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josh ritter
(1999 - self-released)
Josh Ritter: voice, guitar, piano
Zack Hickman: bass, organ, harp
Tom Graves: cello
Darius Zelkha: drums & spooky sounds
Produced by dz. Recorded & mixed by Zachary Williamson
at TIMARA studios, Oberlin, Ohio. Mastered by Sean McFaul.
Art direction help by Jumee Park. Cover photo by Ben
Fountain.
Leaves and Kings
I met you at a party or on a crowded street
A silent singularity when glances chanced to meet
You looked into my glasses, said you'd seen a ghost
I tried my best to make you smile as we calypsoed close
I have been to Cleveland and you have been to jail
You seem to be recovering but I felt a little pale
Our house it was on seventeenth above a hardware store
And there we lived with seven cats all named for seven
dwarves
But like leaves and kings, all things must fall
No diamond ring's gonna cut through it all
You were working as a graverobber, you could do your
job at night
I was living hand to mouth just looking for a fight
The reason why we parted it ain't that hard to find
I was always busy, and you never had the time
well the reason why we parted it ain't that hard to
see
But I was never sure if I left you or you left me
(chorus)
And when it was all over I lost myself in work
You got married to a lawyer painting murals in New York
(You got married to a dentist building bridges in New
York)
And though it seems a million miles ago since I saw
the light
The hours flowed by nervously like warships in the night
Many times I've been corrupted but I've never been in
love
I began to realise that that's just where I was
So I packed up my possessions and caught an east-bound
train
met you in Ohio sleeping in the rain
(chorus)
So now we're going back again to start where we began
With rules and regulations but no real kind of plan
I've learned my lesson well with no mistakes at all
Once you find yourself true love you just keep holding
on
Like leaves and kings, all things must fall
No diamond ring's gonna cut through it all
but now out of the dark, out of the blue,
like leaves and kings I've fallen in love with you
Beautiful Night
Up here in the crows nest I am swimming through the
breeze
One last memory from the sun as it is sinking by degrees
And high above the albatrosses, on the wing is light
And I will sing to her as she flies by
On this beautiful night
Ahead is the horizon, always changing, it stands fast
Far behind me are the desert islands, shipwrecks Of
the past
And I have seen the cannons sounding in the early morning
light
But I have left my battles for the day
On this beautiful night
Below me, all the sailors, they're on this journey
too
And each of us must make our unknown way upon the blue
So tonight we cast our worries,
Float Jetsam on the tide
And we'll watch them echo far away
On this beautiful night
Flat earth may end
We may sail off the edge
And not be seen again
So I sing and hope my song will form
A rope of golden chords
So that I can rescue someone else
Should they fall overboard
Because some of us are pirates and some of us are damned
But all of us, need all of us to ever find the land
And though the passage of good hope may seem
Like a needles eye
We're floating on tranquility
On this Beautiful night
Up here in the crows nest
I am swimming through the breeze
One last memory from the sun
Hotel Song
Sunday night, its supper time, the hotel’s full
and all is fine. You can see that No Vacancy sign from
the window of room 39
Monday morning at half past eight, everybody’s
gone, they left no trace. I sit alone as the day grows
late, wait to see your friendly face
Why you chose my hotel I’m not real qualified
to tell, it’s just your face I remember well,
when you asked if I had a room to sell
Maybe you liked just what you saw, the cable TV and
the indoor spa or maybe it was the low low price –
twenty-seven bucks a night
Say the highway is for lovers, but he ain’t no
friend of mine, because every time I find my heart,
I lose it to that long yellow line
You checked in, I checked you out, you smiled from
the corners of your mouth
I turned on the no-vacancy sign as you checked in to
room 39
I saw the light from your TV, you were watching channel
23, the night was long, the dark was deep, I kinda cried
myself to sleep
Say the highway is for lovers, but he ain’t no
friend of mine, because every time I find my heart,
I lose it to that long yellow line
Morning broke itself at last, you got your continental
breakfast, dropped off the key and said goodbye, I think
I thought I heard you sigh
I caught a glimpse of your licence plate, you were drifting
down the innerstate
