Walk Away

Featuring Dave Westner, Natalia Beth Cooper, and Chris and Astrid.

Walking Distance

There is nothing
Nothing out in the desert
And no man
No man needs nothing
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Broken Things

Ah, well! for us all some sweet hope lies
Deeply buried from human eyes
And, in the hereafter, angels may
Roll the stone from its grave away

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Woebegone

The good and the bad
The happy and the sad
All the living and the dead
It will stay with me
For eternity
My thoughts are a tornado
In my head

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Better

Is this the way to live a life
Never think about the meaning
Then one day you wake up
And the whole world is careening
Well I'm no philosopher
Not Jean Paul Sartre
But it doesn't take a genius to know
You gotta have heart, miles of heart
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Blue Skies Ahead

I look at a faded photo
I don't recall the time or place
There is some girl in blue jeans
I don't recognize the face

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Memoirs of My Nervous Illness

D'où venons nous, que sommes nous, où allons nous.
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Brutal Beauty

We ought to write it down in a book
And put it on our shelves
'Cause the past is just a story
We tell ourselves
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The New World

No none of us are alone in this
One way or other we face the abyss
The bum, the cabbie and the millionaire
Hitler and Ghandi and good ol' Voltaire
One thing's for sure we all grow frail
The electric charge comes off our third rail
And if you fight it then you are a fool
Ain't it a bitch how life is so cruel

If you do download my albums, please consider a donation. My 200 monthly downloads are about to run out, which means Bandcamp will automatically start charging $7.
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Music From Big Beige

A big beige building seated in the shade of the Fenway in Boston, Big Beige bore this music and these songs along its way, It's the first witness of this album that's been thought and composed right there inside its walls.

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Summerville

Let's hang out in hotels
And sneak into their swimming pools
If they ever catch us
We'll say we don't play by their stinkin' rules
We'll go down to the Esplanade
On the Fourth of July
Stay up late for the fireworks
Plastered all over the Summerville sky
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Goodbye Tomorrow

And into my garden stole
When the night had veiled the pole
In the morning glad I see
My foe outstretched beneath the tree
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Head for the Hills

The cool wind of hope blows eternal
As if to keep us on our toes
Maybe there'll be a brighter day tomorrow
So pack up all of your woes
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A Long Day's Journey

You may think it's all a game
But you're wrong, you're wrong
We're all connected just the same
One big ol' throng
You may think you'll get away
With telling all your lies
Well you are in, I bet
For one big surprise
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Encounter

O my love, where are they
Where are they going
The flash of a hand
Streak of movement
Rustle of pebbles
I ask not out of sorrow
But in wonder
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23 Skidoo

When I ride on the subway
Well I feel so alone
No one looks me in the eye
No one tosses me a bone
All the pretty girls are texting
And twirling their hair
And I feel just like a no one
Who is not really there
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Little Bastards

You may think that he is hiding
But he is in plain view
He is me and he is you
You may think that he's gone missing
Just look over there
Look at the guy with the well-groomed hair
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Sing Cuckoo!

Every addict is formed
In the crucible
Of the memory
Of that first hit
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The Other

We went to Niagara Falls a few summers ago and stayed with some friends who live in upper New York State, which is actually very rural, all fields and farms for as far as you can see. These friends live in a small college town called Seneca Falls, which is the very place that was fictionalized as Bedford Falls in the movie "It's a Wonderful Life." Only now the town, with the exception of the school, is pretty depressed - lots of these small towns were once factory towns, and now all the factories are gone. So you see a lot of people who look tired and careworn and blown apart. It was a sad place, and I couldn't help but feel that sadness. So when we came back I started writing songs that reflected that, songs about the displaced and the dispossessed. Songs about the separateness we all can feel.

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We Got a Groovy Thing Going

There's a dream that I have
And I'm with you again
There's a dream that I have
And we're laughing
And in this dream that I have
You are writing your name in the sky
In this dream that I have
You are dancing
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Songs of Love and Regret

What if I had read the signs
And acted a little more quick
When I think of what I might have done
It just makes my heart feel sick
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I Will Never Forgive You

You stand before me 

Your arms outstretched 

With your eyes staring up at the sky 

Your hand is waving 

And your black hair is blowing 

Could be hello, could be goodbye 

I will be waiting until you decide 

I will be waiting 

I'm along for the ride

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Kith

It wearies me; you say it wearies you

But how I caught it, found it, or came by it

What stuff 'tis made of, whereof it is born

I am to learn

And such a want-wit sadness makes of me

That I have much ado to know myself

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Meet Eliot Wilder

We sail in the twilight of eternal now
When suddenly someone takes a long step off the bow
We search for him for an eternity
One, two, three
One, two, three
I'm in you
You in me
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Secrets and Lies

You tell me your stories
And I want to believe
You tell me your stories
And you deceive me
They sound realistic
They sound true
But there’s something about them
That’s not quite you

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The Great Escape

There will be good times
When we reach our destination
It will be like a life on permanent vacation
There is no freakin' bureaucracy
There is no red tape
So come on, come on, come on
Come on, come on, come on
It's the great escape

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Travelogue

My car is a clunker
Not like the fancy ones for which I valet
And when it breaks down
I ditch it hoping someone will just tow it away
I own one nice shirt
And one nice pair of pants
I go to work and take my place
With all the other worker ants

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101

Uncertainty is an uncomfortable position
But certainty is an absurd one
Why not celebrate the vastness of our ignorance
And be a possibilian
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Promise

