A singer-songwriter ballad about love and addiction, "Easier" is the eighth single from Northern Colorado's Sean Waters and the Sunrise Genius.

Written by Sean Waters, the song's lyrics celebrate the power we have to make each other's lives easier. Together, Waters sings, it's easier to overcome the power of our unhealthy temptations. The single art shows Waters coming down from a ledge.

The protagonist of the story remembers "days of wine" with photographs "getting swept in the river tide" ... and the chorus brings them to picking up the one they love.

"Growing deaf to my temptations / Easier with you by my side."

With a easy-listening feel, the single is reminiscent of "Flexibility Blues" and "Easy Graces" the popular songs that Waters recorded in Los Angeles in 2020.



ABOUT THE ARTIST:

Waters debut Easy Graces charted on Hype Machine's Latest, with bloggers praising the production as “grounded, poetic, and striking” (Two Story Melody), “ruminative Colorado Americana” (Indie is not a Genre).

A "skillful, entertaining, and soulful performer" (the Coloradoan), Waters has played more than 1000 shows over 18 years in the Northern Colorado Front Range. His master of arts degree in philosophy and religious studies (2008) focused on comparative approaches to well-being.

A nominated master teacher, entrepreneur, and father, he still teaches at Colorado State University and still treats listening and making music as a sacred act of regeneration, where every day is new, and everyone's a genius.

Easier

Perfect for winter acoustic playlists and belated new year's resolutions, "Put Up a Bet" is the eighth single from Northern Colorado's Sean Waters and the Sunrise Genius. How life is like a game of poker? "Please don't take bad breaks the wrong way / put your hands up to what the cards say."
.....

"Put Up a Bet" provides a picture of a singer-songwriter coming into his own... some Rocky Mountain Inspired indie folk rock that sits next to other Colorado Indie Folk greats : Gregory Alan Isakov, Nathaniel Rateliff and the Night Sweats, the Lumineers, and Lewis Turner.Sean Waters writing and sound has drawn comparisons to early Coldplay and Iron and Wine.

“PUT UP A BET” by Sean Waters & the Sunrise Genius
Released Jan 5, 2024
Music and Lyrics : Sean Waters & the Sunrise Genius
Recorded by Sean Waters & the Sunrise Genius
in the The Wisdom Workshop Creative Studio in 2021
Mixed and Mastered by Tyler Lindgren in the VOID in 2023

—-

Sean Waters : Guitars, Vocals, Synths
Tyler Lindgren: Drums, Backing Vocals
Justin Andres: Bass
—-

Photography: Kevin Dwyer
Album Art : Ehren Crumpler
Inspiration : Erica Waters

…..

LYRICS

Spend most of my time

Digging in a mine

Silver linings in my head

Settled most of my debts

Till I rest again

Still drawing fives



Please don't take bad breaks the wrong way

Throw your hands up to what the cards say



Spend most of my days

Smokey head

Somewhere under the gun

When you once again said

Going round these days

Bust of cash coming along

Please don't take this all wrong way

Keep your hands up to what the cards say

And I won't take it hard or lightly

If we're in a big blind now nearly nightly

You put up a bet and you rise

While the river hides

You put up a bet and you rise

You put up a bet and you rise

While the river hides

You put up a bet and you rise

Please don't take this all wrong way

If I say you raised me rightly

Put Up A Bet

Golden Days

Backstory/Personnel: Summer of 2020, housesitting in the hills to the west of Fort Collins —  Red Feather Lakes, Glacier Meadows Gate 7. (What Would Bon Iver Do?). Self-recorded the guitar, vocals, bass, clapping, and synth. Thanks to Ehren Crumpler for having me housesit. Friendships are magic. 

I sent it to Tyler Lindgren, the man who takes a subtle stand in the Void. T added the percussion (“is that a gong?!?!, Justin asked). T also did some audio processing in the mix and master to add some sonic dimension to the second verse. Which brings us to: 

Production/Engineering: Set up the portable studio at the large dining room table, one that looked out over the rock formations and pines. “Cathedral Pines” came out of this session, too. Did all the tracking up there. Epiphone Flat-top Acoustic → NTK and an NT5 → Apogee Duet 2 → Ableton Live. Export to T, further magic.  

The Seed→Music: This song exists because of how I liked the sound of an over-exaggerated vibrato on the octave of single-string plucked C-major barre chord. (pitches love vibrato). Not much else to see in the music here: just me being lazy, “exploring” super simple songs that don’t change. C to D to G, on repeat. Starting on recording on the G, the third bar of the phrase, to add “mystique.” In 4/4, with a little bit of a 6/8 vibe…  Constructed bed tracks out to stacked acoustic guitar parts, recorded some vocal scat. Fitting for the mountain environs. 

Clearer than Crystal

Prison Break alt intro Public Waters Garage Tape 11 18 2019

from seanwaters.substack.com:

I’ve been on Summer Solstice Sabbath — just coming out of a three-week window of sacred down-time. Tree swings, swimming pools, and the songwriter studio, prototyping a PERMA-Cycle for Interpersonal Happiness Studies.  

