WILLIAMSBURG! THE MUSICAL: Williamsburg! the Musical

"BREATHE THE SAME AIR" LYRICS & STORIES

"NIGHTLIGHT" LYRICS & STORIES

JUMPER CABLES IN THE RAIN

KISS OF ME

ONE LOVER TOO LATE

PHOTO BY KERI-ANN LAURITO / WWW.KPHOTOGRAPHY.COM

CINEMATIC-I have always wanted to capture those elusive "movie-moments" in song. They tend to sneak up on me and all of the sudden, everything plays like it's been pre-planned or rehearsed. The word "cinematic" just struck me as a huge-sounding title, and launched me into an attempt to pin down that larger-than-life energy. Kurt came up with the chorus chords and melody saying "hey, wouldn't that be great for that cinematic thing?" I loved it and we nailed down the song's framework over Christmas holidays in Illinois. The lyrics, however, are a different story. I was feverishly writing them in the studio in Nashville while we worked. As soon as I had them committed to paper, I had to jump on the mic and sing them. I think that gave it the extra sense of urgency the song needed.

CINEMATIC

Life fades into view

Everyday landscapes shift and skew

Here, unknowing we move

We step into place and take our cues

Glow electric and high

Spontaneous stars in sweeping skies

Chills, the light seems to rise

The moment explodes before our eyes

Cinematic, set the scene

Automatic chemistry

Grand dramatic destiny

Plays on and on and on and on…

We swagger and sway

Dancing slow-motion in the rain

Close in focus, in flame

And suddenly we fall into frame

Cinematic, you and me

New romantic revelry

Slow dramatic symphony

Plays on and on and on and on….

Oh-after the light goes

Where does the moment go?

Oh-After the high lows

Where does the wonder go?

Oh-after the time slows

Where does the feeling go?

Cinematic, set the scene

Automatic chemistry

Grand dramatic destiny

Cinematic, you and me

New romantic revelry

Slow dramatic symphony

Plays on and on and on and on…

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* * *

AND I WILL-Originally this song was written for a musical theater work I've had on the back burner. This song is the sweet, first-kiss moment in the story. It just so happened that I was falling in love with Kurt at the same time as I began to write the lyrics. I actually modified the original verses slightly to fit our situation and its scary how well it tells the tale. Musically speaking, the chorus melody line came first and waited patiently until I paired it with a musical idea I had floating around which needed a home. The result oozes with gushy loveliness.

AND I WILL

Here we are again friend

Another cold November night

The wine has gone to our heads

The sun is starting to rise

And in your eyes

In your eyes I see myself

Staring back

And I will, I will , I will

Be your love if you let me

I will, I will, I will

If you only take my hand

I will, I will, I will

Be your love if you let me

It seems I’ve spent a lifetime

In this winter here with you

Such a beautiful soul

Such a strength I never knew

I never knew

And your heart shimmers and shines

Like the stars

And I will, I will , I will

Be your love if you let me

I will, I will, I will

If you only take my hand

I will, I will, I will

Be your love if you let me

Just let me

Say the word

And I will

Be your love if you let me

I will

If you only take my hand

Please take my hand

And I will, I will , I will

Be your love if you let me

Just let me

And I will

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* * *

BREATHE THE SAME AIR-The first time I laid eyes on my husband's childhood room, which seemed to be frozen in its boyhood bliss, I became obsessed. I scanned the books, posters and mementos for hours. Sometimes, I would slip in by myself and leaf through old school papers and things he had no interest in revisiting, but I thought they were pure magic. The title "Breathe The Same Air" had been written down on an otherwise blank page in my journal for years. After rediscovering it, I thought it was a perfect way to describe that unique feeling.

