwilling / To begin settling old scores / And I want you to know / I’ve already let you go / My hero, my villain / I love you still / But I don’t dream of you anymore / My hero, my villain / I love you still and I don’t dream of you anymore

FAR  
I've had visions and I've had dreams / Of you leaving me again / But when I say "again" / I mean the ones who came before you / And I know phantoms and I've seen ghosts / They're the ones that hurt the most / 'Cause no one stays they drift away / And it's something I've grown used to / So who do you think you are / I want you close / But I'll keep you far / I would let you in if I could / Oh I wish I could / I wish I could / I've built walls and I have borders / For my protection as much as yours / That's what I tell myself / But when I'm by myself / I know that I am lying / 'Cause I have scars / I know how to bleed / From when my heart was wounded upon my sleeve / No, you don't forget a thing like that / How it feels when you're sure you're dying // Can the walls come down? / And for how long? / Enough for you to prove me wrong? / Oh I wish you would  / How I wish you would  / I wish you would

LOVERS AND LONERS (2015)

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LOVE (feat. Cameron Ernst)  //  iTunes  |  Amazon
I'll take out an ad / In my local paper / For a man / Sweet and faithful / Tell me can / You find me someone / I could love, love, love, love, love / He don't have to be tall / Or dark or handsome / That ain't all / There is to romance and / I could fall / For a man who'll take a chance / In love, love, love, love, love // 'Cause maybe out there / Somebody, somewhere / Will fit me like a hand / Fits a glove / I'll never stop hopin' / I'll keep my eyes open / For love, love, love, love, love // I get on my knees / And I pray daily / Lord, would You please / Send me a loving lady / She will be / The only, only one / I could love, love, love, love, love // I could love, I could love, I could love / Love / Love

STAY  //  iTunes  |  Amazon
I'm not much for words / I get tangled up in the thoughts and the verbs / So this would be a first, be a first / We could dance around the room / Around the elephant called "me and you" / But it won't make it any easier, easier / So I guess I'll be / The first to say I want you to // Stay / Stay / Stay // See, I'm not usually like this / No, I don't break the ice / I don't go out on limbs / But something tells me that you are worth the risk / So what can I do / To convey how I want you to // 'Cause sooner or later / It was gonna come up / 'Cause the hints that we're dropping / They just aren't enough / So my cards on the table / It's double or none / So what do you say / Won't you please // Stay / Stay / Stay // I wish you would

THE BOOK OF LOVE  //  iTunes  |  Amazon
"The Book of Love" - Stephin Merritt (c) 1999 Gay and Loud Music (ASCAP) administered by House of Hassle Publishing (ASCAP)
The book of love is long and boring / No one can lift the damn thing / It's full of charts and facts, some figures / And instructions for dancing // But I, I love it when you read to me / And you, you can read me anything // The book of love has music in it / In fact that's where music comes from / Some of it is just transcendental / Some of it is just really dumb // But I, I love it when you sing to me / And you, you can sing me anything // The book of love is long and boring / And written very long ago / It's full of flowers and heart-shaped boxes / And things we're all too young to know // And I, I love when you give me things / And you, you ought to give me wedding rings

WORDS  //  iTunes  |  Amazon
It's okay / To say you don't love me / No, it's nothing I didn't already know / It's okay / I will say I saw it coming / Like a train as I stare into the glow / You can play / The saint, I'll play the sinner / Curtain up / As we both play our parts / In your game / You can name yourself the winner / While I pluck all your arrows from my heart / I'll stay small / You'll grow tall, you'll grow bigger / Talk the talk / Oh, you walk the straight and the narrow / Have your fun / Load the gun but you won't pull the trigger / Stare me down / From the other end of the barrel / It's okay / To say what wasn't spoken / And the difference / Of what you said and what I heard / And we make a clean break / But, oh, I'm still broken / 'Cause my weakness has always been your words

LOVERS AND LONERS  //  iTunes  |  Amazon
(c) 2014 Kim Edwards (White Shore Music - ASCAP)  and Sean Aaron Carter (Tent Peg Music - BMI)
Have I become just another number / Of healthy hearts torn asunder / Yeah, I'm counted in the casualties / Of love and war and brazen thieves / Of love and war and brazen thieves / When we etched our names in wood and stone / It carved into my flesh and bone / Oh, deeper than I realized / Until our love was plagiarized / Oh, our love was plagiarized // So add me to your list of lovers turned to loners / And I'll add you to my list of things I'm getting over // Have I become just another line / In a songwriter's worn-out rhyme / Yeah, it's cliche but it's still fresh / The hole you left inside my chest / This gaping hole inside my chest / So I'm left to fix my broken heart / But you took the last of my spare parts / Think you took the last of my spare parts // So add me to your list of lovers turned to loners / And I'll add you to my list of things I'm getting over / And they say time heals / But time can be so slow / 'Cause it's easy come / But never quite as easy go

