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The One That Isn't Burned

by A Metropolitan Guide

/
1.
On a rainy road the bloodied foxes rising from a dream land And that rainbow above only lights the blood leaking onto the green grass Draw a card or draw another, magenta red or another color That bleeding heart need be a jack or better Wash the clothes to another color, loyalty or just slightly under The birds perched on a wire and sat, sayin' "baby, the foxes ain't never coming back" Hey, little bird, did you hear the news? The others flew away, and now they’re laughing back at you Hey, little bird, see the blood upon the road? It isn’t yours, it could be yours, it might be yours tomorrow Back on the road that coyote there is gambling with a death wish To risk it all just to cross a road, chickens have tried for less, yeah Bluff the hand or bluff the dealer, deception wins just ask the winner Then we’ll go drink and wonder where it all went wrong If you cant win with the losing hand, then turn the tables and buy the land No one will be around to bother when you burn it all down and rise it up again A little bit of stardust to light a path across The road full of dead, or rather all the things you said I’ve a hotel on this boardwalk but this monopoly’s a bust The rent is rising faster than a phoenix from the dust
2.
Vanguard 03:16
Is it even possible to change sides in this fight? Or is it even worth wondering, or is it just a colossal waste of time? But that's life and that's alright it's everyone just trying to stay alive just trying to stay alive I guess we're all listening to the same empty lies that say even if you die The ones in the back aren't in the songs of the bards It's the ones with the rushing, gushing blood in the vanguard Runaway, runaway, runaway far There ain't a soul on the battlefield who knows who you are Runaway, runaway, runaway far Keep on, keep on running until the guilt tears you apart Everyone's awaiting for their chance to charge the lines Thinking that the glory is just on the other side But that's life, but let's apply that thinking to all the other times to all the other times I don't have the skill to think that I can match I don't want to kill, so I'll settle on a trap The nerves are a little frayed, so I'll step a little slow When I don't crash with the tip of the spear nobody's gonna care, nobody's gonna know
3.
Mirage 04:32
This world is getting smaller, so much smaller than before but not in the way they all say when you get old But rather suffocating, isolating like a sailor on the sea alone Part of something endless, something that feels free But confined to only the part you can see I see the waters rising from the sands and land from the open sea And, oh, how I want to believe That this mirage lodged in my head for once is in my head And this empire long since crumbled down can finally expand I guess I'm glad I built my house out of tiny little stones But it's that kind of rigid thinking that blows away a home If you kill a man along the way in fiction or in melody What you get is some murder ballad bliss and a conscience weightless and free But confined to only the part it believes Maybe that's a metaphor, maybe it's not Or it's just the right amount of syllables to fit the spot Maybe that's a metaphor, but it's probably not Because damage, no matter what, always finds its spot Like some kind of corner thrift shop Hawking memories and figurines like an old song in the mind Buried deep underneath the waterline If these memories are gonna' die drag 'em through the mud on the way by and take note of those interstate love signs Take that journey for yourself to find it ain't nothing different, just a new kind of enterprise It's a new direction for your tears to cry and a new kind of dying to bring resurrected life Or you know, right on theme and right on time That phoenix is burning and soon it's gonna rise Something else new for you to fail to define A mirage I guess, but isn't everything in life?
4.
All those mythologies back when I was a child Safely filed away under lock and key But as the years tick away, consumed by all the flames of a dark and terrible world Ah, but they don't know that as the fires roll the ashes of it all alight And rekindle that life of the locked away child and bring that phoenix to rise Didn't anybody tell you that all the magic creatures died? I just sit here hoping that it's a lie And if I sift the dirt just right then something more than dirt will rise and that magic is gonna come back to life If there's no hope they're gonna embrace it And if there is then they're gonna break it But if you say it enough times It'll start with a glow, and with a flash the flame will grow And like the locked away child The shackles will melt in the fire And bring that phoenix to rise
5.
Everybody's at the table claiming to know what they want So out comes the brimstone and the fire And whoever's left standing has the ashes to clutch and a world barely worth remembering You know what they say about the willow and the oak and which one bends to make it through the storm Maybe survival ain't the goal of your war and compromise is all just make believin' So, let me bask in the grey at every fucking turn Because the only world we've got is the one that isn't burned When the children are all loading guns and claiming that they're right Brother, just remember that before you fight Nothing brings a dead world back to life You want to live in some ideal then that's your choice to make And if you think that your unbending is gonna save you from the flames Well, then I guess the lesson here that you're about to learn is that fire's only as good as the fuel that it's got to burn
