Released January 12, 2015. Mastered and produced in Pomfret, Connecticut, at Signature Sounds.

The Storm

Fly Fishing the Big Hole

Ann Arbor to Up North Atlanta

The 45th Parallel - Written by Holly Hanson. Performed by Neptune's Car.

Early Fall — “Up North Atlanta” in the pines
between the North Pole and equator,
we are toes upon the line.
Two blocks west — of the only light in town,
John serves up the coffee
and the best pie around.
On this long road that we’ve traveled,
when the antlers turn to bone
we were ragged and unraveled,
and this town it felt like home.

Forty-five — for a night down at the motel,
but it’s carseats and a flannel
just west of Thunder Bay.
Full Corn Moon — shines on the dashboard of the Honda.
We are hearts a’way out yonder
on the highway.
And, the moon it glows like embers
in the branches of the pines
in this small town in September
on this parallel line.

Chorus:
Yeah, let’s take the long way home.
Turn up the radio. Ride the backroads slow.
Oh, the towns they slide right by,
and it’s just you and I. We can take our time.

We’ve been shaped — by the river and the glacier.
Our story’s written in the landscape.
We share an icy past.
All I knew — lay forgotten in the leaf pile — 
blowing wild around our ankles — 
racing by too fast.
And, the geese are on the flyway
to the Gulf of Mexico.
How they navigate the skyway,
I guess I’ll never know.

Chorus:
Yeah, let’s take the long way home.
Turn up the radio. Ride the backroads slow.
Oh, the towns they slide right by,
and it’s just you and I. We can take our time.

Early Fall — “Up North Atlanta” in the pines
between the North Pole and equator,
we are toes upon the line.

Holly Hanson: vocals
Steve Hayes: vocals, acoustic guitar, baritone guitar
Sven Larson: upright bass

© 2014 Wild Braid Music (BMI)


The 45th Parallel

River Street

Written by Holly Hanson. Performed by Neptune's Car.

Yellow gingham cafe curtains and aprons on the wall, 
I have wandered down a side street to a Kitchen named after a girl.
I am empty bowls and dried-up wells seated under pressed-tin tiles,
and I wonder is this river a ribbon between us and all these miles.

In the village, lights blink on and sidewalks swell with crowds.
I have waded through the water with its branches and its bottles all around.
I am dusty books and parchment pages and poems that I’ve never written down.
I could fit among the knickknacks and trinkets in this fact’ry town.

Chorus:
Oh, I could pull you into this small-town scene.
Grease the chains and the gears of this old machine.
Rent a one-bedroom dream on Partition Street.
Wear your six-string ring over my heartbeat.

My east-side room, it glows with light in the hazy morning shine.
I have slumbered in a lighthouse weathered by the “American Rhine.”
I am crystal water and ocean brine and a river that flows two ways.
I get wrecked and sometimes rescued by whatever they call “love” these days.

Old-time theater down on Main Street. Early evening rain. 
I am passing by a poster of two lovers embracing near a train.
I am romance movies and big-screen drama and New York-neon signs.
If I bottle up my love for you, would this liquid fire shine?

Chorus:
Oh, I could pull you into this small-town scene.
Grease the chains and the gears of this old machine.
Rent a one-bedroom dream on Partition Street.
Wear your six-string ring over my heartbeat.
Wear your six-string ring over my heartbeat.


Saugerties, New York

Written by Holly Hanson. Performed by Neptune's Car.

You ask of my companions, Sir,
hills and the sundown and a dog
who strolls along with me
in woods and fields thick with fog.

I do not cross my father’s ground
to any house or any town.
My friendships are in letters, Sir,
for this is what I most prefer.

Chorus:
Open me carefully,
for I am only stardust.
And, you are the wind that rocked the grass.
And, you are the one who
brought down all the leaves,
and blew straight through this cotton dress
with the buttons on the sleeves.

Upstairs in my corner room,
I have a table with a drawer.
Here I write of life and death
while all around us is the War.

I’ve tended flowers all my life
and pressed them in this heavy book
and labeled each with Latin names —
these plants that grow beside the brook.

Chorus:
Open me carefully,
for I am only stardust.
And, you are the wind that rocked the grass.
And, you are the one who
brought down all the leaves,
and blew straight through this cotton dress
with the buttons on the sleeves.

I’ve had a threat I’ve told to none
and withered from its bitter wrath,
so I’ve written down my final wish —
the clothes, the flowers, and the path.

First, place me in this cotton dress.
Then, lace my neck with violets.
Circle ‘round the garden gate.
These friends I leave are my estate.

Chorus:
Open me carefully,
for I am only stardust.
And, you are the wind that rocked the grass.
And, you are the one who
brought down all the leaves,
and blew straight through this cotton dress
with the buttons on the sleeves.

Chorus:
Open me carefully,
for I am only stardust.
And, you are the wind that rocked the grass.
And, you are the one who
brought down all the leaves,
and blew straight through this cotton dress
with the buttons on the sleeves.


Emily Dickinson

Backcountry

A Blue Sky Turned to Rust
Written by Holly Hanson. Performed by Neptune's Car.

There was copper there for countin' in the shadow of the mountain,
so we settled near the river's edge.
There were more than fifty houses for the miners and their spouses — 
a church up on the ledge.

