Let’s be civil now
You throw away your gun
And I’ll point mine away from
We’ll call it even, square

And you can trust me ‘cause

We’ve always been here

So let’s go find the cops
Just to protect ourselves
Equals in the eyes of law
We’ll call it even, square

And you can trust it ‘cause
Everyone I know does
In the land of the free
You can trust me

And when everything starts to shake
And everything starts to fade 
And everything’s a phone call away

I never knew this would happen
It’s a fault in the system
But it’s the only one we have

And it’s always worked out for me
It’s always worked out for me


Image: Kids playing Cowboys and Indians in Weslaco, Texas, 1942. Arthur Rothstein / Library of Congress, Prints & Photographs Division, FSA/OWI Collection, [LC-USF33- 003619-M3].

Some People's Kids - Song a Week 2021, Week 20

Let’s try to sober up
It’s gonna be a long night going like this
And even the mourning doves
Know better than to fly back where they came from

‘Cause we’ll fall in love
And I’ll break your heart

Let’s try to sober up
Tomorrow’s coming like brand new year
And even the broken glass on the kitchen floor
I mean it’s a mess but at least it’s clear

‘Cause we’ll fall in love
And I’ll break your heart

Make us wish
We never made a start
And we’ll go back
To unpacking
All the reasons
It might have happened

We’ll fall in love
It’ll fall apart
Broken glass
And broken hearts
A sober second
Thought of warning
That mourning doves
Were made for mourning

The Shape of Your Shadow - Song a Week 2021, Week 34

I could be the one to hold you, honey
I could be the one to always get things wrong
Like I said I never needed no one
I never needed no one but you

Someone told me I'd feel the lightning
In the night I started to believe
That I'd believe for no one
I never needed no one but you

You have me breaking all my rules
You make me believe in love

On the night that you arrived
I was shakey-legged, you were wild-eyed
Heartfelt and tongue-tied
You shook the stars out of the sky
Raining down as a million lights
There's flooding seas and breaking tides
Leaving nothing that you touched the same
Like the breath of wind that speaks your name
Oh, on the night you came
The lightning fell in curtain chains
On the night you came

I could be the one to hold you, honey
I could be the one to always get things wrong
Like I said I never needed no one
I never needed no one but you

No One But You - Song a Week 2021, Week 37

Juniper - Song a Week 2021, Week 38

Sorry for all the potato-level quality lately; a bit more settled now and got a non-cellphone approach set back up.

***

I don’t wanna live here anymore
I got a garden growing
In a field of graves
It’s been a long time coming

Where’d everybody go?
Fuck all this changing
Like a flash of light
You're out of sight

Leaves fall
Through an open door
Least of all
I don’t wanna live here anymore

I’ll forget it for a little while
Fall asleep inside
Don’t wanna live here anymore
I got a garden growing

We’re not as young as used to be
We can’t live like that anymore
And I know you need
To plant seeds

So drive to the east coast
Through the falling leaves
Like a flash of light
Out of sight

Leaves fall
Through an open door
Least of all
I don’t wanna live here anymore

I’ll forget it for a little while
Fall asleep inside
Don’t wanna live here anymore
I got a garden growing

I got a garden growing

Out Of Sight - Song a Week 2021, Week 45

When i was 18, 19
And you were 19, 20
I lost count along the edges of the falling leaves
You were coming quickly
And it was going easy
Time passing was the last thing we needed

Love, it got along x2
Falling leaves in the setting sun
Love it got along

When I was 19, 20
And you were 20, 21
We had no idea what was coming
We had no idea what was going on
It was getting old
You were something new
I was looking for something to hold, thought I could hold maybe on to you 

Love, it got along x2
We’ve been holding on so barely, and barely holding on
But love it got along love it got along.

So I wasn’t what you wanted
Better as I was, or what I’ll become
Why does everyone hate me now
I’m 20, 21

Something New - Song a Week 2022, Week 1

Time to lay years down to rest
Parting like a passerby
Walk past everyone to find
Fire, water, wood, and wine

Leave it all as lonely ash
This is what promise becomes
So burn and wash the left behind
With fire, water, wood, and wine

And all along
There’s curling smoke in place of song
On the ceiling of the living room
Suppose I should be leaving

Here among the falling
Everything and anything
Only saved if kept in mind
But fire, water, wood, and wine

And all along
The coast that I grow up on
The way that water keeps its cool
Suppose I should be leaving soon

And all along
There’s nothing wrong, there’s nothing wrong
In the way the snow swallows the sound
Suppose I should be leaving now

Leave it all as lonely ash
This is what promise becomes
So burn and wash the left behind
With fire, water, wood, and wine

Twenty Two - Song a Week 2022, Week 2

With a thank you to Emma Gale for working with me on some of these lyrics.

