LAZARUS
Keep the crows away from the table
Tie back their wings if you are able for you must protect your kin
The heart will break away from the strain of it
From the plow to the fallow ground, the earth submits
Concern your mind with the fruits of your labor,
Savor the juice, taste all the flavor before the frost weathers your skin
You’ll learn what you burn will never grow back again,
The flame in your hand will land in your soul so don’t let that darkness in
Winter has come to take what we’ve done.
It’s not too late. It’s never too late
We can find ourselves another way
(We won’t be waiting around the path leads south so follow me down
It’s not too late to dive off the wharf and watch the searchlights fade forever)
The seeds in the soil swear they’ll be back again
And rise from the soil just like old Lazarus with the blessing of a helping hand
We toil ‘til we’re old but will we come back again?
We break all these bones just so they’ll set again.
Arrange us as they please
Oil it’ll burn to keep the poison pen at bay,
Preserving the words so they’ll never be changed
But can they keep us away?
Winter has come to take what we’ve done.
It’s not too late. It’s never too late
We can find ourselves another way
(We won’t be waiting around the path leads south so follow me down
It’s not too late to dive off the wharf and watch the searchlights fade forever)
CYPRESS GROVE
Cicadas drone across this harbor town
The walls brought up now are crumbling down
The trade winds call to a snow‐white dove
Over a cypress grove still warmed by the sun
And what shall it be?
Ask me, ask me
What shall we be?
You’ve got to release me
What you are now, son, well I used to be one
What we are now ‐ you soon will be
I will fade away.
I don’t want to hurt no one
I don’t want no grave
Sometime this body will give way
We’ve got to make the best of things
While we remain
The salt on the rocks will be reclaimed by the tide The sun bleaches out the whites of my eyes
As I sit and count the blades of grass,
I forget myself as the seasons pass.
And what shall it be?
Ask me, ask me
What shall we be?
You’ve got to release me
What you are now, son, well I used to be one
What we are now ‐ you soon will be
I will fade away.
I don’t want to hurt no one
I don’t want no grave
Sometime this body will give way
We’ve got to make the best of things
While we remain
THREE-LEGGED CROW
Rabbit’s moon
Hangs abandoned like a ruin
Our house a tomb
Swallows nest in the corners of the children’s rooms Will soon be flying back to roost
All too soon
We’ll all be flying back to roost
Brother, oh your eyes
ragged light is bright enough to blind
Plunge your taloned hands into the fire
Pull out your sons
Pull out your daughters
A three‐legged crow
Called to the people down below
Flying low
Heavy with the burden of a secret only gods can know
Power is too dangerous to hold
Stars will glow
Hot and bright and close.
Brother, oh your eyes
ragged light is bright enough to blind
Plunge your taloned hands into the fire
Pull out your sons
Pull out your daughters
PHOENIX
I could go for a rebirth
Rise up fast like a phoenix bird
Hand through dirt, I’ll unearth my resolve
From a nest of frankincense
I’ll recount every moment spent
One for every scar
Every hair grayed
A coat of arms over all of us
Branches to branches, dust to dust
Come find me out from my heartbeat
Can’t keep it calm in the dark
The dawn breaks and the night yields
Bloodied beaks over wheat fields
Captive by the feathers on display
Be the queen of my escape
I’ll be your saving cup of grace
We’ll find some way to overtake them all.
A coat of arms over all of us
Branches to branches, dust to dust
Come find me out from my heartbeat
Can’t keep it calm in the dark
FIELDS OF FIRE
Fields of fire come
From one unsteady hand
Blackened birch undone
Crows call out to command the young
Callous it comes like the setting sun
The smoke, the flames on the horizon
Awaken the old forsaken and run from the fields
The premonition has come too late, we find
The secrets we have left are unearthed by the wind tonight
To welcome the wild, the wolves and their hymns
Tonight, I let that darkness in
To bask in the silver, solitary and grim
But I guess...
The wicked will rest upon a crooked breast
In gilded rooms, on palace floors
You build me up just to burn me back down
But when I turn to smoke, I’m no longer yours /
Silence my call, to cage me in
I’m not coming around
No more shall I hang my head
And the fallen leaves shall be my bed
No, I can’t make it on my own
Though I try to make it
Oh, I can’t make it on my own
So I know…
The wicked will rest upon a crooked breast
In gilded rooms, on palace floors
You build me up just to burn me back down
But when I turn to smoke, I’m no longer yours /
WORDS IN THE EARTH
When the clouds begin to funnel and the hail falls
You were backlit by the sunset in orange tones
There was something delivered in the air
A glimpse of something holy, stolen
For a moment, it was there
They say there’s repercussions that will follow
When an unbounded heart is tethered to tomorrow
Sown to where the sun may never reach
But what’s kept ‐ I know ‐ burns like coals
A fire, it evokes inside of me
I still have time
My hands will still find the words in the earth
Come tomorrow the oak will tower over us all.