Candled helmet. Pitch black mine.
Down into this pit, we climbed.
Pick and hammer. Drill and hoist.
We tapped the twisted channels with our points.

Rooftops and timbers hit. Kegs of nails and barrels split.
Warnings of the reckoning to come.
Visits to the settlement by those who know the Great Spirit
and the heartbeat of the drum.

Chorus:
I remember Queen Anne's Lace — 
the curve of your face.
It's forever August in this place,
and you’re gone without a trace.

The pastor heard the plea by those who traveled up the mountain road
and called his flock together with a toll.
"We must depart this sacred ground or harm will come to all around,"
said the pastor to his frightened fold.

Light a candle. Place the Bible
on the table near the children's beds.
Tend the garden. Work the mine.
Scrub the floor, and make the daily bread.

On a clear day late in August, a blue sky turned to rust.
Gravel banks began to slide.
Can't say we weren't warned of this — black cloud like a fist.
Sand and stone stifled every cry.

Same time in the village square, the pastor said a little prayer
with tender loving care.
That cloud it stretched from north to south and east to west
and gathered up the rest.

Chorus:
I remember Queen Anne's Lace — 
the curve of your face.
It's forever August in this place,
and you’re gone without a trace.
Gone without a trace.

Holly Hanson: vocals, Nashville-tuned guitar
Steve Hayes: vocals, acoustic guitar, tapping
Sven Larson: upright bass

Inspired by “Ghost Town” by George Albert Waldo

© 2014 Wild Braid Music (BMI)


A Blue Sky Turned to Rust

Written by Holly Hanson and Steve Hayes. Performed by Neptune's Car.

Well wishes and a thousand paper cranes.
From this day forth, nothing's gonna be the same.
Bells on the buoys ring. Birds in the harbor sing.
Give me your hand, and I'll give you my name.

Hung up my hat. Kicked off my traveling boots.
Speak softly to me -- your breath will stir these woody roots
to bloom here on this windowsill.
Just say, "I will. I will."

Chorus:
Something old, something new.
All I ever wanted was a love like you.
Something borrowed, something blue.
Please say, "I do. I do. I do." 

My wishing well is full of pennies.
We have lots of work to do making memories.
Place a copper in your shoe. Stitch this silk into your seams.
Learn the language of each other's dreams.

Chorus:
Something old, something new.
All I ever wanted was a love like you.
Something borrowed, something blue.
Please say, "I do. I do. I do." 

Oh, these odds and these ends and all the things that I adore, 
I'll save them like these buttons in the drawer.
With a ribbon or some twine, I'll be yours, and you'll be mine.
Blessed be the ties that bind.

In red and white and green and gold -- 
love and heart in every fold.
Well wishes and a thousand paper cranes.
Give me your hand, and I'll give you my name.
Give me your hand, and I'll give you my name.


A Thousand Paper Cranes

This track is from the album Letters from the Road and is available for purchase on CD Baby here: http://www.cdbaby.com/cd/neptunescar2

Boxcar Betty

Neptune’s Car (Holly Hanson and Steve Hayes) is an acoustic duo from Massachusetts and New Hampshire who play original, Contemporary Folk music. Their three albums have appeared on many "Best of" lists and have charted in the top 5 on Folk radio twice (Strawberry Moon charted at #4 in September 2010 and included the #1 song "Lighthouse Keeper." The 45th Parallel charted at #2 in February 2015 and included two #5 songs, "The 45th Parallel" and "A Blue Sky Turned to Rust.").
     In April 2015, The Great American Song Contest awarded Hanson with an Outstanding Achievement in Songwriting in the Folk / Americana category for her song "Fly Fishing the Big Hole" saying, "It's a pleasure to hear songs of this caliber."
     In June 2015, one of the most prestigious Folk festivals in the country, the Falcon Ridge Folk Festival, named the duo a Grassy Hill Emerging Artist and invited them to play on the Main Stage.
     This just in (July 31, 2015) . . . the Folk Alliance Region Midwest (FARM), an organization whose mission is to engage and empower the folk music community, selected the duo for an official showcase at their October conference in Iowa City, Iowa.
     Neptune’s Car has been performing together since 2006 — both as a headliner and an opener. Some of the musicians they have opened for include: Archie Fisher (2014), Bill Staines, Seth Glier, Rani Arbo & daisy mayhem (2013), David Mallett, John Batdorf (2012), and David Wax Museum (2010). Some of the musicians they have co-billed with include: Dale Jett and Hello Stranger (2014), Mustard’s Retreat, Anne Hills, Neil Woodward, Dan Hall (2013), and The Steel Wheels (2012).

What does the name Neptune's Car mean?
Neptune's Car was a clipper ship that had a female captain. During an 1857 voyage from New York to San Francisco, Captain Joshua Patten became ill at sea. His wife, Mary, took command of the vessel and successfully navigated Neptune's Car around Cape Horn to the port of San Francisco, while caring for her husband, being pregnant with her first child, and fighting off mutiny from the first mate. We chose Neptune's Car as our band name to honor Mary's heroic deeds and memory and to spread the word about this amazing woman whose story should not be forgotten.

Neptune's Car

Popular tracks