BREATHE THE SAME AIR

Breathe

Breathe the same air

Where the first days of your life

Turned to long winter nights tucked in

Here

Here in this room

Reading your comics by flashlight

Guitar by your bedside

And I shouldn’t be here

Leaning in closets and sifting through things

Running my fingers through layers of your life

Letting myself in

Breathe

Breathe The Same Air

I put on your favorite sweater

I’m sure it hung better on

You

Everything you

I find a scrap of your poetry

Whisper it softly

And I tiptoe and spy

Creeping around like a thief in the night

Hoping the floorboards won’t give me away

Fearing my fool heart just might

(Instrumental Verse)

Breathe

Breathe the same air

Finding your past piece by piece

Of the puzzle, the man to be

Now

Now you make sense

Lay out the edges and corners

The picture comes clearer

And I shouldn’t be here

Leaning in closets and sifting through things

Running my fingers through layers of your life

Letting myself in

To everything you

Everything you

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* * *

CHANGE ME-This song is not about me....and yet is has become my anthem. It began as a reaction to the Andrew Wyeth painting "Christina's World". After researching the life of the woman in the painting, Christina Olsen, I discovered she grew up in Maine around the turn of the 20th Century and lived with a mysterious and untreatable degenerative muscle disorder (which explains her crawling to the house in the painting). I read further and discovered she had a young love affair with a man from Boston who "summered" in her area. The love eventually turned cold and Christina went on pose for the now famous painting. I imagined her looking back on the whole experience and "Change Me" poured out of me. While writing, it became clear that this song was sent to me to both tell her story and serve as a way for me to finally connect with my own experiences with disability. Thanks, Christina. :-)

CHANGE ME

Here I stand

I am folding and refolding his last letter

In my hands

Trace the corners of the past

The summer’s gone

And the beauty of our days together fading

Like the sun

A little earlier every day

Hey, you sentimental heart of mine

You always go astray, but

You

You can't change me

Change me

When I collapsed

Something died in him that day he looked down on me

Bruised in black

I guess I thought he’d understand

It’s this disease

I’m a lot of truth to handle when my legs

Can’t find my knees

Just looking for a place to land

Hey, if you want to hold my hand

You’ve got to take me as I am, ‘cause

You

You can't change me

Change me

Sometimes I dream of Boston where your words all come to life

And I’m dancing down the streets you call your own

You pass right by and you wonder why you’ve suddenly gone cold

Darling, I'm your ghost

You

You can't change me

Change me

It’s who I am

It’s what I’m for

I was built to weather storms

Like a rock

That meets the sea

You can’t change me

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THE YOU IN ME-This song was a ton of fun to write and record. I ended up playing all the electric guitars on the track, which made me feel like a rock star. The lyrics sort of had an identity crisis: happy, sad, happy, then finally back to real life heartache. The bridge section was actually a whole different song idea I had that worked great once I inserted it into the song.

THE YOU IN ME

Welcome to my world gone you

Tangled and tormented by the “we” that I once knew

Scenes of us together flash wherever I go

Dylan keeps playing on the radio

Lost in what we’d never be

Your face, your grace is all I see

The you in me won’t let me be

This history is killing me

I can’t shake it

I can’t break it

The you in me won’t let me be

It’s everything

It’s all I see

The you in me

Big love, new city, downtown craze

You took my hand; pulled me through the maze

We ran like lovers on the avenue

Now every corner turns to you

The you in me won’t let me be

This history is killing me

I can’t shake it

I can’t break it

The you in me won’t let me be

It’s everything

It’s all I see

The you in me

Get out of my head and go home

Find a soul of your own

Leave my lonely alone

The you in me won’t let me be

This history is killing me

I can’t shake it

I can’t break it

The you in me won’t let me be

It’s everything

It’s all I see

The you in me

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* * *

NOT ANOTHER MIDNIGHT-This song was largely a Kurt creation, written with Will Brumley for our musical theatre project in development. The lyrics arose out of free form poetry that Will brought us and we shaped. Kurt had most of the melody and musical ideas. It's definitely a song I would never had come up with on my own, and I love it for that. It's different, not so predictable in its form. At this moment, the main character in the play is deciding she will declare the feelings she has for the boy she just met and take charge of her life in the town she has just moved to.