I got into my car
A mixtape of love songs from age 17
I had always loved the country scene
I drove across town

You killed time
You were playing every love song we ever loved
You had always loved the motown hum
Wait for me to come around

I was standing in the doorway
Jumped the fence like I always do
But you already knew
That I had something on my mind

You opened the door
And looked like Saturday night on Sunday morn
You already knew
I had something on my mind

Someone’s gotta choose
It’s me or it’s you that lights the fuse
Some things gotta change
There has to be a day
They all  can’t end the same
Some things gotta change

I looked you in the eyes
I felt as nervous as the day that we first met
My words hung like ash on cigarette
I tried to say something

You looked me in the eyes
And it’s funny how forever makes them clear
You had told you that you dared me, dear
I tried to change the conversation

Someone’s gotta choose
It’s me or it’s you that lights the fuse
Some things gotta change
There has to be a day
They all  can’t end the same
Some things gotta change

And now I know you know
And now you know I know you know
I can make or break your heart
You can make or break my heart

Someone’s gotta choose
It’s me or it’s you that lights the fuse
Some things gotta change
There has to be a day
They all  can’t end the same
Some things gotta change

Standing In Your The Doorway - Song a Week 2022, Week 3

Listen, I know, I said that i’d come back
I’d sleep on your porch - the planes sleep on the tarmac
Distance don’t matter when love’s strong enough
I used to think
I used to think that it was

Falling asleep to the sound of the protest
My city’s always done it better
Tell me our love's true because
I used to think
I used to think that it was

So you’re out in Boston
I’m saying that I’ll buy a ticket tomorrow too often
You’re saying that tomorrow’s too late
I’m torn between going and making mistakes

Listen, I know, this ain’t coming easy
I know you know I’m making this hard  
Time doesn’t matter when love’s strong enough
I used to think
I used to think that it was

Used To Think That It Was - song a Week 2022, Week 5

The door hinge is doing all the work these days
Never knowing if I’m going, or going to stay
Pressed against the wall and bending back
Far enough and the metal cracks

When the sun explodes under its weight
Never knowing if I’m gone or just coming home late
In the dry leaf tinder of the season change
The hills turn a burnt sienna range

So listen, high heaven, when I’m dead and I’m gone
And the last lines have lingered by the tomb too long
When the red starts to die from the halo of sun
Don’t be afraid in the morning the orange in the song

Wake up from the romance of flames kissing your toes
Before they brought back the wolves to Yellowstone
To feed on the beasts that feed on the leaves
Before the whole thing set on fire

So listen, high heaven, when I’m dead and I’m gone
And the last lines have lingered by the tomb too long
When the red starts to die from the halo of sun
Don’t be afraid in the morning the orange in the song

Planted a lemon tree
To try to prove that I could grow something
From all we were before
We could be something more

I was born for ruin and I knew the game
And the killers and curs who passed down my name
Long before leaves dried out in the sun
On the freshly turned earth over what I had done



freestock.ca CC BY-SA 3.0 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0 via Wikimedia Commons

Rhymes With Orange

Forget the photographs
They don’t know what we’re after
Like a cellphone screen
Could ever know what we mean

I know this live in the moment
Bullshit is nothing new
But I need you to be alright
With me being moved

I am a sucker for
Movies with winning wars
Sunlit seams
Splitting at the scenes

Lens flash dreams
Mercy, more
It doesn’t matter how
We won the war

Who do you mean
I need you to tell me what you mean

Who moved the scene
Who moved the scene
Who changed everything that it means
Who changed everything that it means

Who Moved the Scene - Song a Week 2022, Week 48

I don’t know I can do this justice
Sitting round the glowing fire
Oh when Christmas comes
From Cambridgeshire

Some gifts they just keep on giving
Throughout the whole long year
While the snows keeps on falling
Keep drawing the blankets near

All through the long December
The music brought to mind
Cause in a New York Minute
It’ll be New Newark Christmas time

I don’t know if I know the story
But I hear tell
Of a Santa Claus of music
Writing songs with his elves

It all starts in Jolly Old England
It’s the north pole of tunes
Then it drifts around the world
To Manhattan living rooms

All through the long December
The music brought to mind
Cause in a New York Minute
It’ll be New Newark Christmas time