THE SWEETEST SOUND  //  iTunes  |  Amazon
The hardest part / Is knowing where to start / To put one foot / In front of the other / To climb up out of bed / To eat your jam and bread / To say one day / You might love another // The saddest thing / Is you've forgotten how to sing / How to let regret / Wash away / How to not grow cold / Because you're just growing old / And you don't want / It to haunt / You for always // And in the strangest way / Your heart goes on beating / Even when you're broken / And can barely breathe / So one might conclude / That the heart was built to / Taking a beating / But stop bleeding / Eventually // The sweetest sound you'll ever hear / Is when walls fall / And you love without fear

WANDERLUST (2012) 

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OCEANS  //  iTunes  |  Amazon
Time is a current in the sea of eternity / We're lost in the flow / Waves push me underneath / When I come up to breathe / Will you know me / Shells of who I was before / Scattered on the shore, across the sand / Tides serve to make me smooth / I've nothing left to prove / This is who I am // And someday you will understand / Why I can't live on land / I'm caught in motion / But I'll take a ship against the sky / And a star to steer her by / Give me oceans // Notes in bottles on the beach / Washed-up memories fading away / And I, I sail to the Son / To become undone and then remade

ALOHA  //  iTunes  |  Amazon
Come sail with me / On a carefree sea / Leave your troubles on land and / We'll go out with the tide / Let the stars be our guide / Close your eyes and take my hand / And I've wasted too much time / Barely getting by / Like a castaway at sea / And I've had my share of fears / Sorrows, doubts and tears / But joy comes in the morning // I've had enough of clouds / Aloha rain, aloha stormy days and / I think it's time for the sun to shine / Aloha baby, aloha baby / Hello // I have been here before / Stranded on the shore / Barely clinging to the end of my rope / I've been scanning the horizon / Is there more than just surviving / And just trying to stay afloat 

THE SHOW  //  iTunes  |  Amazon
What are you waiting for? / Turn off the lights and close the door / Were you expecting something more? / The show, the show is over / The curtain fell, were you surprised / To find my makeup was my disguise? / When did you finally realize / The show, show is over? // There's nothing more to see / Just a portrait of you / And a picture of me / There's nothing more to be / So let's pack up the tent and close / The show // We won't pretend it wasn't there / The lights and the crowds, the sounds of the fair / All the laughs we didn't share / And I knew the show was over / I watched you walk a high tight-rope / The net below, your only hope / And when you fell you said that it was a joke / But we knew the show was over // The time has come to board the train / The band has played its last refrain / Sawdust and memories are all that remain / Our show, our show is over // There's nothing more to see / Just a portrait of you / And a picture of me / That's all we'll ever be / So let's pack up the tent and close / The show

I SLEEP BETTER  //  iTunes  |  Amazon
Roll out of bed / Stumble over my words / I guess the litmus test of love is / If you're willing to hurt / Love cannot breathe / When it's a caged bird / There's risk in setting it free / But at least you'll know if it was really yours // And I sleep better / Knowing you're alright // I'd rather know that you love me / Than pretend that you do / And though it may not include me, I / I still want what is best for you

OVER & OVER AGAIN  //  iTunes  |  Amazon
Over and over again / It replays in my head / All the things that I should have said / Over and over I try / To do more than just get by / On a memory that we had // And softly, slowly / You turn and you are going / Don't leave me dreaming / I'm falling for you / Over and over again // Over and over the chance / It slipped right through my hands / To tell you the simple truth / I'm somewhere between here and there / Wondering if you could still care / Or am I just grasping at straws / Between me and you // Your eyes beg me not to / Let you go, then you / Wait for a moment / And turn to me // And softly, slowly / You tell me that you love me / Don't wake me if I'm dreaming / I'm falling for you / Over and over and / And softly, slowly / You tell me that you love me / Don't wake me if I'm dreaming / I'm falling for you / Over and over / I'm falling for you / Over and over / I'm falling for you / Over and over again

IT WAS ME  //  iTunes  |  Amazon
Another rainy day in New York City / As we take a walk in Central Park / One glance at you tells me everything / And without a word I know she broke your heart / For all our history you still look right past me / But I'm the one that you're trying to find / And as we run for cover I can hear you wonder / Who's loved you for all this time / And my heart screams // It was me, it was me / Love unrequited / You ignited something deep in me / It was you, it was you / In all of my dreaming / And I keep believing that I'll mean more to you // Another aching heart in New York City / As we roam the streets that never sleep / Two hearts so close / Yet you're so far from me / Will there ever be an end to this bittersweet / You complain about the rain / You're such an unlucky fella / But I won't mind / Open up the sky / If it means that we share an umbrella / And my heart screams // And we say goodnight / I take a drive to clear my head / Past the city lights / Are all the things we've left unsaid / 'Cause where we are / Is where I fear we'll always be / And I can only pray / That you'll realize one day // It was me, it was me / Love unrequited / You ignited something deep in me / It was you, it was you / In all of my dreaming / And I keep believing that I'll mean more to you / That I'll mean more to you / Please let me mean more to you

