1. |
Fourteen Steps
03:28
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I’ve been all around
This old country
Writing books for free
Writing books for free
If I ever knew
All I had to do
All I had to do
Just to get to you
And if I came to you girl
In the night on my own
Perched upon my weary back
Was a pack of heavy stone
Would you carry it for me?
In another time
I was king for days
In a thousand ways
In a thousand ways
Wore this mountain down
In a billion years
Takes a billion years
Just to hear
And if I came to you girl
In the night on my own
Perched upon my weary back
Was a pack of heavy stone
Would you carry it for me?
Fourteen steps, fourteen steps
From the banks of the ol’ Mississippi
My love runs cross this country
Born by riverside
Fourteen steps no more
Out to your door
Out to your door
I will walk on down
To meet you there
To meet you there
You are everywhere
And if I came to you girl
In the night on my own
Perched upon my weary back
Was a pack of heavy stone
Would you carry it for me?
Fourteen steps, fourteen steps
From the banks of the ol’ Mississippi
My love runs cross this country
And if I came to you girl
In the night on my own
Perched upon my weary back
Was a pack of heavy stone
Would you carry it for me?
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2. |
5 Axles
04:20
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We wake to see
The darkness flee
And the morning take her place
And the orange soft glow
Over the mountains show
How the day will choose its pace
We roll along
To a reeling song
Over concrete strings composed
With breaks and bends
Returns and sends
Of movement and repose
And I know where I’m going to be
When that morning sun touches down on me
And I know where we’ll find our souls
When that moon comes down and it overflows
There comes a time when we must realign
What is going on in this life time
and don't be scared to offer repairs
or advice along the roadside
We've travelled long and we know wrong
enough to know what is right
It's little gold on a country road
as the ocean comes to sight
And I know where I’m going to be
When that morning sun touches down on me
And I know where we’ll find our souls
When that moon comes down and it overflows
We wake to see
The darkness flee
And the morning take her place
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3. |
The Leaves of November
04:19
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When I left green California
All the mountains faded to gray
And I wept a mighty river
That quickly swept me away
And I came to a darkened valley
That arose to my surprise
And I fell into its shadow
All things good come in disguise
There is something you ought to know
in all of this cold rain and snow
Is the first time that I have ever felt
So warm
When I woke to a steady downpour
A sheet of gray swept the land
All my trees would bear no fruit
Nothing turns out the way its planned
I fired a shot into the sky
As the flag hung in the morning air
And I wondered where it might fall
Any justice is never fair
There is something you ought to know
in all of this cold rain and snow
Is the first time that I have ever felt
So warm
When you know all that we remember
You may just come to fight
And when you see the leaves of November
You will know all this change is right
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4. |
Winter Session
05:15
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I spent my
Holidays packing my bags
And all my nights
On the road without romance
And I’ll lie my
Head on down by this old riverside
Lay by the banks
Of the Colorado
Wash away your sadness girl so I can watch it go
And I’ll wait
By the banks
Of the Colorado
Send no message downstream girl if you want me to let go
This distance
Is too much for me to handle
I’m coming
On back home please light a candle
In this all
I have learned a bitter lesson
But I know I’ll
Make it on through this winter session
Lay by the banks
Of the Colorado
Wash away your sadness girl so I can watch it go
And I’ll wait
By the banks
Of the Colorado
Send no message downstream girl if you want me to let go
Lay
By the banks
Of the Colorado
Send no message downstream girl, I’m not there any more
For I will wait
By the banks
Of the Genesee
Wipe away your tears girl and all your jealousy
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5. |
We Know Time
03:52
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Every city and town
Along the road I have found
Looks just the same as the one before
As the road weaves in
I’ll soon begin
On my way to the next town over
They build them all the same
Finding no comfort in change
We’ll take our time on the road back to Kinde
And we don’t need reminding that our wallets are empty
For it’s been on my mind for more than a century or two
That we know time
Two birds on a line
Between the unattended kind
Of fields that make you want to mourn
A dress in the wind
Roses are pinned
We leave where the road is torn
We find ourselves in buildings of stone
Surrounded by the fields we have sown
We’ll take our time on the road back to Kinde
And we don’t need reminding that our wallets are empty
For it’s been on my mind for more than a century or two
That we know time
Every city and town
Along the road I have found
Looks just the same as the one before
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6. |
5 Hours to Ingersoll
02:47
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Leaves have fallen upon the shore
Waves gently crash on my front door
The wind it asks in that tired old song
When are you going to move along
Rucksack is full of everything I need
The only think missing is a reason to leave
And reasons come easy for a man like me
What’s hard is choosing which to believes
If we steal away tonight we can meet the morning dew
