Lyrics

Grace of God

Amy Speace / Jon Vezner

I have fallen been broken shattered and shamed
With a sorrow unspoken and sins I won't name
In a dark I can't forget
No light left to see

I've had demons I've chased down the end of my rope
Clear to the bottom clinging to hope
With nowhere to go
But down on my knees

But for the grace of God go I
When there's nowhere left to hide
When I'd had enough
And I'd given up
On trying so hard to try
But for the grace of God go I

I've been blessed, sacred to the point of profane
Hung onto hatred fueled by the flame
Of a self righteous truth
Just a virtuous lie

I've been the lover who's sneaking away from the crime
And the gossip reporting every secret but mine
Thinking I had the answers
Only to find

But for the grace of God go I
When there's nowhere left to hide
When I'd had enough
And I'd given up
On trying so hard to try
But for the grace of God go I

I've been here before bragging my scars
Only to follow dragging my heart
Weakened and wounded
Worn down by the weight

Now I don't know much but I know this
Sometimes you just gotta wade through the shit
It's hard to get through - you don't have to do it alone

But for the grace of God go I
When there's nowhere left to hide
When I've had enough
And I've given up
On trying so hard to try
But for the grace of God go I

Pretty Girls

Amy Speace

Pretty girls in ponytails
Side by side in pretty pairs
Common as the Nightengale
Pretty girls are everywhere

Pretty girls in borrowed clothes
Powdered skin and polished toes
Pretty girls check every mirror
Make sure they don't disappear

Pretty girls in pretty crowds
I wonder what they talk about
Does it feel much different in that world
I wish I could have been a pretty girl

Pretty girls in the center
Gossiping in groups together
Listen to the little songs
Of pretty girls and tagalongs

Pretty girls find each other
The rest of us lean close and hover
Envy them their sideswept hair
Pretty girls are everywhere

Pretty girls in pretty crowds
I wonder what they talk about
It must feel so different in their world
I wish I could have been a pretty girl

Pretty girls on the train
Dress in shades of black and grey
Lean their cheek against the glass
I watch them watch the world fly past

Pretty people carry on
Don't ask themselves if they belong
Pretty is a neighborhood
You build your home where others stood

Pretty girls, pretty places
Crowded rooms and painted faces
Oh the lucky and the few
But I wonder if it's true
That maybe they are looking at me too
Wondering what the pretty girls do

Standing Rock

Amy Speace / Jonathan Byrd

Pray in a circle. Split the wood
Strip the bark for teepee poles
Stir the soup. Feed the pigs
That's how you keep from the cold

There’s razor wire and a concrete fence
Surveillance planes and drones
Compound lighting on the ridge
A cold as old as buffalo bones

This water is a wall
Can they even hear
the truth that makes the mighty fall?
Standing Rock still standing here

We got supplies and shelters built,
yurts and borrowed army tents
against rubber bullets, concussion grenades
and a stockholder President

Water cannons shoot dirty tricks
Clean across a sacred lake.
Oil leaks, concrete cracks,
Even promises will break.

This water is a wall
Can they even hear
The truth that makes the mighty fall
Standing Rock still standing here

When the soil is barren and the crops are dry
When the sharp skinned hawk has left her nest
When the black snake is dead and gone
When we’ve long laid our heads to rest

When the children ask years from now
And they’re learning how to sing along
When the cameras left and signs came down
Which side of the water were you on

This water is a wall
Can they even hear
The truth that makes the mighty fall
Standing Rock still standing here

This water is a wall
And in a hundred years
The truth that made the might fall
Kept Standing Rock still standing here

Both Feet On The Ground

Amy Speace

Everyday I make my bed
Everyday I make my bed
Everyday I make my bed
So I can keep both feet on the ground

Everyday I say that prayer
Everyday I say that prayer
Everyday I say that prayer
So I can keep both feet on the ground

Once I flew up past the stars
Calling out your name
So you’d know how to find me when you came

Every day I sing to you
Every day I sing to you
Every day I will sing to you

So I can keep both feet on the ground
So I can keep both feet on the ground
So I can keep both feet on the ground

Icicle King

Amy Speace

Once I was a sailer on a ship made of barley and cotton
It took less than a week to cross the ribbon of fleece
I captained the whitecaps that bowed to my feet when we crested
A rowboat, no paddles, the infinite sea

Once I sailed right over the clouds up to heaven
Propelling myself by the carpet I’d borrowed from Zeus
I surfed with the angels who did not believe I was seven
They crowned me then let me dream under an Everly Spruce

