Copyright 2020
All Rights Reserved

Lyrics & Music: Erin Wolf
Guitar & Vocals: Erin Wolf

Trigger Warning: This is a heavy song which alludes to conversations around suicidal thoughts and mental illness. It's no secret to anyone paying attention that the on-going pandemic, particularly here in the US, has taken a heavy toll on many people who were already in times of crisis beforehand. We need to be able to talk about mental health when we speak of suicide prevention. 

That said, the lyrics herein, while not referencing any one situation specifically (which was intentional), do not necessarily represent a comprehensive range of experiences depending on any given person's own context. If you or a loved one needs help, please, please try to gather your strength to ask for help so you and/or your loved one can receive the correct care needed. I promise--YOU are worth it. 

1-800-273-8255 - Suicide Hotline for the United States
www.suicidepreventionlifeline.org

five things you can see
can you tell me what you see
so i know where you are

four things you can touch
can you tell me what you touch
so i see your hands

three things you can hear
can you tell me what you hear
so i can touch the air

two things you can smell
please tell me what you smell
so i hear your voice

one thing you can taste
how bitter does this taste
'cuz i can smell your fear

the war's not over
but there are battles won
i know it's hard to keep pressing on
not just trying to keep you alive
wanna see you thrive, love

do you want it
do you will it

will you want it
will you will it
will you keep it
if you let it 

your life

can you can see it, touch it, hear it, smell it, taste it
your life

see it, touch it, hear it, smell it, taste it

do you want it
do you will it
will you will
will you keep it
will you let it
will you want
will you want it

do you keep it
will you let it
do you want it
do you live it

Do You Want It

Song a Week Challenge

Original Lyrics:
He wondered if it was up to him
Symphonic gongs blasting through the ceiling
A taste of raspberries stained in his memories
There! It begins again! Hit the lights! Hit the lights my friend!

Meteors hurtled from her hands
As if she was bowling across the universe
A song of mango bleeding across asteroid fields
There! It begins again! Hit the lights! Hit the lights my friend!

Who are we but two beings?
Built of carbon and electricity
A touch of melancholy the abyss between pinprick stars
And worlds collide, hit the lights, hit the lights!

Hit The Lights

Lochinver

Week 34 #songaweek2020. Maybe the only completely instrumental track I've ever recorded! Photo is my lovely daughter this summer at a lake in northern Minnesota. If you listen really closely you might hear my rowdy backyard squirrels who "enhanced" the lead guitar track.

Solitude

Glasgow Songwriting Festival with lots of good tutors and inspiration.
This was written after an afternoon with Boo Hewerdine

Every Road

Copyright 2020
All Rights Reserved

Lyrics & Music: Erin Wolf
Guitar & Vocals: Erin Wolf

run run running around
run run running around 
in circles

let me take a moment
to explain myself
i know this is hell
quite a bitter pill

promise if you just
really hear what i'm saying
don't take it out of context
hear me out

then we won't be
run run running around
run run running around
in circles

i know it's hard to hear
that he lied with every word
how do you think that i had felt
when he'd done what he'd done

but then you cast me out
made me the villian in my own nightmare
i guess you gave me my way out
had my way out

i guess there'll be no more
run run running around 
run run running around 
in circles

i knew to be free 
it would take all of me
and i knew to be free
it would cost but i didn't know
it would cost so greatly

no more
run run running around
run run running around
in circles

Running In Circles

Artwork by the amazing Ayelen Molina ❤️

Lyrics:

I feel like I know you, know you from another life.
I think I already lived the moment of looking at your eyes.
And your voice, I heard it before you even made a sound.
I knew you'd be right here before you came around.

And this torture of feeling closer
keeps me here even when you disappear.
The silence that I'm fighting,
is it a dream or am I just pulling all the seams?

If I was a little bit smarter,
I'd wear all my tears as an armour.
You'd say it's ok to feel good,
but it's so far from fine.
Wouldn't take this any farther,
cause losing you is harder.
My broken bones still remember the war
from another timeline.

I'm walking back home, when it used to be your arms.
Every thought of you aches like stepping on thorns.
I hate I can't erase it, cause here I got nothing  to efface...
Just another glass of wine, spilled all over the place.

This torture, I'm at the border 
of saying your name as if you'd even care.
But I hold it till it overthrows me,
and our lines overlap, break a brand new heart...

If I was a little bit smarter,
I'd wear all my tears as an armour.
You'd say it's ok to feel good,
but it's so far from fine.
Wouldn't take this any farther,
cause losing you is harder.
My broken bones still remember the war
from another timeline.

(Say it's ok to feel good)

And I know it's too much
gin and sadness for the heart.
Living in blissful ignorance
(cause it never knew any different)
It's too much to take 
for the hall of fame of late night mistakes...
(gotta be a little bit smarter)

If I was a little bit smarter,
if I was a little bit smarter...