NOT ANOTHER MIDNIGHT

12:01

Not another midnight gone

Far from sleep

Got the TV on, I’m not alone

I can hear

The humming of the pale streetlights

Dark town

Are there any signs of life out there tonight?

Drawn to my window

Not another midnight alone

Framed in moon glow

Not another midnight alone

Will he see

Hidden in the margin spine

Page 23

Tucked between his plans are words of mine

Will he spare me

From another midnight alone

Does he even care for me?

It’s another midnight alone

Not another midnight, no oh

This town will see

The clock is ticking for them too

With every word

I’m writing them right out of their own news

They can’t hold me

To another midnight alone

No they won’t hold me

To another midnight alone

Not another midnight, no oh

Not another midnight

Not another midnight, no oh!

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* * *

BEND-Way back in Nashville, I sat down at the piano to write with Dave Spak while we were both on break from our work at the studio. (He was putting up drywall and I was answering phones). We ended up with this chorus which I later joined with a verse idea I had been kicking around. The lyrics outline a true moment in my life, when I finally decided that the relationship I had been "talked into" was most definitely over. I think that's one of the hardest things anyone can face up to.

BEND

Guess I never thought it through

How many ways I lost myself with you

As we slowly let the world around us

Disappear

I can’t be that girl no more

That shadow of myself that you adored

Now that I have found the will to leave

My head is clear

I won’t bend

No, I won’t bend

For you anymore

Guess you think I’m gonna crack

At 3:06 AM I’ll want you back

I’ll fold silently into your arms

Just like the last time and the time before

But I’m past the point of weakness dear

All your poetry and reverie can’t reach me here

I’ll get through those winter nights without you

Alone and pure

I won’t bend

No, I won’t bend

I won’t bend

No, I won’t bend

For you

And I know you’ll be the one

Who’s heart is gonna break

But I won’t bend

No, I won’t bend

I won’t bend

No, I won’t bend

For you anymore

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* * *

UNTOUCHED-This is a document of that lovely six-month period of my dating daze with Kurt when I never seemed to sleep at home. I much preferred crashing on the tiny dorm-size bed at his Grad student apartment in the heart of Greenwich village than on my queen size bed, which was waiting for me out in south Brooklyn. Every few days, I'd make it out to my apartment, collect a few items and scurry back to the city. For someone who likes to be surrounded by her precious junk, I mean, things, I had no problem living out of a suitcase if it meant I could wake up next to my sweet. Awe.

UNTOUCHED

Turn the key
Lean into the door

Been days since I've been home

Things are scattered in standstill

As I left them before
Hope they like living alone

Cold hangs in the air
Window's ajar
Been letting the rain in for weeks
Fine dust everywhere
Cobwebs in the corner
I don't even come here to sleep

Untouched

Life left frozen

Untouched

Untouched
Life left frozen

I turn down the sheets

Slip into bed and light a candle

Watch the flicker dance and dim

It shines on trinkets and treasures

Meant to remind me of me

But I’m just not myself without him

Untouched

Untouched

Life left frozen

Untouched

Untouched
Life left frozen

Can’t seem to warm up in this lonely place

When somewhere close my lover waits for me

And it’s not like me. I’m not the kind

To let my drunk heart lead me blind

But oh, this time I think I’m falling…

2 AM

A pink moon is rising

And I can’t take it any more
Think I'll catch that train

Close my eyes and count the minutes
Just 15 stops to his door

Untouched

Life left frozen
Untouched

Untouched

Life left frozen

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* * *

THERE IS NO OTHER-Kurt was playing this beautiful chorus on the guitar and I stopped short-"What is that?" I loved the moody chords, they seemed to transport me. We became obsessed with finding a verse that would give you the feeling that the chorus took you to a different place, so that it captured that feeling I had when I first heard it. It just became a very indulgent song for us, our own little mood capsule. We layered and layered and layered all kinds of percussion and mood tracks on the recording. When we went to mix the track, we were overloading pro-tools with the sheer number of tracks we had. We set the "most tracks" record for Jim, our engineer, on this song.

