'Cause it's fun to say "Ooh Baby" 
Preview track on up-and-coming mini album, Laughing at Traffic.
Lyrics:
They told me to tell you/How much they love you/They told me to hug you/They told me to meet/Ok, maybe that’s not true…/But I still need to, so it seems/And you know I don’t like talking to strangers,/And I’ve spoken to stranger ones than you dear/Don’t like talking to strangers/Talking to strangers/That’s why I’m here with you//But, Ooh baby; Ooh, ooh baby,/Tell me something’s wrong /’Cause you don’t smile; you don’t laugh the way you did not that long/Ago, so I strung together some random words to make a song/About you/about you//They told me to be there/When life just ain’t fair,/But nobody really cares anymore/They told me to write down/Just what I find out,/But I know there aren’t words to describe just how everything’s happened to play or pan out//This seems randomly picked and randomly placed/You don’t understand me; I don’t understand you; we misunderstand grace/But girl, you know I don’t understand the words that come right out/Of my mouth when I know there’s something more than me//

Random Words

For Garrett and Katie. This is a song I wrote and recorded with Abby Kate in Novemberish... Just now getting it up on el sound cloud. Congrats on the engagement!

By Your Side feat. Abby Kate

A rerecording of a song from April that I was crunched for time to write and record completely. 

A song, that came out of a crazy season, about craziness and hope

Lyrics:
///I had a pencil that I used to use/With a white eraser and a clip that was blue/Used it to write down everything that I wanted to do/Oh, I wish it was easier to talk to you/Can't stomach my pride or ignore my strife/Can't wave a white flag when love is a fight/So I made a leash - a lifeline/To keep me in your sight/I want to do more than I've ever done/I want to fly close as I can to the sun/I want to see clocks strike on the two a little closer to one/Oh, I wish it was easier to get this done/You know I want success, and, baby, I want fame/I spent the better half of youth trying to make a name/And my pride could paint a portrait/But time's such a little frame//Slow down, I/Slow down, I/Slow down, I/Slow down I/etc.//This is how – this is how ground washed under my feet/This is how – this is how/This is how – this is how I'm the partner of Eve/This is how – this is how//Does it have to tie together?/Do I have to sound like I care?/Should I wonder at the weather/Or whether or not I'll be prepared/This flesh and blood can't inherit anything, Eirene/This seed can't ever be anything green/The rains a mystery: we're underneath, but we'll be free in a moment/In a moment///

April (More On Rain) - Re-Do

Lyrics:

Ink
Gathering
In a stream 
To the sea
I believe you
I believe the bloodshot reed's a truer quill 
Than my pure intentions to mark my deathly will
You grant me
To keep ajar the door that lets will free?

Don't let it close or everything changes - everything changes
Though this grid of bones is crueler than a cage is, I won't disavow and change it.

There's freedom in the air
There's freedom in the sea
There's freedom in the phrase "you're liberating me."
But the shackles won't release till my sentence is complete
Forty years of wind-burned heat stand in between 
Though the hinges turn and swivel free,
Still I'd rather sit inside - my options open
Dischoosing chosen.

I've compounded pressure for release
And tried to swap a doorstop with a key
But trouble's truest when it leaves us weak.
I'm supposed to break in forty years of propping open open ocean

Don't let it close or none of this changes - how monotonous and ageless.
These weary bones are pigeonholed as cages, but everything changes.


June (Part II) feat. Big Debbie, K-Man, and Kiku

I've never been much of a talker
There ain't much need to be, it seems
And every time I try to empty out the locker of my thoughts, they end up falling out on me.

Too many pieces crammed together
And not a single match to see
I'm not a painter or a poet – I can't show it as it ought to come together when I speak.

I think I think at things too much
I think we're better off with me who think more cleanly on their feet.
Maybe my medium's a crutch we'd best be hopping off

Oh tell me now how we'd find time to rehearse 
To bottle our words till they're spoken in verse
Drop jaw at the joy of those who skip when they walk
And covet the cool of people who rhyme when they talk.

My girl's got lyrics in her laugh,
And everything she means inside's a metaphor.
Why can't I seem to sing 'em back,
Searching long in vain inside for better words?

She skips in rain without an umbrella
And paints in colors few and sweet.
And yet she waited for me to tell her 
For me to tell her what she's known I'll find I mean.

Oh tell me now how she finds time to rehearse
To bottle her words till they're spoken in verse.
I drop jaw at her joy – you know she skips when she walks –
Like I covet the cool of people who rhyme when they talk.

Her eyes are sparkling; I'm blind
I just see color where she's drawing point to point and making lines.
It shouldn't take long to decide –
I'd rather be behind her eyes.

I think I think at things too much.
I think, I don't taste, see, and touch.
But she sees it all but her in love.
Least I don't see things like she does.
Not like she does.

People Who Rhyme When They Talk

People Who Rhyme When They Talk - Demo

My debut album! Recorded with grammy-nominated Logan Green in Memphis, TN.

Never Full

In The Mood

Don't Remind Me

Never Alone

East

Mr. Meantwell

Same

Coming In

Home is behind, and the world ahead,
But I’m still hung up on what you said…   
That June afternoon, hot and sticky-sweet
With a wish, a laugh, a kiss, a ring.

Why did I expect it all to be just so?
Oh, I should have known.
How could I think you’d drop it all to take my hand?        
Little goes as planned.

Seven years is a long, long time.
It’s been seven years since I tried to make her mine.
Been booking shows, trying to make a tour of the world,
But songs won’t win a crowd like words won’t win a girl.

Why did I expect it all to be just so?
Oh, I should have known.
I thought for sure they’d follow for a five-piece band.
Little goes as planned.

Something I’ve learned all these years on the road:
It’ll take you wherever it wants to go –
A river of asphalt, a current of stone,                                 
And it won’t bend to where you had in mind to flow.

Why did I expect it all to be just so?
Oh, I should have known.
Time makes the one who dams the course a lonely man.   
Little goes as planned.

Little Goes As Planned

Compton enjoys singing songs and sneezing. He can play the guitar as well.

Debut studio album, East is out in May.

Compton McMurry

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