If I was a little bit smarter,
I'd wear all my tears as an armour.
You'd say it's ok to feel good,
but it's so far from fine.
Wouldn't take this any farther,
cause losing you is harder.
My broken bones still remember the war
from another timeline.

(Say it's ok to feel good
cause it never knew any different)

If I was a little bit smarter...
If I was a little bit smarter...
(cause it never knew any different)

Timeline

At the Glasgow Songwriting Festival, Emily Barker asked  us to write a song about a River and mine turned into a song about a Dam.
Whaley Bridge is a town in The Peak District in the UK and just just over a year ago a dam nearly collapsed. My children use to sail in competitions on this water. If it had it gone it would have taken out the town(and much of the surrounding area with it). We heard the helicopters going in and out from our house.  The hard work of the rescue services and the town stopped the disaster.

https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2019/aug/02/whaley-bridge-dam-raf-helicopter-collapse-peak-district

That Dam Wall

Sure, "Prove It" was the Week 14 prompt. But I didn't finish this song then. Don't think I finished it now.

*****

It's easy to say
We'll hold everything dear
Like we do right now
When the ending is

The ending is
What we make of it
You're going to be what we need right now
Prove it
Prove it to me

Everything starts to shake
Everything starts to blur

I can barely sleep
You're  early morning dreams
You're talking half to me
And half to you

Get inside my head and pull me out
Pull my body through when it calms down

It's all coming home, if you feel that darling
Pretty lies we were ready for

I remember rain, I remember sun
It's been so long it's gonna come, it's going come
Prove it
Prove it to me

Get inside my head and pull me out
Pull my body through when it calms down

Prove It - Song a Week 2020, Week 36

This is one of those songs I should really give credits to rhymezone.com for the lyrics. But hey, the feeling is all mine lol.
Picture taken by Ayelen Molina (the place is called Puerto Madero. Buenos Aires, Argentina).

Lyrics:

Said your name,
it shook the ground and it froze the frame.
Caught me in a spiral of regret,
I stood like a mirror that won't reflect.
I tried to run away,
couldn't even make it halfway.
So I'm counting all the reasons I shouldn't stay
or return, but they put me in reverse.

(Ring the bell) and use your heart like a spell.

Now mine is blue,
I'm fading like the ink of an old tattoo.
Heartbreak is a game well played by two,
so if you feel it too, we should go for round,
round, round 2.
I'm longing for your touch like a stone statue,
race against your eyes in the avenue.
So if you feel it too, we should go for round, round, round 2.

I'm overflowed,
my knuckles are white from saying "no".
My white flag is the afterglow
of seeing everything that I love just go.

Fades in the distance, I know what I'm missing.
(It hurts like hell) when you use your heart like a spell.

(Chorus)

Now we're strangers biting the love that fed us,
even saying "hello" feels part of a show.
Now we're strangers fighting the love that gave us
nights in cheap motels, you use your heart like a spell...

(Chorus)

Well played by two...
I'm fading like the ink of an old tattoo...
Round 2...

Round 2

Copyright Erin Wolf 2020

Guitar & Vocals: Erin Wolf
Lyrics: James Tristan Redding & Erin Wolf
Music: Erin Wolf

*This song uses a wide range of old unused prompts from Song-A-Week founder, James Tristan Redding (@jimtristan). Former prompts featured can be found following the song lyrics with the year the prompt is from. While I had hoped to use them as prompts in their own right, it seemed fitting to put them all together while also using Week 40's theme, "Ifs and Thens". Thank you for the wonderful inspiration, old friend!*

last call, but i'll keep nursing my
whiskey for one
i used to say i like myself better when I'm drunk
but that old me is gone
that old me is gone

i guess my best was pretty bad, hey
what i said is not what i wanted to say
but in the end, i pay for my mistakes
pay for my mistakes

all i ever wanted was to make you proud
but for all i know,
i've failed and let you down
if i could just make you smile
even for a moment
that would be just fine

it's 11:59 and here i am hoping
that you are my tomorrow morning
forget ifs and thens
how or whens
what do ya say

forget ifs and thens
how or whens
what do ya say

(vocalizations)
(because i'm too lazy to type them all out)

**********
old JTR prompts featured in this song (year)
1. make you proud (2018)
2. 11:59 (2018)
3. my best was pretty bad (2018)
4. you are my tomorrow (2017)
5. whiskey for one (2017) 
6. for all i know (2017)
7. pay for my mistakes (2016)
8. not what i wanted to say (2016)
9. i like myself better when i'm drunk (2010)
10. if i could just make you smile (2009)

It's 11:59 Somewhere

Official account of Erin Wolf for Song A Week 2019-present. • For 2016-2018 Song A Week archives, follow @erniwolf or click the link below.