THERE IS NO OTHER

What sickly sweet

What trembling taste of love

Has raised me from my sleep?

Whose quiet hands

Like whispers on my skin

Are washing over me?

I’m dreaming

There is no other

There is no other for me

There is no other

There is no other for me

La la la la…

There is no other for me

I wake to find

I’m wrapped up in your arms, warm

No sound except your heart

Don’t let me go

I’d turn to dust without you

Simply fall apart

I’d crumble

There is no other

There is no other for me

There is no other

There is no other for me

Past, present, future flash before our eyes

We radiate a love alive from deep inside

I am enchanted

I am hypnotized

And like a mantra beating

Four little words

They keep repeating

There is no other

There is no other for me

There is no other

There is no other for me

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* * *

O CITY-There is a long story on this one as far as making the record is concerned. It was cut from the track listing many times. Originally, it was a guitar-driven production, and it really wasn't adding much to the overall scope of the project. Then, we had the idea to try a "confessional piano" version. Well, immediately I thought of adding strings but I was nervous that the whole record might get too string heavy. On our second trip down to Nashville, I decided to have Jim call his friend Chris to play. I sat in the conference room while Jim mixed in the other room, and wrote out the arrangement with Kurt's assistance. It really made the song come to life. I began to write the song while living in Nashville in 2000, so I guess it's fitting that it sort of "came to rest" there five years later.

O CITY

O city, if I close my eyes I can see him clear

Standing on the corner in the rain

Letting all your light and life blur into him

Take hold of him

Letting him go was he hardest thing

Now I know it’s your world he needs

But I’ll promise you this

Someday I’ll come back to claim him

But until that day

Keep him warm

Keep him safe

O city, keep him for me

O city, keep him safe for me

O city, send a message on your wire for him tonight

‘Cause I’ve tried every number, every lead

But every trace of him runs cold and faint

So I just wait

And surely you’ll see what he means to me

Can you kiss the air he breathes?

But I’ll promise you this

Someday I’ll come back to change him

But until that day

Keep him warm

Keep him safe

O city, keep him for me

O city, keep him safe for me

Wrap your avenues around him

Like a mother to a child

“Cause he was born to bear your witness

He was born to walk your mile

But I’ll promise you this

Someday I’ll come back to claim him

But until that day

Keep him warm

Keep him safe

O city, keep him for me

O city, keep him safe for me

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* * *

TIMEFOOL-One of the central themes that seem to run through my writing is time: the passing of, the suspension of, the power of, etc. So, after I finished this song, I remember I declared myself "Cut Off’ from any further time references…. The intro riff was the first thing to surface musically and the majority of the song form came from that melodic framework. The bridge section, "And the air is growing thinner….", existed previously as a fragment that I’d jotted down, lyric and all. When I decided TIMEFOOL needed a Bridge section, I looked through my mental filing cabinet and there it was, just waiting for me to figure out that the two pieces were part of the same puzzle.

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TIMEFOOL

I know, I know, I know, I know once I reach the mountain top

I can’t slow or stop this old downbound train

But I think, I think, I think, I think certain moments would be nice

To live through twice

Would the ride be the same?