THE GREAT FURNACE
The pressure splits the mountainside
Venting fire into frigid climes
The devil knocked, the earth abides
St. Michael, he can’t free us from the ties that bind
How we dear we find our motherland
Which cradled us gently like a lover’s hand
Staring now, we understand
Can’t claim, can’t calm, can’t comprehend
When the sun fades out, and the tide draws back again
A white flag unfurls to the black wave’s end
What birthed us once will swallow whole
The weapons from heaven that the trickster stole
No yolk, no harness can control
It’s not a beast of burden but a gift bestowed
From field to ash
From clay to clay
Formed in the fire and the fire takes
The vessels break, and are swept away
From field to ash
From clay to clay
We are truly a sight to behold.
CARNIVORE
Michael, do not pine for me
Can’t capture what you cannot hold
I’m like the sea
Brazen and breaking over bones
On the shore I’ll pick them clean
But I will not, no I won’t
Enjoy all of your suffering
So let me go to the folds of the old coal‐black clouds of the night
A broken incisor
Pulled from a carnivore
Will hang ‘round my neck instead of gold
Casting visions
I’m like an apparition
I’m keeping my dowry so leave me no rose
I cannot
Feign a need to dress in white linens
Instead of clothes soiled with sweat and I ask /
“What did you learn from me tonight?”
You shout so loud, shout so loud
“What did you learn from me tonight?”
So let me go to the folds of the old coal‐black clouds of the night.
A broken incisor
Pulled from a carnivore
Will hang ‘round my neck instead of gold
Casting visions
I’m like an apparition
I’m keeping my dowry so leave me no rose
COLD WIND
The foxes wait for the wolves of town
To take their prey
To take them down
The money’s good
The money’s alright
But the wind will claim our words tonight
Time is a flood and we all float
In its wake
We lose all that we know
But the water’s good
The water’s alright
It’ll cleanse me down by the riverside
There’s a cold wind blowing me home.
SEA & BELLS
A shadow set free by lack of light
A little cabin falls into the night sky
Helicopters roam above the trees
Chariots with hooves above, us beneath
The clack‐clack‐clack of the cobblestones
Blots out the voice of God in our bones tonight
The sea and the bells and the house of leaves
A light left on, crumpled pages and tea
Words on my lips but they won’t escape
Off my tongue to find the pearly gates
And the wind will work on the fields and flock
But won’t catch the vowels to help one talk tonight
Seven sisters to doves and then to stars
Teenagers trace them in the back of borrowed cars
And no matter how away you’ve gone
Meirope will always leave her light on
To guide you to the river to the raft and the breeze
She’ll always find a way to get you back to me tonight.
MY BROTHER'S KEEPER
October fires come burn away the green
November rains will wash these fingers clean
Water, blood, and all that’s in between
December snows will cover everything
Round come around
Let the snow fall down
Don’t make a sound before the other is found
Round come around
Let the snow fall down
One takes the crown while the other is bound
Abel and Cane
Can’t tell them apart
Each has a serpent curled in his heart
Shedding his skin as the seasons fade
What was welcomed inside can rot you away
I recognized his boot prints in the snow
Down by the mills, where water used to flow
Just like the lies he told me way back when
They circled ‘round and caught themselves again.
Round come around
Let the snow fall down
Don’t make a sound before the other is found
Round come around
Let the snow fall down
One takes the crown while the other is bound
SEVEN CROWNS
From the lakes of melted glass
Rise skeletons of cities past
Lanterns light the blackened heavens
Like fireflies suspended
And we’re lost in the valley of the Seven Crowns
Spiders catch the fallen ash
Which lays like leaves upon the masts
Traffic lights direct the rivers
Whose waves are now homeward driven
And we’re lost in the valley of the Seven Crowns
You said it’d be fire this time
But the wind and the rain came in
The levy broke
And no Noah spoke
We came from the sea
Now the sea comes for us
Lovely Dark:
Sonia Even: Vocals
Travis Even: Guitar and Vocals
Ben Johnston: Drums and Aux. Percussion
Max Becker: Drums
Brian Lake: Guitar
Kent Thomson: Bass and Vocals
Recorded and Mixed by Neil Weir at Old Blackberry Way
Mastered by Harry Newman at Grey Market Mastering
Released April 28, 2012