Lyrics:
Are you looking at the husk of a painting, hoping that the color will somehow appear again? Canvas rearranging and changing, shifting to a pattern you want to see remembered? Are you looking for genies, wishing for some wishes to waste on existential nonsense? Are you hoping for reason, caught in the middle of a war of telling lies? Well, I wish you’d tell me if you’re looking for something. I’m trying to find a way to help you out, yeah, but you’re just too quick to let your heart slip, so I’ll let you figure it out. // And I’m stuck on the evening, wondering if the life you lead is drifting. Give me just a little bit – no, help me, I’ll wait for demons, wait for reasons to stay, but all I’m getting is your spare change. // Did you strike out on chances? Is your head not letting you back in to other times? Looking at our perfect romances, wanting and waiting and striking out again? Well, I’m not the best always. Just a little bit of a cold bite inside me, feel it when I open my eyes. Come on, try me. I’ll suspend all my disbelieving sentences to help you. I’m trying just a little harder than healthy’s defined as. Could you give me something to work with? What’s with the walls around you? Spend my whole life just trying to break through.

Cry About It

The Evening

Ben Hovey, trumpet
Lyrics:
We take rest like exercise, our favorite pastime, push the mind. It’s like an art form. We play cards like reading minds, I move the pieces like a god designing a new world. We lay down our weary sighs, this ain’t about peace of mind. // He says he wants to play like dancing children, trip the fall. Dancing children, beautiful game. Dancing children, after all, open the flower, easy the play. Dancing children, trip the fall. Dancing children, beautiful game. Dancing children, after all, this ain’t about who’s right, it’s about the amaze. // We take stress, say “one more time,” I want to break out the lines, eliminate the boring. I see wings in the checkered streets, and when the fragmented ideas meet, we go exploring. I take time to make my mind, you say I’m not thinking right. We take rest like exercise, our favorite pastime, push the mind. It’s like an art form. A little escape, a little degree of ecstasy, you’re telling me your fantasy is just to stay here forever. I don’t mind, if you’ve got the time. We’ll stay until we’re old and blind. We’ll still know how to play like -

Dancing Children

Sav Buist, violin; Katie Larson, cello
Lyrics:
It was only a picture, it was only a picture at first. It was only a picture until you twisted up the words. It was only to remember your livid scripture at first. It was only a picture, until you pushed it to a curse. It was only, no, stranger danger, just another way to change her, hang your coat on the door. Your teeth are anger spitting at the shame of distance put between you and hurt. Now maybe, baby, listen to the slipspeak. All we’ve got to give is insanity hurled at daydreams, ladies, splashing, screaming, “This is not what I expected of dirt.” // All that you’ve got left to give, got to give it to her, give it to her. The giver’s not the gifted, just the gift itself. All that and you may never win, just to shield it from hurt, keep it from first. The giver’s not the gifted, just the gift itself. // You were only a liar, only a liar at first. You were only a lyre until your strings went and burst. Now you’re living a lie, sir, living and dying second-best. Waiting for mercy, crying at the rests. … “I am not a criminal but you could be the first.” If I slip, I’ll fall, don’t bother to pick me up. I like it just where I am, laying here in the dust.

Dust

Musicians:
Ian Ridenhour: composer, vocals, piano, fender rhodes, hammond b-3; mini-moog on waiting for the sun, vibraphone on bones of me; guitar on stay awake and exoskeleton
Jamie Ridenhour: guitars (except exoskeleton)
Michael Hynes: bass
James Kylen: drums, percussion
Brie Capone: vocals on waiting for the sun
Justin Ray: trumpet; Jacob Secor: tenor sax; Jacob Rodriguez: bari sax on waiting for the sun and exoskeleton

Copyrights:
all songs written by Ian Ridenhour, © 2017 Ian Ridenhour (BMI), except waiting for the sun written by Ian Ridenhour and Jennifer Ward, © 2017 Ian Ridenhour (BMI) and Jennifer Ward, bones of me written by Ian Ridenhour and Jocelyn Renee Carter, © 2017 Ian Ridenhour (BMI) and Jocelyn Renee Carter (BMI), and exoskeleton written by Ian Ridenhour and Ethan Lewis, © 2017 Ian Ridenhour (BMI) and Ethan Lewis (BMI).

Album Production:
Recorded at Echo Mountain Recording
Nomatic Studios/Michael Hynes: recording producer/engineer
Album Artwork: Lily Douglas (cover); Emily Murman (chest explosion); Isabella Rose Taylor (piano drawing)

You Help Me Fall Asleep

Exoskeleton

Bones Of Me

Waiting For The Sun

Ha Ha!

Stay Awake

Ian Ridenhour writes smart, piano-driven alternative rock music with pop sensibilities and a dark streak, or as Sav Buist of The Accidentals puts it: “like Jack White and Ben Folds had a baby.” Albums include Cry About It (2016) and Ribcage (2018).

Ian Ridenhour Official

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