Though incidents and fears will pass

Their legacy remains

Turbulence in vain

Time has made a fool of me

Un-knitted and unraveled the spool of me

Left me here a refugee

Time, time, time, time

Time has made a fool out of me

I am, I am, I am, I am, I am just a passenger

I say a silent prayer I’ll settle in soon

I try, I try, I try to focus on my own north star

But I can’t ignore that full harvest moon

Living with my innocence

Slowly growing numb

So swings the pendulum

Time has made a fool of me

Un-knitted and unraveled the spool of me

Left me here a refugee

Time, time, time, time

Time has made a fool out of me

And the air is growing thinner

And the birds are floating by

And I have no time to wonder

If I can fly, fly, fly, fly

If I can fly

Time has made a fool of me

Un-knitted and unraveled the spool of me

Left me here a refugee

Time, time, time, time

Time has made a fool out of me

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* * *

SAVE ME-This is an early work, the earliest on the record in fact, from spring of 95. At that time I was lamenting over a friend of mine whom I feared I was slowly losing. She was drifting away from her sense of reality and into the dark side of paganism. I reacted by writing this song and eventually playing it for her. I think it shook her to a degree and I hope it still keeps her in check when she needs it. Musically, SAVE ME when it’s in a raw form reminds me a bit of Jethro Tull’s "Life’s A Long Song". During that spring, I had been wearing out my copy of Jethro Tull’s Past Masters. That could explain it…

Save Me

The voices inside your head

They never let you rest

They haunt you, they hide your soul

They are unwanted guests

The one voice inside my head

It’s chanting "reality"

I see you change and change again

You’re not who you used to be

Sometimes I wonder, are you really, truly happy?

Don’t you think I see those faraway thoughts

Those glazed over eyes

You’re trying so hard to disguise

I don’t think you realize

I can hear your silent cries, they whisper

Save me, I’m fallin’

I’m trippin’ on myself

I’m goin’ down

I’m goin’ down, down, down, down...

Your life’s enchanting from afar

It runs just like a movie plot

Dig deeper and you’ll find a world

Where sadness is self-taught

Falling, are you fading, deviating, dissipating?

Fumbling, are you waning, detonating, terminating?

Now your happy has an undertone

And you cry at night when you’re alone

I know you, you’re sayin’

Save me, I’m fallin’

I’m trippin’ on myself

I’m goin’ down

I’m goin’ down, down, down, down...

...Hey...I’m goin’ down...

I can’t save you unless you want me to

I can’t reach you

Unless you hold out your hand

Wake up and come-to

Give me something to grab onto.

My grip is strong, my aim is true

Fear not, for I will rescue you

I hear you sayin’

Save me, I’m fallin’

I’m trippin’ on myself

I’m goin’ down

I’m goin’ down, down, down, down...

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* * *

ECLIPSE-By far, this song gets more response from people than my others do. I guess I just really hit a lucky chord on this one. The inspiration came from two friends of mine from High School that began seeing each other and got so wrapped up in their relationship that they lost their sense of self and the world around them. I think we all know people who fall into that. Shortly after I had written it, I realized that Fleetwood Mac’s "Landslide" inspired the chorus of this song. I had been listening to a Tori Amos version of the song and it sunk in subliminally. This one was finished in summer of 96.

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Eclipse

We conquered this "Cowtown"

When we were young

Before we knew better

Before you two were one

Moon brother, my nightlight

Her sun kept me warm

Now we’re living in shadows

That clarity, well, it’s gone

‘Cause you’re not yourself anymore

No you’re not yourself anymore

Interplanetary lover

You have been eclipsed

Melted into one another

You have been eclipsed

You wouldn’t leave her

No you wouldn’t dare

You’re so lost in her limbo

You’ll follow her anywhere

‘Cause you’re not yourself anymore

No, you’re not yourself anymore

Interplanetary lover

You have been eclipsed

Melted into one another

You have been eclipsed

When I ask if you’ve noticed

That you’ve whittled away

Your answer is a question

Isn’t love supposed to be that way?

Interplanetary lover

You have been eclipsed

Melted into one another

You have been eclipsed

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* * *

SWITCH IT OFF- It was July of 98 and I was on a plane out of Boston when this one came to me. All I had to write on was my copy of Ayn Rand’s The Fountainhead (which I am still sifting through) so I poured my thoughts all over the title and table of contents pages. I had moved from Boston to Nashville only a month earlier and in the process, I left a relationship in full swing. When I went back to Boston for a few days that July, things were, of course, not the same between us and I was super sensitive about it. It was on that plane out that I connected his emotions with the light switch metaphor and ran with it. The song was completed in October 98.