BEFORE & AFTER  //  iTunes  |  Amazon
Stay close  now is when I need you mostly there but I'm mostly Gone with the Wind is a classic flickering at nighttime at night I'm asleep at the will you hold my hand me down the drain all that I've worked four score and twenty years a Golden Age before Beauty and the Beast within is vanquished my anguish is over now but it's not the end of the road outrageous contagious hope is not contained by four walls or halls of fame and glory to God in the highest and peace on earth for what it's worth its weight in golden and silver linings in the cloudy days but not always so stay close now is when I need you most / Oh, won't you stay close

121  //  iTunes  |  Amazon
I lift mine eyes to the hills / From whence cometh my help / My help is from the Lord / The Maker of heaven and earth / He does not slumber or sleep / He who watches Israel will keep / Thy foot from being removed / And He will preserve your soul / The Lord is thy keeper / The Lord is the shade at thy hand / And the sun shall not smite thee by day / Nor the moon by night / He will keep you from all evil / He will preserve your soul / And guard all your comings and goings / Even forevermore

BLUE  //  iTunes  |  Amazon
White paper, blue pen / All my thoughts of you descend / Into bits of verse and scraps of rhyme / Pretty words in ink and time / But poetry cannot express / Nor libraries do you justice / It's in the way you run through my veins / Blue / An old piano and a blues song / You sang to me when I was so wrong / I was a broken chord to your sweet refrain / I found my voice when you sang my name / But charming tunes will not suffice / Nor clever lyrics do you right / It's in the way you run through my veins / Blue / Blue / Blank canvas, blue paint / Stroke by stroke you covered my stains / I used to live in black and white / Until you came and colored my life / O, DaVinci, he would paint in vain / And galleries, they could not contain / O, the way you run through my veins / Blue / Blue / Blue

NO OTHER  //  iTunes  |  Amazon |  iTunes (acoustic version)  |  Amazon (acoustic version)
There's something about when you know, you just know / And the searching stops because you've finally found home / So may I hold your hand for the rest of our lives / Because loving you has made me realize // There's no other hand I'd rather hold / No other warmth to chase away my cold / No other life I'd rather share / No other home unless you're there // And sometimes there'll be those kinds of days like Mama said / And days when all the world will envy what we have / But I promise you that / Through thick and thin, through the good and bad / I'll be right by your side // So let's please be like that old couple holding hands / With fifty years and more under our wedding bands / And seasons will come and go, in time we'll grow and change / But until my very last breath this truth will still remain

LONDON-TOWN  //  iTunes  |  Amazon
I'm sitting down / On a park bench in London-town / And wishing you were here / Oh, the breeze off the Thames / Makes me wish that you could warm my hands / Oh, how I miss you, dear / I've got crumpets, I've got teas / But my heart is overseas / It only wants to be with you / But if there's somewhere I must bide / Until you are by my side / London-town will do / I am walking around / The busy streets of London-town / To lose an hour or two / There's a chill in the air / As I wander through Trafalgar Square / But my mind wanders back to you / Yes, I get quite sentimental / At this intercontinental / Love story between me and you / But since there's no other way / As I wait another day / London-town will do / There is snow on the ground / Of the quiet streets of London-town / But my footprints are alone / As I pass old Big Ben / The bells, they ring out half-past ten / And I wish that I were home / Oh and if I could command it / I would dry up the Atlantic / And simply walk across to you / But since there's no way around it / Otherwise I would have found it / London-town will do / Yes, London-town will do

WANDERLUST  //  iTunes  |  Amazon
I was born on a moving train / Wanderlust runs through my veins / All my effort, all my will / Won't tame this heart, it won't be still / I crave a place to call my own / Yet I long to follow the winds that blow / One hand clings to the ties I've bound / While the other untethers me from the ground // It breaks my heart to walk away / And it breaks my heart to grow roots and stay / I chase my peace and I'm left to roam / Where I go, God only knows / Where I go,  God only knows // When the dust clings to my feet / When I've finally learned these streets / When strangers are strangers no more / When I'm welcome in their door / When I think I could settle down / When I've come to love this town / Is when I must move up and on / I've just arrived and now I'm gone // It's funny, the things that break your heart / The things that you begin to miss / The things that you never would have thought / Crept in your soul and led to this / And I thought I was so immune / Thought I didn't care, I was unaware / Yeah, it's funny, the things that break your heart / Yet somehow you're glad they do / Yet somehow I'm glad they do