It’s not Christmas if it’s not snowing
It’s not the season until the family comes along
It’s not a holiday even
Before Nik’s Christmas songs

Stocking hung by the chimney
Children snug in their beds
Songs across the ocean
Make visions in their heads

All through the long December
The music brought to mind
Cause in a New York Minute
It’ll be New Newark Christmas time

Image from: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Christmas_Tree_and_Presents.jpg

A Very Nik Newark Christmas - Song a Week 2022, Week 50

I don’t want you to forgive me
I’m sleeping soundly at night
No more lying awake
With honest dreams
When the morning comes
Lying through my teeth

On the other side of the window
It’s minus 20 outside
Sometime soon
Seasons change
In memory of my name

Listen well
You never know
What you find
Behind the snow
I’ll light a fire
I’ll breathe the smoke
Sure the seasons change
But it happens slow

There’s always a train
Where the coal chokes
On icy veins of rails to the coast
To your fingertips to your toes
Are they keeping warm
Well I hope

I don’t want you to forgive me
Passing winter covered trees
The sun shines
On everything
But it happens slow
So burn the spring




Image: https://pix4free.org/

Forgive Me

Image: kaluci kaluci, CC0, via Wikimedia Commons

Couldn't We

This time we’ll leave, and we’re never looking back
The sun illuminates the bible on the dash
I can hear your dad yell turn around now
The only thing worse than letting go is letting down

Got drunk on confidence that we got it right
The daughter makes her break for the shining city lights
With all this time to lose we’re losing now
The only thing worse than letting go is letting down

Well it’s you and me against the world little darling
And with each next step the last’s forgotten
In the cold of the winter our hearts will harden
While I sing you lies about a sunlit garden

The question’s left on our lips unspoken
Whether we make it big or broken
                                                                                 
My hopes were so high about proving everyone so wrong
The jury is out but it won’t be long
If I can keep the world from getting me now
Whether we let go or whether I let you down

Your heart’s so big there’s no need for hoping
Slowing down and breaking open
carolina’s saying come on, turn around now
The only thing harder than letting go is letting down

Carolina, Come On

Photo - Mike Lewinski from Tres Piedras, NM, United States

Song a Week 2023, Week 41 - Southern Lights [w/ David and Laurie Easterling]

Everything’s a sign if you want it to be
We’re right on time if you never want to leave
Finer lines, softer beats
It’s all over you know
It’s hear and say and said so
What you saw, what you’ve seen
Everything’s a sign if you want it to be

The market went down, they boarded it up
I bought the marquee, but it wasn’t enough
Everything’s a sign if you want it to be

Back to the states, stayed in this town
But you came back up, when they burned the place down

Everything’s a sign if you want it to be

So
Knowing all that
Keeping in mind
This is a sign
This is a sign

Image Sam Howzit https://flickr.com/photos/12508217@N08/5604657238

This Is A Sign

When I was in France with just a guitar I had tentatively planned to get back home and write and record a song with 'as many instruments as i could' instead of the guitar+midi controller approach. This was the one, I guess.


It takes a lot to make me mad
But at ends of days where nothing goes as planned
I know in my heart that this is not my soul

I hate my heart when it gets hot
And even though it takes a lot
To boil up and speak my mind
I curse my curses every time

So here we are all born and breathing
And I just can’t help but dreaming
Of being better, being good enough for you

If I could build us wooden hearts
Fit together like two parts
Of a whole, a perfect space for me to fill your soul

Because all the ones I’ve seen so far
That wouldn’t, couldn’t, shouldn’t start
To love like we know that we should love
Maybe our head had something after all
To let our heart begin to fall
Then look down knowing patient from above

If I could make a wooden boat
Sink or swim, I swear it’d float
And we could put you on the bridge
And sail into the nothingness

If we had our wooden hearts
You’d steer us anywhere to start
I would let you take the wheel
To feel the way we feel that we should feel

Bit I will keep this one all stone and sinew
Blood encased in bones like the one that’s in you
With everything that I’ve done wrong
Because it’s the one that you’ve been counting on

Because it’s the one where I belong


Image credit https://www.flickr.com/photos/tiarescott/39390433

Song a Week 2023 Week 50 - Wooden Hearts

Like leaves fall back to the forest floor
If the wind doesn’t get in their way
There was nothing left worth leaving
So I promised to stay

Without resolve for a revolution
Eat more, drink more, take up smoking again
Miles between saying and seeing
And intention