Switch It Off

Once we lit a love in luster

Blazed in vivid, kissed in color

But I blinked and it was over. Gone.

Day I left, my head was reeling

And you were "Mr. Cool, Calm, Steady"

And you made leaving look so easy

Just a flick of the wrist

Not a flinch, baby.

Ohh-Switch it off

Ohh-Leave me in the dark

Ohh-Blackout all the memories of you and me

So you can see

Erase me

Everybody deals in different ways

I need time to fade to black

But you just shut your eyes, blind to my pain

You shift that weight

That’s a talent, baby.

Ohh-Switch it off

Ohh-Leave me in the dark

Ohh-Blackout all the memories of you and me

So you can see

Erase me

Wrench your emotions

Grind your gears

Watch your life slip into automatic years

Feed your engine

Spin your wheels

‘Til you’re nothing more than cold black steel.

Ohh-Switch it off

Ohh-Leave me in the dark

Ohh-Blackout all the memories of you and me

So you can see

Erase me

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* * *

GYPSY-This one goes out to all the people who have wandered in and out of my life as nomads over the years. Gypsy started off as an ode to a female friend of mine then the second verse came along and blew that out of the water. At its core, it’s a song written about my "sensible" side finding the allure in social freedom and abandon. I am drawn to people who live and love unconventionally. It’s the Virgo in me itching to break free. he he he….

Gypsy

Gypsy

You swim in freedom that I cannot taste

Gypsy

You curve the lifeline my palm cannot erase

Head open wide

Laces untied

Waltzing in the street lights

Plant the seed

The fever in me

Defines your family trees’

Wild legacy

Gypsy

Blessed be

Nightdancing down cobblestones

Splashing through the leaves

Bloom in my pale light

And fall into me

Skip in the rain

Run through my veins

I wanna waltz with you in the dim light

Plant the seed

Put the fever in me

You are my fortune, carry me

Sweet destiny

Gypsy

Blessed be

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* * *

HERE & GONE-One of my crazy songwriting patterns that I’ve noticed is that my songs will first come to me in the form of a phrase or title. The weird part is when the snippets have nothing to do with my current life so they sit dormant for weeks or months. Sure enough something will happen to me or an element of my life will run full circle and all of the sudden the song idea makes sense. It’s almost like a prediction. Sometimes it scares me how right on it is. That was the case with HERE & GONE which first came to me in the winter of 96 as the core progression and a rough first verse of lyrics. It wasn’t until spring of 97 that the song got rejuvenated when I watched my close friend deal with a fading relationship. I wrote it from his then-girlfriend’s perspective as a wake up call to them both. It was a revelation for me, too, in a way and I remember the song practically writing itself after I put two and two together.

Here And Gone

Here and gone

You came to me stainless and strong

Lately, baby, you’ve been slippin out beyond

You were here

Now you’re here and gone

There are shadows of midnight beyond your eyes

And deep in the dim light the passion dies

I’m left shaken and shut down in the shiver of your sighs

Lost in shadows of midnight beyond your eyes

Truth will take its toll

As you sell your soul

To anyone who will receive

When you come up for air

Don’t think that I’ll be there

‘Cause every time you give yourself away

You lose a little bit of me

This tired thread is wearing thin

You can’t float forever, come back in

I long to taste the fever returning to your skin

But this tired, I’m so tired of...

