Get all 6 Dietrich Strause releases available on Bandcamp and save 20%.
Includes unlimited streaming via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality downloads of You And I Must Be Out Of My Mind, Last Man Standing on the Sun, Illusion, Dietrich Strause & The Blue Ribbons, How Cruel That Hunger Binds, and Little Stones to Break the Giant's Heart.
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I came to worship brothers
I came to enter in
to kneel before the station doors
and the beast that rolls within
To share in blood the crimson flood
through a tunnel of tiled veins
in earth embedded, in darkness descended
I rode that Charlie train
I rode the ways of the hollow days
with the weary chained in the cars
I found a witness to the emptiness
of the chambers of my heart
On the tracks below where the garden grows
among roots I was lost in my thoughts
of my deepest love, my fondest one
the thistle in my paw
When the brakeman stalled, the conductor called
at the end of the long platform
I noticed not who we picked up
when he stepped into the car
From first to last he shuffled past
with a can he gathers with
I just sat in my row in a hopeless glow
clutched to my offering
No alms I spared no glance I dared
my breath held in my lungs
like I didn't hear his sacred prayer
the plea from his tongue
"Mercy brother, I must beg of you
for the good grace and the bright trace
of the light that shines in you."
The train stood still, my pockets filled
with every dime I entered with
past the empty can and the turnstile man
I crawled from the den
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2. |
Lying In Your Arms
03:08
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I said all my prayers, for love true and fair
for faith that could bear what passion veils
for ages we'd make golden with ringing bells and bows
but all those words you told me were cast as spells
Now the thought of each breath of every word you pledged
at every sun we set, it wears me thin
You were lying in my arms for hours in the dark
as your bright errant heart just beat within
Now I still pace the halls, I wait for your calls
though I climb the walls to her lights
She takes the cross from my crest and all the air in my chest
and all that makes me restless tonight
In her arms its true, I now stray I think of you
of all we lost and all we lacked
of all the arrows and swords all the roses and thorns
all the ribbons worth just to get you back
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3. |
The Dove
03:35
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Last night I dreamt of a mourning dove
across the sea from high above, she sang a sweet hosannah
She drifted down on wave and wind lightly on her feathered limb
she brought with her the branch and hymn
to lay at my feet
I laid in the sands I held her in my hands
I wished she were mine to keep
with my wish I spoke, she flew off, I woke
I tried to sing myself back to sleep
I listened for the evening bells where the empty steeples shadow fell
for you were all I ever held
I stood inside the chapel doors I prayed to find the song adored
among the stars I was led to shore
I crawled on my knees
I laid in the sands, I wept in my hands
I wished you'd been mine to keep
with my eyes I closed another wish I spoke
that I would never wake from my sleep
Hush the sound of a rising sun
where days begin when days are done
where bluebells ring when morning comes
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4. |
Pennsylvania
02:05
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Our tears may run three rivers dry
Should our sweethearts break us
but true love like laurel's lie
home in Pennsylvania
Through seven gates when we die
if the good lord he don't save us
but dust to dust in heaven high
and home in Pennsylvania
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5. |
Home from the Heartland
03:41
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I drove for six long days, on the seventh I stopped to rest
in a dusty field a meeting, I walked into the tent
they had a book they were reading, a song for the lost and the saved
all the sins of this life I've been leading
they just got washed away
but when I get home from the heartland all the sin of life we'll make
I'm coming home from the heartland
there's only so much good word I can take
I gave them all my money for the offering of the lamb
but I think about you when I'm praying
and I almost break my hands
but when I get home from the heartland all the sin of life we'll make
I'm coming home from the heartland
there's only so much good word I can take
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6. |
Around the World
03:40
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They sailed around the widest world
the darkest seas for the deepest pearls
the brightest lace for their sweetest girl
the ships they sank, for the love of her
but I never tried to prove myself
and I never told you how I felt
around the world, and off the end
if I ever saw you again
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7. |
Boy Born to Die
02:50
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Far beyond the timber the wolf with watchful eye
on the lamb upon the altar on the hand upon the knife
how cold, how slow the winter
how cruel that hunger binds the world,
not made for living, the boy born to die
The wildfire eternal, the vigil flame we keep
in it's warmth we gather in shelter in streets
so wrap your arms around him, don't waste your time
the world not made for living, the boy born to die
So lay your veil and flowers, bury your eyes
the world not made for living, the boy born to die
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8. |
Spring Has Sprung
03:09
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The first pitch was thrown, the goalie went home
to his wife and kids and dog
His nights he spent crying for the one that got by him
the one all winter he lost
The birds and the bees are shaking the trees
the ducks float two by two
spring has sprung, I guess time has come
to find somebody new
I've been trying but all I'm finding
are hands in hands of sweet hearts
They stroll on by with a look in their eyes
like someone is building an ark
Girls on bicycles legs like icicles
long from their hips they hung
I'm just hoping I can stop my moping
before they ride into the sun
Showers and shaving I even stopped waving
to the old goose who sits at the park
I thought I knew how to get over you
didn't think it'd be that hard
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9. |
So Long So Far
03:25
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I don't care for roses, petal or thorn
forget me nots in a passing storm
a wind that sweeps through your dress
I don't care to wonder where it went
Or how high the moon, what keeps it bright
with all that's grown between us in the see and the sky
or just how dark and deep and what makes them blue
I don't care to wonder what you wonder too
All the miles all the stars
oh it's been so long so far
I used to know your name, and color of eyes
it's not I can't remember it's just now I don't try
I don't call I don't ask if your dreams are coming true
I don't care to wonder but it's all I do
All the miles all the stars
oh it's been so long so far
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10. |
Rainy Days
02:35
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Dollar stores and fives and dimes
I was yours and you were mine
a penny saved for a rainy day
Now I hold them in my hand for wishing at the river's bend
that someday it would roll me back to you
I'm broke from all that wishing I do
The river runs, the river talks
of what's his names and the moons they've walked
it's been a while since you have called
what I'm told is probably right that you're not on the other side
wishing it would roll me back to you
your rainy day won't ever come, a penny saved is nothing but
I just hope that none of that is true
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11. |
The World Once Turning
02:10
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Wildfires were burning across the ocean floor
the world once was turning for us forevermore
the sound of water breaking on a kindled shore
and the song you were singing was all I adored
I wish I were drifting on an ember tide
A storm would rise and drown me
in your arms tonight
Your voice once stirred the heavens
as heaven once stirred the seas
but now the world once turning stands still to wait for thee
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