Falling leaves
Reach for the dirt
To be covered with snow
And wait for the earth

To leave them alone
And heaven it hurts
To wake dead in spring
We felt it first

Come on don’t tell me that either way
The sun’s gonna rise
Come on don’t tell me that either way
Seeds of renewal only need a little light
Need a little light

With nowhere to go, we go where we’re from
If life doesn’t get in our way
There was nothing left worth leaving
So I promised  to stay

Now holding on to the fall gone
And the foregone winter too
And the forsaken spring means everything
To man who had spoken too soon

Falling leaves
Reach for the dirt
To be covered with snow
And wait for the earth

To leave them alone
And heaven it hurts
To wake dead in spring
We felt it first

Come on don’t tell me that either way
The sun’s gonna rise
Come on don’t tell me that either way
Seeds of renewal only need a little light
Need a little light

Renewal - Song a Week 2024, Week 1

Somebody's Waiting

Fever - Song a Week 2020, bonus

Crawl Before You Walk - Song a Week 2020, Week 3

Image credit Linnaea Mallette: https://www.publicdomainpictures.net/en/view-image.php?image=166585&picture=small-town-usa

First Drafts - Song a Week 2020, bonus

The Light

You'd better believe it honey
Imma tell this whole damned mountainside
Won't leave this place alive
No one will leave this place alive

She said with all her conviction
Cameras flashed from the front and sides
Everyone can sleep sound
Everyone can sleep so sound tonight

If she was heaven sent then heaven knows
What was going on inside
But maybe she has seen
And none of us can see
The light

Listen to the voices in the air
To your fingers when they start to write
Take a page from the book
Take a page from the book and set it alight

We feared witches so burned women
And when the fire gets so high and hot
Decide just what they are
Decide just what they are not

Chorus

Fasten your hair with no golden pin
Your last meal with 12 dutiful men
Your last waltz with another 5 of them
You can't see but you can still believe

So keep your head and keep your distance
Close your blinds and lock your door up tight
Everyone can sleep sound
Everyone can sleep so sound tonight

Chorus

Photo credit Nthep, commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Reve…courthouse.jpg under creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/deed.en

The Light - Song a Week 2020, Week 5

This Explains A Lot - Song a Week 2020, Week 6

Heart - Song a Week 2020, Week 11

The Dance We Know

Photo by Rob Hyndman: https://www.flickr.com/photos/rhh/28751878853/

The last few Song a Week weeks have been experiments with multi-tracking and writing in styles that aren't quite mine. I feel the need for a comfortable mournful folky campfire song this week; hoping the prompt is something like "You Can Lead a Horse to Water" or something like that.

Funny Thing Is - Song a Week 2020, Week 18

Photo: Candle lantern [foto.wuestenigel.com/candle-lantern/] by Marco Verch [www.plaghunter.com/marco-verch/] under Creative Commons 2.0 [creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0/].

This is for the Song a Week's week 19 prompt, "Better Off."

This might be the dumbest
Thing I've ever done
The words escaped my lips were gone
But you
Ever the patient one
You'd forgive me
But I wouldn't forgive me
You'd forgive me
That's what you do Annalee

If I tried to break your heart
And you know I never would
I don't think I'd do a job so good
People make mistakes
But I make a lot
Don't be the one
That I make them on
Oh Annalee
You'll be better off

When you called me crying
Drunk inside, and inside dying
For the lantern to be lit
I say
Sometimes I believe it

So Annalee
And this ain't a perfect rule
But I'm not completely
Not still in love with you
Ever the lovely one
Go be lovely
Do it without me
Go be lovely
That's what you do Annalee

Annalee  (You Can Lead a Horse to Water) - Song a Week 2020, Week 19

Photo: George Hodan [https://www.publicdomainpictures.net/en/view-image.php?image=59077&picture=white-dove] under CC0 [http://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/].

I wrote this with a full band approach in mind but couldn't get it to land, so a quick cell recording. This is one of those that was largely written in my head and sounded good, then when time came to learn it I realized I had written a song I couldn't sing the way I wanted, so still working on it.