It’s only five hours time from Ingersoll to you
There’s frost on the trees, an aching wind moans
What’s between you and the aching in your bones
The way I see a half a thousand mile street
Is the only thing keeping you from me
If we steal away tonight we can meet the morning dew
It’s only five hours time from Ingersoll to you
But if instead you wish the sun upon that golden shore
On Lake Michigan with cherry wine I’ll meet you in five more
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7. |
Corduroy Road
04:22
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Roll your sleeves to your elbows
Run your fingers through your hair
Cause it’s never gonna be easy again
And it was never harder than it’s been
Right now
Been searching for a blacksmith
Said he carved me out of gold
But the brass is wearing from my sleeves
To show the silver that’s beneath
My brow
I once came upon a mountain
Instead I mined for coal
I found diamonds hidden at the base
All the climbers searching for your face
In the clouds
Silence under moonlight
Grasses talking in the fields
But I can’t tell the words they say
It’s nothing to be spoken anyway
Out loud
Roll your sleeves to your elbows
Work your fingers to the bone
Cause it’s never gonna be easy again
And it was never harder than it’s been
Right now
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8. |
Beneath the Hemlocks
02:48
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There’s an old oak tree
That sits in the corner of my property
And marks the beginning and end for me
Of nothing that has any meaning
And the old broken ash
That lie in the field as the storm crept past
Soaking with wind and rain fell at last
Screaming that even the strong must pass
Beneath the tall hemlocks
Just north of the field with the rotted buried dock
Where the brome kneels down round a jagged granite rock
This is the place where I take stock
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9. |
Utah Mud
03:49
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My car is still covered with Utah mud
My shirt’s still stained with blood
From the night I slept on your floor
She told me I bought my gold
Backwards, like being sold
But I saw her turn as she walked to the door
The written word is like gold
And from a banjo truth is told
Never met a man who loved a woman more
There is something in this desert sun
That keeps me on the run
My dreams are all filled with thoughts of one day
When heaven is the month of May
And we finally have the time to talk
I understood what you felt
And for the cards you were delt
I promised to worship the ground you walked
There is something in this desert sun
That keeps me on the run
Just as I get your call
The engine starts to stall
I’m beginning to realize
The signs of being alive
And to see my friends as family
My car is still covered with Utah mud
My shirt’s still stained with blood
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10. |
A Road Like This
03:54
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I don’t believe in anything too well
But I understand anything impossible to sell
We carry on in spite of all we’ve loaned
And in the interest of it all who’s to say what’s owned
A road like this is best if it’s walked
After five miles I guess it’s time that we talked
You see those hills above the tree line
This path leads up to the last of those pines
We are on
Our own
In the spring we wake from our sleep
In the bed of soil of our minds the weeds begin to creep
We toss and turn, we sift and we throw
For if it’s left unattended anything may grow
A road like this is best if it’s walked
After five miles I guess it’s time that we talked
You see those hills above the tree line
This path leads up to the last of those pines
Hand in hand, we’re going off course
The stream leads some place and we’ll find its source
We are on
our own
A road like this is best if it’s walked
After five miles I guess it’s time that we talked
You see those hills above the tree line
This path leads up to the last of those pines
Hand in hand, we’re going off course
The stream leads some place and we’ll find its source
The rocks they fold leading a way
Though mountains chains wear down, they never sway
We are on
our own
We live along our means in the end
And it’s up to us to decide what it is we lend
The trail that’s past we leave it behind
In order for us to see how this is all entwined
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Northern Spy Elk Rapids, Michigan
It is the goal of Northern Spy Recordings to create honest and sincere recordings.
To contact James, click the " Contact James Dake" link below.
Northern Spy recommends:
Soothing. Enjoyed best in a warm cabin with a cold beer.
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memphis/sessions
by winter/sessions
winter/sessions is an ongoing folk music collective dedicated to creating art & action that binds, creates, and heals communities through an embrace of artistic process as a way to artistic innovation
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Tomorrow Harbor Volume II
by Jason Dake
My brosef; folky mellow goodness in Traverse City, MI.
go to albumIf you like 5 Axles/3,000 Miles (2012), you may also like:
Forever Only Idaho
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Big, strummy songs that recall the heart-on-sleeve earnestness and lo-fi glory of early Mountain Goats.
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Hooky
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featured on Bandcamp Radio Sep 10, 2013
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Old Habits
by Kat Wallace and David Sasso
This New Haven duo write bright and emotionally resonant folk music where sweeping strings elevate gorgeous melodies.
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