Here and gone

You came to me stainless and strong

Lately you’ve been slippin out beyond

You were here

Now you’re here and gone

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SEAMLESS-"The little song that could". This one almost got cut from the record soooo many times! I had never played this song with a band before we recorded it and I wasn’t really sure what direction the song would head in so it was a rocky start. I think of SEAMLESS as the Murphy’s Law track. All kinds of things went awry or took unusually long to record for the silliest reasons. I was the one saying "We should leave this one off the album" but Jimmy (my co-producer/engineer) believed we could make it work. I’m so glad we kept it because more than a couple people have named it as one of their favorite tracks. Who is this song about, you ask? Hmmmmmmm…I’ll never tell.

Seamless

Did I wake you with a sigh?

I lie awake, hear your body rise and fall In perfect rhyme

And as the morning filters through

This cozy melt of me and you

You’re wrapped around this heart of mine

Two into one

Woven tight

Let this silent spell complete us

Not an inch of sin between us

Not a breath of doubt can reach us

We’re seamless

Seamless

We don’t have to speak in words

We move like poetry in verse

Ah, it’s a lovely kind of curse

Superconnected to my soul

No one can know it as you know

Let our balance tilt the earth

Love in align

Can light the universe

Let this silent spell complete us

Not an inch of sin between us

Not a breath of doubt can reach us

We’re seamless

Seamless

We are curved in chrome

Solid as a stone rolled from the highest mountain

Listen to the stars

They know who we are

Who we are

Let this silent spell complete us

Not an inch of sin between us

Not a breath of doubt can reach us

We’re seamless

Seamless

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DON’T FALL BACK-The chorus to this one came to me complete one day in August of 1997 whilst my good friend (of HERE & GONE fame) and his girlfriend of five years were calling it quits. She held on tooth and nail to him but he had to get up and leave her life just to find his own. This song is really a lullaby to him. I wanted him to know that he was doing the right thing even though he was breaking her heart. That chorus sat for a year on a scrap of loose leaf until one day I was playing guitar (while watching TV, no less) and stumbled onto the guitar intro and the verse melody. Strange, but I remember the latter moving me to tears as I was first humming it. I don’t know why. I just felt a very powerful and honest emotional force behind it.

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Don’t Fall Back

You pushed back

Laid your napkin on the table

And swiveled out the door.

Something she said

Pulled the trigger in your head

Left a love lying dead on the floor.

Now nobody owns you

No one controls you

But nobody holds you high

Don’t fall back

It’ll be all right

And there’s a force deeper than the ocean

Rolling through your soul tonight

Don’t fall back

Hold on tight

And if the waters try to break you

Hold your breath and believe

It’s gonna be all right.

Brace yourself

Grab a hold of your foundation

When your telephone rings

‘Cause she knows

That the cold nights leave you lonely

And her warm voice makes you weak

And you’ve come so far now

You know who you are now

So don’t let your heart start to slide

Don’t fall back

It’ll be all right

And there’s a force deeper than the ocean

Rolling through your soul tonight

Don’t fall back

Hold on tight

And if the waters try to break you

Hold your breath and believe

It’s gonna be all right.

And you’ve come so far now

You know who you are now

So don’t let your heart start to slide

Don’t fall back

It’ll be all right

And there’s a force deeper than the ocean

Rolling through your soul tonight

Don’t fall back

Hold on tight

And if the waters try to break you

Hold your breath and believe

It’s gonna be all right.

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JUMPER CABLES IN THE RAIN-Yeah, it’s about my high school prom. What an event that was. Nothing went right that night. I went with a group of my good friends whom I had spent much of high school hanging out with. Unfortunately, we had a knack for trouble and this night was no exception. We lost our hotel reservation, the car broke down and was jumped a few times before it finally would not start at all. It was 2 in the morning, raining, and the sparks were flying as the boys tried to jump the ‘ol station wagon. I had a revelation there in the middle of the street. I remember shutting down for a few minutes, kind of an out of body thing, and I stood watching the chaos. I felt this surge compel me to own my own life and to never get myself into situations like that again. The song was one of the hardest ones I have ever written because it was written three years after that night. That’s a lot of repression to sift through.