It said you were from Delaware, I said oh it must be
gorgeous there
Paint Your Picture
Pictures on my wall,
Fifteen different colours,
Starting with vermillion-
The first flower of the summer,
And don't think I'll be finished
Till I've begun to understand this,
With you stretched out in the sunlight,
As your laughter fills my canvas
The sun falls in my fingers,
On your back against the blinds,
It's tracing out your hollows
It is filling in your lines,
There your curl finds your spiral
As you silhouette the window,
When my brush forgives itself
Spills lines upon your pillow,
Finds you standing in the middle
Of the lines you've laid down before
Try to trace my picture into yours
Let me paint you in the corner,
As your shoulders trap the light
See the sunset feeling golden
On the wineskins of the night
I have seen your eyes in paintings
As Cathedrals cried Hosanna
Let me paint your face in frescos
Hang your hair like Angelabra
See you standing in the middle
Of lines you laid down before,
Try to paint my picture into yours
In the morning let me find you
As I call to you by name,
Your body warm beside me
Not imprisoned in a frame
I could never find the colours
Or the light that finely paints you
With those roses in your hair
Smell of wine, immortal perfume
As you're standing in the middle
Of lines you laid down before
Tryin' to paint my picture into yours
Potter's Wheel
I close my eyes and it all returns like the spinning
of a potter's wheel
trying to stay ahead a morning as time came running
with us
and she beat us to the finish as we ran through the
fields
you were born in the city and you didn't recognise me
your beauty unexpected like a flower in the concrete
some gods far below the worlds undiscovered
set you up to ruin temples to find me on the streets
I'm an alias of who I am a counterfeited fake
in the picture I am kneeling like a dying saint jerome
hurling rocks at the demons who tried to come too near
till you came in and possessed me now I feel at home
I remember the time I walked for seven hours
and thought about the people I had known for so long
all the castles I had built of of fine and precious
sand
till you came in like the tide now I don't care that
they are gone
as we floated up the river I translated the verses
that were written on memorials for the ships that had
sank
and I thought about the people that traded sinking for
uncertainty
and drowned because of lonliness before they reached
the banks
on a beach near Barcelona the young girls cry for mary
and they bury earthen vessels in the rocks by the sea
I am sending out a bottle with a prayer upon the waves
that you'll find inside my picture and your memory will
unfold me
we were talking about a trip that I had taken to the
canyons
and you told me of a river that had cut through time
leaving only the pictures of long dead sons and daughters
and you told that the paintings looked a lot like mine
I try and watch myself to see what I am saying
but my heart is on my collar and I'm asking you to take
it
I don't want to go back to the way things were before
before the dawn turns into morning I want you there
to break it
and a thousand years from now when our names are just
a memory
and poets have recorded what happened in the past
lovers loving in the night will find our forms in constellations
seekers seeking for salvation will find our stories
in the stained glass
a boy in the city who has never seen the morning
as he's running arm in arm with you through the fields
will be caught unexpected by a flower in the concrete
it will all return again just like a potter's wheel
Last Ditch Effort (see you try)
You have chosen dawn to leave
Don't bother me while I am sleeping
Life continues and though you go out
I'll sleep another hour or so
Though you think that I am fragile
I'm a river and I'll travel on whether you are here
or not
You're not the only thing I've got
So turn the light off when you leave
Don't forget to leave the key
You know I'm going to miss your touch
You say that you can't help that much
But I would have loved to see you try
It's not that we committed sins
We wouldn't know where to begin
We just love different things in our lives
i love you and you loved time
Now that my time has gone
You have risen like the dawn
And you kissed me as if once we part
i might die of a broken heart
(chorus)
Though I will not try to change your mind
Believing what you left behind
is a child who is lost confused
as a consequnce of loving you
I will not try to call your bluff
The truth would hurt you far too much
I'm sorry I got left behind
But now you're gone I feel fine
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