Beautiful Questions: How could we collaboratively “demo” our creative gifts?  What if we embraced collaborative creativity as a lyric philosophy? 

A demo, to quote wikipedia, is “recorded for limited circulation or for reference use.” Demos are “seldom heard by the public.” Short for “demonstration” — a demo shows what a song might be. In the 80s, you record a demo to cassette in hopes of a record deal. 

Today, you might “sing the news” on TikTok. 

Or you might share a google drive folder with people you respect and see what happens. 

- - - - - - - - - 

To create a demo is to destroy a demo. 

You’re destroying the way it has been to make the room for something new. 

You’re destroying the draft to birth the revision.

You’re destroying what you thought you were making to make way for what wants to be born. 

When you produce a demo, it’s like you’re making a sand-painting. As soon as you’re done, if you’re lucky, you’re going to dump it in the river, and it will be reborn.  

.  . . . . . . . . . . . . . 

Sometimes I can’t let go of what I  love about a demo. We call it “demo-itis”: An attachment to how the song is now that prevents an embrace what it might be. 

This is a dangerous stance not only in music production, but also in long-term relationships with our lovers, our partners, our children, and ourselves. 

The trick, perhaps, is to accept celebrate what was, warts and moments-of-shining-brilliance and all, as a necessary aspect of what will be. Sometimes the demo (what was) makes the cut. But it’s healthy to let it go anyway, and trust that the well will refill. 

I always think of the Rick Rubin / Tom Petty sessions for Wildflowers, one of the all-time great albums: “half the songs they recorded . . . ended up on the cutting room floor.” 

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 

Producer ↔️ Artist  ::  Facilitator ↔️ Friend 

How is the relationship between a producer and an artist like a facilitator and their clients and friends?  How like teacher/student, and coach/coachee?

The producer : 

helps the artist let go of what was

helps the artist see (and hear) what could be

works to bring out the best in the artist

sets the condition to honor the artist, considers set and setting  

attunes to the artist in real time  

listens for where the vision resonates  

makes the creative lifecycle go a bit easier

When you’re the producer and the artist, things can get messy.  

Which is one reason I’m sharing these early demos, warts and all. With any luck, we’ll make a handful of these tunes into something beautiful that I could never make alone. 

This is the essence of creation, education, and wisdom: it's more collaborative than you might think.  

. . . . . . . . . . . 

CREDITS: 
All songs written by Sean Charles Waters except: 
Feel it Swell, January Days, Lemon Memory and Patience written by Ehren Crumpler and Sean Charles Waters 

All vocals by Sean Waters with backing vocals by 
Brian Collins on Birds Like Me 
Anna Poliakon on Come Slowly Undone 
Erica Waters on Vampire 
Amara Waters on Box of Books and Pink Duckie 

All instruments by Sean Waters with 
Tyler Lindgren on Drums and Hammond B3 on Vampire
Zack Scott on Drums on Gifted Guitar, Summer Melts 
Dave Wisbon on Keys on Birds Like Me 
Ehren Crumpler on Electric Guitar on Box of Books, Bungalunga, Favorite Monkey, Seabird and Octopus, Adeline and Vampire 

All Instruments by Ehren Crumpler on Feel it Swell, January Days, Lemon Memory and Patience.

Production, Arrangements, and Engineering by Sean Waters
Production, Arrangements, and Engineering by Ehren Crumpler on Feel it Swell, January Days, Lemon Memory and Patience.

(c)(p) Syncopate Media 2025

FOR INQUIRIES / HANG WITH SEAN: 

sean@wisdomworkshop.io

👶 Favorite Monkey

⭕️ Summer Melts

📼 Sweet Blue Eyes

📘 Come Slowly Undone

👶 Box of Books

📼 Patience

📼 Feel it Swell

📘 Birds Like Me

👶 Who You Are

👶 Pink Duckie

📘 Adeline

📘 Cherish You

📘 Repo Man

⭕️ Gifted Guitar (Stay in Love)

📘 Vampire

📘 SARAH!

📼 Lemon Memory

👶 Bungalunga

👶 Seabird and an Octopus

⭕️ That's Why

Cigarettes and Daydreams

on spotify: https://open.spotify.com/track/2uC3YQtTYZojHfwAFrvCHC?si=rVtF4DRwRqC-dqjuNpONFw
on fb: www.facebook.com/sunrisegenius
on insta: www.instagram.com/seanwaters_/

CREDITS:
Written by Sean Waters (c)(p) 2020
Produced and Engineered by Justin Andres in Claremont, California in 2019.
Mixed and Mastered by Gregg Leonard.
Sean Waters - Acoustic Guitar, Lead Vocals
Justin Andres - Bass, Ukelele, Synths, Percussion, Backing Vocals

LYRICS:
I ain’t no exorcist
I ain’t no acrobat
I ain’t gonna jump through hoops,
My body wasn’t made to bend like that
She’s gone
Yeah she’s gone away from me
If I made myself more flexible,
Would I be in this misery

I ain’t no therapist
It ain’t no accident
We’re all just animals
Livin’ in the internet 
She’s gone (can’t believe it that she’s gone)
Yeah she’s gone away from me (gone away from me)
If I made my mind more flexible
Would I be in this misery