Jumper Cables In The Rain

Half-past nowhere on a highway shoulder

Runs in my nylons and mud in my heels

Hair un-braided, lipstick faded

by the heartbeat of the hazards this puzzle reveals

High school shy, school wallflowers, victims of chance

seven stranded, we’ll never make it to the dance

And I don’t know how I got here

And I can’t begin to blame

But I’m left to find the answers

In jumper cables in the rain

Oh lord, I feel the power returning to my veins

returning to my veins

The night air shocked me

And I realized how paralyzed I’d been

And I never want to feel that weak again

Something about the steam rising off the concrete

sparked a restless revelation

Shifting me like the wind

Something plugged me into myself tonight

Turned me on to ten-thousand volts of electric life

And I don’t know how I got here

And I can’t begin to blame

But I’m left to find the answers

In jumper cables in the rain

Oh lord, I feel the power returning to my veins

returning to my veins

And I raise my arms up

And I tip my head back

And I let the rain dance on my skin

And I breathe in

Begin again, begin.....

And I don’t know how I got here

And I can’t begin to blame

But I’m left to find the answers

In jumper cables in the rain

Oh lord, I feel the power returning to my veins

returning to my veins

Leave the yearbook on the bookshelf

Leave that photo in the frame

I think I’ve found the answer

In jumper cables in the rain

Oh lord, I feel the power returning to my veins

returning to my veins

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KISS OF ME-Thanks to Ivanne Deneroff, my co-writer, this song went from just a lonely chorus to an anthem for me. That chorus sat forever until we got together and played each other our works in progress. She really latched on to KISS OF ME and the rest is history. The laugh at the end of the track is from my acoustic guitar track. Jim was mimicking drum fills and I could see him through the glass going nuts, waiving his arms around. Silly!-Thanks to Ivanne Deneroff, my co-writer, this song went from just a lonely chorus to an anthem for me. That chorus sat forever until we got together and played each other our works in progress. She really latched on to KISS OF ME and the rest is history. The laugh at the end of the track is from my acoustic guitar track. Jim was mimicking drum fills and I could see him through the glass going nuts, waiving his arms around. Silly!

Kiss Of Me

All the lovers glowin’

Sunday romance strollin’

You left me in a neighborhood cafe

I pick apart my roses

Up to elbows

In my self-addressed bouquet

Singin’ "Love me or not, me or not, me or not"

As the petals drop

Love me or not, me or not, me or not...

But don’t come back now

Until you realize that you’re missin’ me

Don’t come back now

Until you appreciate the kiss of me

All the time you’ve stolen

Lips lukewarm or frozen

I wilted in your presence, overshadowed by your vacancy

Now you’re back to change me

Cherish me, arrange me

Do you want anonymous affection or do you want me?

Love me or not, me or not, me or not

As the petals drop

Love me or not, me or not, me or not...

But don’t come back now

Until you realize that you’re missin’ me

Don’t come back now

Until you appreciate the kiss of me

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ONE LOVER TOO LATE-One morning on the #55 bus on my way to work, I had an epiphany in the form of four words: One Lover Too Late. I scrambled for a pen and paper to jot it down, puzzled by it’s meaning but aware of it’s potential power. Eight months later after tossing that phrase around in my head, a musical snippet that seemed to fit the mood appeared and the words soon followed. Simply put, it is the story of my romantic life. It’s a very honest look at unrequited love and how I deal with it time and again. For that reason alone, I think it’s fitting that it be the last song on the record. It sums it all up in a few quiet words.

One Lover Too Late

It’s in the way he lets the truth slip through the silences that haunts me

It’s in the way he gives that begs of me to forfeit into him

A man with sense and light, it comes as no surprise to find he’s taken

Add that lover to the list of all the others who could have been

And I’d like to think that it’s not my fault

It’s just the twisted hand of fate

But I always seem to stumble in

One lover too late.

I remember hollow nights

When aching eyes would burn right through me

Never see me