Heaven and hell won't have you now
Stuck in the  middle still living somehow 
Throw the doors wide open
Take something for the sunlight

In the dead of night, in the darkest heart
Still need a light for the fire to start
Throw the doors wide open
Take something for the sun

On the tip of the wing of the bird you've broken
You thought there'd be wind in every word you'd spoken
There are lots of ways out, not the ones you've chosen
Don't shoot the messenger

Four walls keep on closing in
There's smoke pouring out of the kitchen
Throw the doors wide open
Take something for the sun

On the tip of the wing of the bird you've broken
You thought there'd be light in every word you'd spoken
There are lots of ways out, not the ones you've chosen
Don't shoot the messenger
Don't shoot the messenger

Float above
Wildflower fields
Try to fall in love
With how the feeling feels
Lines across the sky
Pigeons dressed as doves
Messengers fly
Love letters on their heels

On the tip of the wing of the bird you've broken
You thought there'd be wind in every word you'd spoken
There are lots of ways out, not the ones you've chosen
Don't shoot the messenger
Don't shoot the messenger

There are days when 12's just 12
And days when it's high noon
Staring down the street
At the shot that's coming soon

The bombs blew off at midnight
Crashed into your living room
Brighter than the daylight
Between the fire and the moon

Messenger - Song a Week 2020, Week 21

Demo, needs work. Photo by Andrea Bova [https://www.pexels.com/photo/girl-hugging-and-kissing-dog-2850609/]

When all this is over
If this and over are real things
Maybe in a year from now

A girl and her dog
Lay out blankets in the square
Dine on who knows what
With a cup of who cares

There's a light in the window
There's freedom in the air
Nothing else remains
There's music in the distance

The ghosts of empire
Bear witness on the wind
Talk in whispers
Maybe in a year from now

A girl and her dog
In a basket on a bike
Leave a trail of crumbs behind
Maybe in a year from now

There's a light in the window
There's freedom in the air
There's nothing else remains
There's music in the distance

Notes come floating on the wind
Of violin and violence
It's anything and everything
We ever saw coming

Everything you know is wrong
Even in a mourning song
The violin starts to insist
You think about the violinists

Hymns all need a hopeful part
'Cause blankets fade and fall apart
The girl, the dog, the cup, who cares
She does, she's still there

Ozymandias (Music in the Distance) - Song a Week 2020, Week 22

This one needs a full band treatment for obvious reasons. But ain't go no time for it this week.  Slight accompaniment from my dog Kiwi. Photo by Isaiah Colson: https://www.pexels.com/photo/black-and-white-drums-man-music-141408/ 

I, for the record, like stomp clap music and really liked Hey Ho when it came it. More about moods than global damning. 
_____

Everyone's got some mallets
And a heartbeat song
Wait for the quiet
It'll take too long

So shut and bar the doors
And put some nothing on
Til it feels just like

Don't want no stomp clap
Don't need no hey ho
Drop your beat drop
If you wanna feel whole

If you want to burn bright
I want to lay low
So drop that stomp clap hey ho hell no

To a slow stop
To every beating heart
And nothing fills your lungs with air

Everyone's got some heavy
And a kettle on
Wait for the whistle
It'll take too long

So shut and bar the doors
And put some something on
Til it feels just like

To a slow stop
Every beat heart
Nothing there
Fills with air

Stomp Clap  - Song a Week 2020, Week 27

© CEphoto, Uwe Aranas, CC BY-SA 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=46529244

I wrote Ifs and Thens, liked it, started recording it, hated it, so here's some trainbeat instead.

I ain't interested in phone calls
Less I can barely hear you over the screaming of a train
I just want you here beside me
Walking home from that station again

I don’t want you sending photos
Your smiling face in a place where you are not with me
Take a picture of your ticket home
The only thing I want to see

It gets more than I can take, and my lonely heart may break   
When it starts to feel so long you've been away
So if you feel like I've been stalling it's been too long since I've been calling
I'm probably on the road and on my way

Phone Calls - Song a Week 2020, Week 40

Like a ship to the shore
The waves to the waiting wild
Tell me something more
Honey, I’ve been waiting a while

To hear your call
A siren on the sea
Wondering if after all
You were wondering

Carved here out of stone
Built a searching light
You called me on the phone
Said we were ships passed in the night

If it’s what you’re looking for
Darling, I am the shore

I’m not going anywhere

Ship To Shore - Song a Week 2020, Week 48

I used to live like lightning
And I’d rarely touch the ground
As if taking off my boots
Was laying my roots down

Near or far there’s names
On signs that point the way
I may not settle down
But I’m settled all the same

Don’t forget that liars tell truths
When they forget the game
Living light like second hands
Refuse to take the blame

Somewhere there’s a wall
Where I stay in a frame
I may not settle down
But I’m settled all the same

 Every night of lightning
Incoming with the rain
I may not settle down
But I’m settled all the same

Near or far there’s names
On signs that point the way
I may not settle down
But I’m settled all the same

Popular tracks by Charlatan, PE