6.
Orphans 03:28
Goodbye, so long, I guess I'll see you in a year I know the story's always centered on how we're gonna rise But you don't believe that, and probably neither should I But for tonight there's no direction home And really no place else to go Orphans gaze at faded stars and old, run down, abandoned cars Scurry down the busy streets On one hand kids and the other thieves So fare them well Brothers and sisters, fare them well I've wasted enough time chasing down this dream of mine Like an orphan on a missing person sign Unclaimed, and unrecognized But in perfect view so life can keep on passing by But it's probably best to think before you go off starting wars with someone who's got nothing to lose You can call it a cheap shot but all is fair in love and war And I don't mean to make it out of this alive Like a kamikaze coming from the sky
7.
October Snow 03:28
In these days of autumn and the leaves are crashing down around the ground The rustling just the sound of each and every one cursing all the way down It's harvest time and there's a new crop to sow Because around here October is fair, if unlikely, spot for snow In a swirl of strings we're carried on the breeze Summer or winter or somewhere in between The seeds that you're plowing rarely grow But that hardly gives permission to pack it in and cease to sow Season expectation is the hardest thing down around this town Maybe an unexpected summer breeze, or maybe we're walking more figurative, emotional ground It's harvest time and that cold may be bearing down But, here, for the first time in a while it's the warmth that's winning out Here we go a-wandering like in all the books Where nature transcends over life's darkest roots And we'll make some recognition that we've always known Like how the raging of the winter is just spring's excuse to grow Musical expression is a hard thing when winter abounds Like, is it major for the softness, or minor for the cold, or tension for the darkness around? Let's settle in the middle with an added fourth or two For when the snow is falling in October, that's a bit unexpected too.
8.
Tornadoes 03:27
Batten down the hatches there's a storm coming on She said "Is this all we're gonna do today, is this all we're gonna be?" But I didn't reply, I just looked away It's foolish to waste our time Wasting faith, wasting strength on what the storm's about to do anyway Come the wind and come the rain The forecast is calling for today Tornadoes demolishing what's in the way Enough chaos to make it feel like fate Everything happens, but it happens quick The houses to dust and the trees to sticks The fires might erase, but the winds displace and that's a whole new kind of trick The sirens are blaring and the shoulders shrug She said "Is this all the storm's got today? It's quiet and not a thing's around But I didn't reply, I just cracked a smile The silence is by design You take a break first, then a whole bunch of work Ah, the Midwest, in the grandest style
9.
So many songs are about magic and myth And I find myself wondering why that is I guess the real world is coming up a little short And I hoping that its rules aren't the unbreakable sort This is all getting a little too tragic And if they say passion is a fire then it might as well be magic And if a story's all I need to go out there and find it Then let me grab a golden lamp with a genie trapped inside it I'll wish for the rearranging of each and every star Until it shows a constellation that tells me where you are Then I won't need magic or maybe even luck For I'll have two more wishes when the going gets tough The hardest part of this is to show a little trust that something of value can come rising from the dust But I feel it all drifting, quickly losing the thread Through all the myths and questions of rising from the dead So, start telling all the stories that can bring some kind of life But the ones that can resurrect, well tell those ones twice Maybe they'll be better off than what we've left behind A newer version mixed with the wisdom of a little time Like so many times before I'm gonna work with what I have and weigh it all up against the magic and the ash And see if what is left has got a chance to last or if it's just another failing of the substance to the flash
10.
What did that violin play I wonder The stories claim one thing or another Maybe "Autumn" came, or some long-forgotten hymn But whatever that violin sang Whatever that violin sang Whatever that violin sang I am nearer to my God, for thee. Was the violin in tune I wonder or did it bend when the cold came down like water I've played strings in the cold and it's nowhere I want to be Did it break you heart I wonder When that final note rang out like thunder And you swung the case over your shoulder for the last time

credits

released October 16, 2023

all songs written and performed by Brian Davis except where noted

"Orphans" written by Brian Davis and Sarah Riskind
"Nearer My God To Thee" written by Sarah Flower Adams/Traditional; arranged by Sarah Riskind
Violin/harmony vocal arrangements by Sarah Riskind

Brian Davis: bass, guitars, mandolin, melodica, percussion, piano, vocals
Sarah Riskind: violin, vocals

Recorded by Brian Davis April-October 2023 at Little Plane Studios; Peoria, IL
© 2023 Little Plane Records / Brian J. N. Davis

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