You talk like a politician
Or a guy who sells used cars
Or a guy who says he doesn't want your money
Or a guy who tells stories in bars
You sound oh so confident
Like you really believe what you say
Where's the truth
Where's the lie
What does it matter anyway
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What I Found in the Remains

Here's a letter you wrote
From UC Santa Cruz
You liked your class in philosophy
I could see you
Coming into your own
You said
"I wish you were here to come along with me"

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Lost Time

We write novels that tell our stories
But they don't get it right
We build great statues to our heroes
But they cast a strange light
We get ourselves ready for takeoff
But we never take flight
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Thought Palaces

You boyfriend was a jerk
And he beat you to a pulp
One time I kicked his ass
You jumped back with a gulp
Then you disappeared
Moved out to LA
Starred on "Melrose Place"
Life is one big soiree
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The Essential Invisible

I heard a song in the middle of a dream
And it woke me from my slumber
It spurred me on, it rocked my world
You could say it had my number
I got my sack and I got good shoes
And I got a certain esprit
And I know when I get to the top of the mountain
I will be set free
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All Hail Anhedonia!

Thirteen songs about the beginning, the middle and the end.

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Scoundrels

Most of the characters in these songs are people I know, have once known or, perhaps, imagined I knew. They are all rather slippery people, the kind you are not quite sure of, the kind that leave you guessing. When they tell you something personal, as they often do, you wonder how much of it is true and how much fabrication. The thing is, they don't know themselves - so how can you? And yet, because they are often good at sounding like they know what they are saying, and because they look and act completely convincing, you want to buy in.

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Personality Crisis

For people who live unexamined lives, the world just happens, happening as it does beyond their will or ability to act upon it. Because, to them, there are always external forces - perhaps God, perhaps chance, perhaps circumstance - that they believe are outside their ability to understand and control. In most cases, they get away with so much because they think so little. But if they began a process of self-evaluation and -examination, they may come to discover that there is much they can do. Or, at the very least, they can stop deflecting blame for the pain they inflict. Coming to this place of discovery requires much work - more work than most people want to invest in. But the ultimate reward can be great, not only for the people who awaken to their lives, but also to the people in their orbit. They just need to start. But the question remains: How to begin?

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Social Studies

Nowadays everyone's got a window
A clear and unobstructed view
You'd think with all that information
That we would know
We would know what to do
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End of the Road

There comes a time when a certain relationship reaches an end, but one of the parties seems to be unaware that this has happened. Or maybe that person lives in a state of denial. Or is oblivious. Or just wants to pretend that what's has gone on for the last decade or two or three is hunky dory, even though no effort or energy whatsoever has been put into keeping the relationship alive. It's just this thing, this entity - but it is not true; it does not breathe, it does not move, it is not about anything at all. And what do you say to this person? How do you tell him or her that you are at the end of the road?

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Speak, Memory

This album, originally recorded in 2010, has several of my favorite tracks on it, including "Crossing the Line," "Midnight Town" and "The Devil Ain't Got No Music," which was inspired by a line that Mavis Staples uttered on "The Colbert Report" when asked how she felt about singing the devil's music. (Subsequently, in the past year, the blues singer Lurrie Bell has recorded a tune using the same title, but I got there first!). At any rate, after listening to this record recently, I thought it could be better - not only the mix, but the vocals as well. So I've given it a fresh coat of paint.

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Life Among the Lilies

I tried to love you
But you would not let me in
You kept me at a distance
Like a vestigial twin
You lied to me so sweetly
And I wanted to go on believing
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Cakewalk

Up and down
The wheel does grind
Round and round
In this Coney Island of the mind
High and low
With all mankind
We spin and spin
In this Coney Island of the mind
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The Further Adventures of Larry Kusnitt

And after all our pain and suffering
And after all of our goddamn work
Why oh why is God a goddamn jerk
Such a goddamn jerk
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Bad Side

It's a miracle I did not lose you
It's a miracle you let me speak
I gave you cause to punch me in the face
And yet you turned the other cheek
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Fear

Drapes are drawn
All over this land
Everyone is sleeping sound
The wheel's unmanned
Goose is cooked
Pretty spooked
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A Good Man

So I am a peephole
Into a windowless room
Where the sweat on the tiles
Is the only perfume
On the desk is diary
And next to it a vase
The rose draws blood
And it drips on the lace
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An Interview With the San Diego Reader

Yeah, so I a did an interview recently with the San Diego Reader where I talk about my album Quartet and some other things.

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Jacob's Ladder

A mystery surrounds me
Like none I've ever known
And I don't know the meaning
As it spins 'round me like a cyclone
I have spent whole my life searching
Trying to figure out just why I'm here
But try as I may and try as I might
I don't think I've ever come near

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Sunny Window

"Sunny Window" is a long-deleted Colgems single from 1969, matrix number 66/1019.
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Goodbye Richmond

Originally titled "Bread of Dreams," this was my second album, and it all came about because of Dave Westner, engineer and multitasking musician extraordinaire at Woolly Mammoth Studios. At this stage I was extremely unsure of what I could do both musically and lyrically, but slowly (the recording stretched on between 2007 and 2008) I began to find my legs, mostly because Dave was so proficient at translating my vague ideas into musical realities. Once we'd finished a track, he'd say, "Go write another one." And I would. And bit by bit, this record came together. I like this album a lot, and I really love Dave's playing on it. He's an incredible "feel" musician, and most of what he did he laid down in the very first take.

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Bandcamp Update

During the past months I've been going over all the songs and albums that I've posted on Bandcamp, and I've remastered, re-tweeked and re-imagined virtually everything. So if you'd listened to a particular track or album in the past, you might want to give it another shot. Or perhaps there might be something else ...

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