They'll never come looking I'll stay out till Spring
Nothing can touch me at all - I’m the Icicle King

You asked how I know who I am well it came like a whisper
The queen of the frost on the window told me I could fly
So I leapt from the edge of my bed straight out into winter
Right over the roof and the trees to the edge of the sky

They'll never come looking I'll stay out till Spring
Nothing can touch the Icicle King
I rule over the cold and the cats and the snow
Run as fast as I can to where no one will know me

Last time I sailed was the coldest night this December
I went over the walls through the door and flew west to the creek
She'd hid in the bedroom since he broke the plate on the table
Porcelain pie smeared the blood on my mother's left cheek

They’ll never find me I’m too far away
And my footprints will melt in the warmth of the day
I rule over the cold and the cats and the snow
Run as fast as I can to where no one will know
My kingdom is kind and no ones’s afraid
Cause a promise is kept when a promise is made
With my army of snowmen I’ll show him who’s brave
I’ll stay out till spring I’m the Icicle King

Once I was a sailor on a ship made of barley and cotton
A rowboat, no paddles, the infinite sea

Back In Abilene

Amy Speace/Jon Vezner

Six days before Thanksgiving 1963
I was just thirteen when they shot Kennedy
The man who found the rifle lived just down my street
He worked the Dallas beat three hours east
We fought the tears back from our eyes
Watching Walter Cronkite cry
And it all felt like a bad dream
Back in Abilene, back in Abilene

Double features at the Paramount
Quarter matinees every Saturday
The ceiling was a painted sky of stars and clouds
We could hardly wait till the lights went out
They'd run a short reel right before
Listing the casualties of war
I knew half the names up on that screen
Back in Abilene back in Abilene

And all the boys would play with folded paper planes
While the soldiers raced their Thunderbirds around
I loved to run beside those trains as they sped by
But never once stopped in our town

After church Dad joined his buddies at the hardware store
And though he never said we all knew what for
Later on we'd find him laid out on the lawn
With his brother Tom singing gospel songs
First he would cry then he'd get mean
Each week repeat the same routine
He tried but never could get clean
Back in Abilene
I couldn't wait until I'd turn 18
I'd fill my car with maps and gasoline
There'll always be a piece of me
Back in Abilene Back in Abilene

Some Dreams Do

Amy Speace

The waving wheat -- bending
The summer heat -- unending
Days belong to boys and their routines
Cicadas hum - whirring
The watchful moon - stirring
Nights give in to old men’s memories

We’ll stretch the evening long in the backyard
On our backs underneath the stars
Roll back time to when we were kids
When the world was ours with just one wish that could come true
Some dreams do

Rocking chair porches
Firefly chorus
Can you hear those cricket lullabyes
With the windows flung open
My old heart’s still hoping
That July can hold us long enough to fly

We stretch the time pretending not to care
Those running days are running out of air
Roll back time to when we were kids
When the world was ours with just one wish that could come true
Some dreams do

Some dreams run through our fingers
Like sand spilled on the ground
And some are like an heirloom handed down

We’ll stretch the years as long as they can last
Another dance, another chance at bat
Then Roll back time to when we were kids
When the world was ours with just one wish that could come true
Some dreams do

This and My Heart Beside

Amy Speace / Emily Dickinson
(first verse is adapted from her poem “It’s All I Have To Bring Today” - used by permission of Harvard Press)

It’s all I have to bring today—
This, and my heart beside—
This, and my heart, and all the fields—
And all the meadows wide—
Oh love my love is yours
No more no less than I could tell
This, and my heart, and all the Bees
Which in the Clover dwell.

Just in time the setting sun
Broke the evening sky
Above our heads the gold and reds
Hummed a lullabye
The night you asked I knew there was no
more that I could give
Than this, my heart, for you to keep
as long as I shall live

It's all I have to bring today
This, and my heart beside

Kindness

Ben Glover

May you know goodness may you know peace
May you know contentment, may you be at ease
May the road before you be soft under your feet Em/Bm
But more than all may this be true
May you know kindness and may kindness know you

May you be without anger, may you be without hate
May you be without jealousy, may you be without shame
If the world gets lost in sadness may you find a prayer of hope
More than all may this be true
May you know kindness and may kindness know you
May kindness know you

Cause even the beauty, even the pain
Will rise up and fall away

May you be with loved ones who hear and see what you feel
May those you trust be honest and real
And may your feet fall where your heart dares to go
More than all may this be true
May you know kindness and may kindness know you

More than all may this be true
May you know kindness and may kindness know you