Production

Produced by Jody Blackwell & Brian Charles

All tracks recorded at Zippah Recording, Boston, MA

Engineered & mixed by Brian Charles; Assistant engineer: Annie Hoffman

Mastered by Jonathan Wyner, MWorks, Cambridge, MA

Players

Jody Blackwell – electric and acoustic guitars, vocals, backing vocals (1-10) 
Mike Mele – electric guitars (1-2,4, 6-9) 
Duke Levine - electric guitars (2,3,5,10) lap steel (2,10) mandolin (2,10)
Steve Chaggaris - drums, percussion
Joe McMahon – bass 
Ken Clark - Hammond B-3 (1,3,6-8,10)Rhodes (2-3, 4, 6, 9) Wurlitzer organ (5), piano (2)
Dan Baker – lead electric guitar (6)
Andy Santospago - backing vocals (4,10)

lyrics

Forward

My hand is folded on this old glass knob
that I’ve heard rattle and turn so many times
I just need to linger on this tread a minute more
while I emblazon this place upon my mind

Last thing to do is to step on through
Hands at this door are pulling me forward

Pulling me forward, pulling me forward
Hands keep pulling me forward
No change in my face, gonna exit with grace
These hands are pulling me forward

Funny how habits die hard or not at all
Catch myself listening for the 5 AM train
or reaching for the screen door when I feel the urge to roam
strong as the ozone in the August rain

Give me the mornings in the gold summer light
Give me the shade of a water oak
When dark is falling we will sit and watch the nights
burn down to embers and smoke

It’s time to go, but I need you to hold my hand,
keep pulling me forward

Tender

Safe, under your fall
there is a place where all heartaches
have grown soft as time goes on

Keep warm while you mend
shutter yourself from the wilderness
of doubts that creep in

And just be still, let the night fill you
soon a new light will find you

Take care, your faith may be tender
for it is too soon since you lept
and laid your heart bare

So Glad

I'm so glad I don't walk in your shoes
I'm so glad I don't walk in your shoes
Recent tribulations compel me to muse
I'm so glad I don't walk in your shoes
Glad that I don't lose my way down the roads you choose
I'm so glad I don't walk in your shoes

I'm so glad I don't live with your tongue
I'm so glad I don't live with your tongue
Every word another friend undone
So glad I don't live with your tongue
Talk that trades in other's pain, will come back like a boomerang
I'm so glad I don't live with your tongue

I'm so glad I don't dream in your head
I'm so glad I don't dream in your head
A hypocrite's hard conscience for a bed
So glad I don't dream in your head
When darkness lays you down alone
your hardness reaps what it has sown

I'm so glad I don't walk in your shoes

Breakthrough

Have you noticed darling
how the heat has stolen
the little moments
That used to get us through a drought

It’s getting hotter
I can’t bear the thought of
you and me apart
too long we have gone without a 

breakthrough at last, I’ve waited for days
for this uncertain weather to pass
Our breath returns, time to uncover
all that we love about each other

All these small confusions
clinging to my skin
the air is thick
with the things we’ve been holding in

But can you hear it coming
now the sky is rumbling
I am waiting for the thunder to deliver us

So take my hand and we'll turn our face skyward
Let the air lift the weight and revive us
Close your eyes and let the wind
give us back our wildness

Now stop and listen
to the falling rhythm
Moving closer in
As the day turns into water

I want our love to be
cool as the rain on our feet
fluid, subtle and sweet, able to offer
a breakthrough at last

My Most Likely Place

Babe, our time is finally here
You and I’ve had one hell of a year
All I want to do tonight
is close into each other ‘til we’re airtight

All the cares that drain us
They’re now hollow and weightless
so let the world just hang
and in your arms hold me tight

This still amazes
what I best know of grace is
that by my side is
your most likely place

Hard to know how we’ll get by
Feels a little like we’re living the end times
But we get stuck on heavy things,
overlook the ordinary blessings

Well the road ahead will tease us
So let this moment release us
Let the sunset leave us
with only one thing on our mind

This still amazes
what I best know of grace is
that by your side is
my most likely place

My most favorite place is here
when the day’s through
Darling every hour we’re apart
I’m just waiting to get back to you

Come and Gone

The moment's come and gone
Now a memory left on my tongue
when I hesitated
I don't know why, so hard to tell you
what's been on my mind
still I just bide my time

These things I know tend to come and go
I want you to know, there's more than I'm owning
These things I hide, they live on inside
It's a matter a pride that I let you know it

The moment came and went
Didn't I owe you more than my silence
if our love is true

shouldn't it withstand
these tiny pressures,
why do we dance like they're eggshells

Someday, got to find a way
to tell you just how I've been feeling
Somehow gonna let it out
so we can begin to be real

Lately Come

Lately come
through a shattered night
Your broken world
can’t take the light

Sister how
much strength do you harbor
That tidal hell
never pulled you under

God lift our eyes
beyond this hard existence
Show us the mold
that we may know your intentions
And when we’re called
fill us with presence

Take my time
for your trust
Take my sight
until your eyes adjust

Will you let these burning
specters slowly fade
Will you give each morning
a little more of your weight

Inconvenient

I can see it's
another inconvenience
Put my love on the line, hoping you'll bite
Now my disappointment
Comes around like an old friend

Long distance
an ever longer distance
We end in this draw, nothing ventured, nothing lost
Is this a win-win
Or just a clever dead end

Slipping
I'm afraid of us slipping,
to find out these bonds are only as strong
as circumstance, so long as it's convenient

You're a light in my soul
I'd give all that I own
to make you see
just how much you mean to me
however inconvenient

Native

Pack up the car.  We’ll drive until we cannot see
Any signs of this so-called humanity
Don’t stop for gas now
We're gonna ride this sunset road
Keep driving north out of these arc-light halos

Pick up some friends along the way
We’ll ditch the grind for slower days
Turn off at the bend, leave the last light
From here on in,
let’s pretend that there’s

No roads out of here
No way to send for help
We’re stuck together
with nothing but time to kill
No way back again
Couldn’t escape if we tried
You and I are going native for the weekend

Pull up a chair, we'll laugh about when we were young
Life is good now but
it’s fun to see how far we’ve come

Tell me your dreams friend
I want to hear those turning wheels
Out here underneath the trees
we can be ourselves

We’ll light a fire when darkness comes
listen to the rain fall on the lake
Can’t you feel the air back in your lungs
We all understand without saying
There's no road out of here

Turkey Creek

for Hoyt

Head down to Union
and where the highway bends, follow Route 9
Pass through the mill town
the old plant is shuttered now
with green kudzu vines

Don’t know how long I’ll be gone
I’ve got some thinking to do
Soon as these two lanes turn to one
I’ll be heading down to

Turkey Creek, just want to walk in your sun
When I can’t disguise
how I wish things had gone
how I wanted something more

But I’ve got no destination
you’ve got nothing but time
So I’ll sit and savor your patient morning til I’m gone

Stay through the sunset
even though I get a little bit scared
Black as molasses, can’t shake the sense that something is there

Or is it those same voices
that dog me everywhere
My mind’s more restless by far
than any spirit in the dark at

Turkey Creek, just want to walk in
your sun
When I can’t disguise
how I wish things had gone
how I wanted something more

But I’m not looking for answers
I don’t long for a sign
Just to listen to your indifferent
song of cedar and pine

Give me sky
Give me time to uncoil
all the vines in my head
have taken hold

Put your ground of red clay
under my feet
bring me down, bring me down
to Turkey Creek