The Fret and the Fray
by Lila Nelson
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Digital Album
Immediate download of 10-track album in your choice of MP3 320, FLAC, or just about any other format you could possibly desire.Buy Now $10 USD or more
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Compact Disc
Signed copy of album with art by Siena Nelson and design by Kristen Gould.
Includes immediate download of 10-track album in your choice of MP3 320, FLAC, or just about any other format you could possibly desire.Buy Now $15 USD or more
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Man Invented Corners
02:42
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2. |
Who Is It?
03:23
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3. |
Back to Bed
02:58
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4. |
Tomorrow
03:39
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Dance With a Stranger
03:49
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6. |
Falling Is a Virtue
03:41
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7. |
Wolf
02:34
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8. |
All Around
05:28
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9. |
The Rocking
02:05
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10. |
Swallow it Down
02:16
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about
This album was recorded in Portland, Oregon in early last year. We worked and played long hours at The Magic Closet with Ian Watts engineering and Sebastian Rogers at the helm as producer. Sebastian and I met in the fall of 2010 to get started with pre-production and swapped demos and ideas. When I arrived in Portland in January of 2011, I met Matt Berger and Tony Gethin at Sebastian's to rehearse for a day. I felt immediate rapport with these guys. With Flora Bowely's beautiful house as home and her massage friendly housemates as family--special thanks to Matt Fraver for the wheels!--we embarked on tracking live for 5 invigorating days. We pulled at least one all nighter in the process before delivering Tony to the airport. We did some days of overdubbing with some incredible guest artists inlcuding Tony Furtado (banjo), Skip von Kuske (cello), Greylag (vocals, piano, electric guitar, double bass), Laura Kucera (violin), John Nastos (flute and clarinet), and Catherine Feeny and Emily Wilder (vocals). I came back up in March to finish mixing before heading out to tour with Come Gather Round Us (after one last all nighter!) for a couple of weeks this time staying with Sebastian and his wife Catherine at the house that they share with some of the members of Greylag. Drinking tea around the fireplace and spinning vinyl over lively talk and sophomoric chalk art made for some fine Portland memories. Thanks to all who were involved in this adventure. I look forward to getting it to you in all of its packaged glory. Thank you! -Lila
credits
released 28 February 2012
All songs written and performed by Lila Nelson
Produced by Sebastian Rogers
Engineered by Ian Watts, assisted by Adam Caldwell
Mixed by Sebastian Rogers and Ian Watts
Recorded at The Magic Closet in Portland, OR
All songs written and performed by Lila Nelson
Produced by Sebastian Rogers
Engineered by Ian Watts, assisted by Adam Caldwell
Mixed by Sebastian Rogers and Ian Watts
Recorded at The Magic Closet in Portland, OR
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- Track Name: Man Invented Corners
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Man invented corners
Man invented corners
Man invented corners
God would have made a curve
Man invented mercy
Man made the Earth flat
Man invented corners
God would have made a curve
Now there's something to get backed into
Now there's somewhere to put the bed
I read what the mystic said
It's all a sleeper's dream
We find a hole to fill
We drill and we find a hole
It's all a sleeper's dream
A sleepers dream
Man invented corners
God invented curves
You should see the view
When I'm making love to you
Now there's something to get backed into
Now there's somewhere to put the bed
I read what the mystic said
It's all a sleeper's dream
It's all a sleeper's--
God would have if he could have--
But it's all a sleeper's dream - Track Name: Who Is It?
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I'm tender under
When do you think we'll get there?
Oh help me, help me
Back to somewhere easy
Born from seed, born from blood
Born from a sad kind of look-away love
Look, these flowers all lined up
Don't you want this, what I got?
I was formed into a fist
I was ready for the blow
You said, "How do you beg
For mercy or for more?"
How do you beg?
For mercy or for more?
Who is it? Who is it?
What's with it? What's with it?
I see now why your god, he trembles
The weather all up to him
Brim full of little girl's secrets
He promised not to tell
What color is your madness? A purple majesty?
A red alert? A yellow hurt? Or a jaded jealousy?
Who is it? Who is it?
What's with it? What's with it?
What color is your blue? A desperate dark night?
Or a blue on which to watch your rocket take flight?
Oh let them knock, it's not for nothing
Oh let them, let them, let them in…
Who is it? Who is it?
I am a morsel
Fallen to the ground
Small and delicious
And somehow wasted. - Track Name: Back to Bed
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You had to come out of somewhere
So you came out of there
To a girls' chagrin you're trying to get back in
You love to sit and stare
On the morning of your birthday
You woke up and said
I can't believe that we were made
From bouncing on a bed
I can't believe that people carry
Other people inside of them
If not for having found my way out
I'd be skeptical as sin
We had to get back to something
So we got back to god
Some down on our knees
Some with a knowing nod
On the morning of your birthday
You woke up and said
Today is just like any day
Will you love me when I'm dead?
I can't believe we are as old
As old as we've become
I can't believe we've come this far
And then you stuck out your opposable thumb
We had to get somewhere
And so we hitched a ride
Downtown to kick the night around
And find a place to hide
In the morning it was your birthday
You woke up and said
I cannot stop the time
But I can stay in bed
Then we made love so sweet
It put the birthday cake to shame
I cried out happy birthday, baby
You said God, I'm late for work again
Oooh, ooooh, oooooh
Oooh, ooooh, oooooh
Oh we had to get back to something
So we got back to bed
One hundred degrees
Me on my knees
And thunder overhead - Track Name: Tomorrow
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I already wish it was tomorrow
I already wish it was tomorrow
I kept the things you said to borrow
The paper wings, the golden rings, the pretty things…
We can't see the sky for the streetlight
And we can't seem to try for fear that we might
Make it just to break it
Tomorrow, tomorrow, tomorrow tomorrow
Tomorrow, tomorrow, tomorrow tomorrow
I'm hawing and I'm hemming in
The fray, the fret, the fear I think I'll stay another day
Another day, another year
We can't see today for tomorrow
We can't seem to sit with our sorrow
Whatever I have today, I promise I will give away
Tomorrow, tomorrow, tomorrow tomorrow
Tomorrow, tomorrow, tomorrow tomorrow
I read the story as you told me
I took your look to bed to hold me
I sang along with suicides
With cigarettes and unpaid debts and pony rides
And the birds all flew off of their perches
And the people all ran out of the churches
In praise for the day, they were sure they'd
scared away...
Oh when are you ever going to learn?
Oh when are you ever going to teach me?
As long as you are reaching, you can reach me
Tomorrow, tomorrow, tomorrow tomorrow
Tomorrow, tomorrow, tomorrow tomorrow - Track Name: Dance With a Stranger
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You smiled ear to ear
But the easy chair was hard with fear
I wanted to hold your hand, I wanted to
But who can you trust, in a world filled with lust?
There's really no surface that is clean
Oh, what a brief dance with danger
Oh, what a sure dance with death
Life is a dance with a stranger
The body holds hands with the breath
Back on the operating table
The nurses were fit, the doctors able
I wanted to fall asleep, oh, I wanted to
But the numbness wouldn't take
And so I lay there awake
Happy that the cut was clean
Oh, what a brief dance with danger
Oh, what a sure dance with death
Life is a dance with a stranger
The body holds hands with the breath
A spider web has got a little give
Give a little, that's a way to live
But once you get caught
Be prepared to give a lot
What a weight off, now that your bones are clean
Oh, what a brief dance with danger
Oh, what a sure dance with death
Life is a dance with a stranger
Then the body parts hands with the breath - Track Name: Falling Is a Virtue
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A fruit fell from the tree last night
Falling is a virtue of what's ripe
He's leaving her
Or she's leaving him
Both of them thinking it's the best
It could have been
This is how we'll come to see each other
We will be polite to one another
If you ever need something from me
That I can't give you
Please, be kind to yourself
And leave me alone
I’m trying to learn how to sit still
Empty without asking to be filled
He's quitting drinking
She's quitting crime
Everyone's thinking it's about time
We built it up so hell if we
Won't knock it down
We fall out of the sky
And we end up on the ground.
If you ever need something from me
That I can't give you
Please, be kind to yourself, be kind to me
And leave me alone
Don't jump, heart
Although the bell rings, danger
Up will soon be down
There is no rearranger
Like the ground - Track Name: Wolf
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Romulus and Remus left the pack
Twice left home, but founded Rome
Father was a wolf, but he's long gone
Nobody will pet him since the fairy tale went wrong
And he is afraid to look you in the eye
And not a day goes by, by and by,
That I don't wonder
You are wolf, but not the kind on the t-shirt
You are a wolf in the open air
You are a howl, but not the kind in the movies
You are the song that raises my hair
And I am afraid to think what I say
And not a day goes by, by the way
I don't wonder - Track Name: All Around
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Did he die with cash in his pocket?
Did he lie when it all went down?
Did he keep it to himself?
Or did he run it all around?
All around
All around
All around
That's the thing about something for nothing
There's nothing that you wouldn't give
You live your life on the edge of a knife
Like it's lucky that they let you live
You used to call it love
But love sounded funny
Now you fly your paper money all around
All around
Baby, give away your purity
But don't throw away your clarity
Because nobody can see
What you see
And just because you wear my ring
Don't get stuck inside the thing
For the life that you are saving
Is worth nothing when you go
Oh, easy for you to say you are alive
But what about the ghosts who survive?
Only a lonely sound
Just above the ground
Swirling all around, all around,
All around
All around
All around
All Around
Look, look hard, adjust your grip
Bite, bite down the lower lip
You are only trying to keep him
From running all around
From here to helpless is not so far
I can feel you falling from right where you are
Only a lonely sound just above the ground
Writhing all around, all around...
All Around
All Around
All Around
God I'd trade the blood and skin
For one more night with him
I am looking all around
I am looking all around
I am looking all around…
They used to call it love
Now they trade for guns and money
And they spread their sticky honey all around
All around
All around
All around
All around - Track Name: The Rocking
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I love the musician's hands
I love the actor's face
I love the painter's eye
I love the dancer's feet
When nobody is watching
When nobody is there
You are nothing but the rocking
You are nothing but the chair
I love the lover's arms
I love the writer's tongue
I love the singer's throat
I love the charmer's charm
When nobody is watching
When nobody is there
You are nothing but the rocking
You are nothing but the chair
When nobody is watching
When nobody is watching
When nobody is watching - Track Name: Swallow it Down
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For something horrible, you got famous
But you got famous just the same
You'd never felt so small, turns out we're all alone
You couldn't have learned it better
Because you never would have learned
It's time to go fishing to take
Your sadness and sit it by the salt-lake
To hook a tear for bait and cast it down
Into the murky mystery
And hope a fish will find it
And drink the unknown out of you
It's hard to show your face when you don't know your face
Sometimes a fall from grace is an ace in the hole
It's time to go fishing...
It's time to go fishing to take
Your sadness and sit it by the salt-lake
To hook a tear for bait and cast it down
Into the murky mystery
And hope a fish will find it
And drink the unknown out of you
Swallow it down, make you understand
Swallow it down, make you understand
Swallow it down, make you understand