And I ain’t no scientist 
But I experiment
How much can I resist 
Everybody place your bets 
She’s gone (can’t believe it that she’s gone)
Yeah she’s gone away from me
If I made my mind more flexible
Would I be in this misery
And if I made my mind more flexible
Would I be in this misery 
Yeah if I made my mind more flexible
Would I be in this misery

Flexibility Blues

Neo-Chill California Indie pop and Colorado Alternative with lush lyrics.

on spotify:  https://open.spotify.com/album/3IIwnNNxrB2AiYoIDWgzwv
on fb: https://www.facebook.com/sunrisegenius
on insta: https://www.instagram.com/seanwaters_/

CREDITS:
Written by Sean Waters (c)(p) 2020
Produced and Engineered by Justin Andres in Claremont, California in 2019.
Mixed and Mastered by Gregg Leonard.
w/ personell:
Sean Waters - Acoustic Guitar, Lead Vocals
Justin Andres - Bass, Electric Guitar, Synths, Backing Vocals
Kiel Feher - Drums, Percussion
Luke Miller - Keys, Organ
Casey Calmenson - Backing Vocals

ABOUT SEAN WATERS & THE SUNRISE GENIUS
Sean Waters, raised by northern Colorado hippies, was a child of both compassion and alcoholism: and both these threads come through in his debut single “Easy Graces,” which he recorded in Los Angeles with Justin Andres, the live music director and bassist for rock-and-roll hall-of-famer Justin Andres. Masterfully produced by Andres, “Easy Graces,” infuses Waters chill and ruminative Colorado americana with a kind of indie-pop edge of L.A. alt-rock. The lyricics nod to both Bob Dylan and Tom Petty; the groovy, indie-folk ambient rock soundscape nods to Father John Misty, Hiss Golden Messenger, and the softer rock of Cage the Elephant.   
~~~~

LYRICS:
Tears fallin’ down her cheeks like rain
Glistening stars on fifth and main
She said it’s easier to call her Mary Jane
Looking for a life that she might tame

I don’t want to go out chasing different times and different faces
She kept going back to places where she could find easy graces and
Fell from the height she found alone, got to that place you find you’re gone
Said keep your empire gone for love, I’m gone for your love

... 
She keeps her shadow as long as she can bear
Street lights shining down upon her hair
Hides her suffering, buys her pink champagne
Promises down like paper planes
Yeah she goes keeps a little piece of myself
Droppin’ petals in her wine for no one else

I don’t want to go out chasing different times and different faces
She kept going back to places where she could find easy graces and
Fell from the height she found alone, got to that place you find you’re gone
Said keep your empire, gone for love, I’m gone for your love
Get to get it on, get to get it on, get to get it on, get to get it on

Come on and stay forever
Won’t fade away, we’ll never
Stand down the ways, shine on together
As poet’s pray

There we were on the night we start to play
Never mind choosing different ways
Fuse blown in the fields of sugar cane
She knows I loved her all the same

Easy Graces EP

Easy Graces

ALL THE TIME 

Written by Sean Waters
Recorded by Sean Waters and Tyler Lindgren
Produced, Mixed, and Mastered by Tyler Lindgren
Sean Waters - Vocals, Guitars, Bass, Synths 
Tyler Lindgren - Synths, Programming, Percussion
Photography by Kristopher Roller
Art Design by Sean Waters
(C)(P) Sean Waters 2020

LYRICS

I don’t wanna go outside I feeling faded
Fiending all my time i said it go unpaid
Feel you easy like you go insane unphased 

Do you think that it would be so easy
Pour it out and get some wine you're pleasing 
Standing up look at the shrine you're seeing love

You’re seeing love, love, love
You’re seeing love, love, love

Take the plunge you think you’re seeing
Fish are swimming in the cell believing
Bird beaks and light in the middle of the flood

And if you’re laughing when you play so easy 
Take it off and then you find you’re sleazy
Come on down to the one you’ve always loved
Come on down to the one you’ve always loved

When the angels sing it comes so easy
So relaxed and you will find it 
Drink it down and in the wine so pleasin your mind
When the click track seems so easy
And the camera lens is all your mind
Come around and when you see it all the time 

You see it all the time, time, time
You see it all the time, time, time
You see it all the time, time, time
You see it all the time, time, time

All the Time

All The Time

Colorado Americana and Sun-Drenched California Retro Rock

Follow us on SPOTIFY : https://spoti.fi/36nNS3w
on fb: https://www.facebook.com/sunrisegenius
on insta: https://www.instagram.com/seanwaters_/

CREDITS:
Written by Sean Waters (c)(p) 2020
Produced and Engineered by Justin Andres in Claremont, California in 2019.
Mixed and Mastered by Gregg Leonard.
Sean Waters - Acoustic Guitar, Lead Vocals, Backing Vocals
Justin Andres - Bass, Guitar, Synths
Kiel Feher - Drums, Percussion
Luke Miller - Keys, Organ
Dan Kalisher - Lead Guitar

LYRICS: 

Moon down coming from your eyes
In the darkness wonder why
If I could buy more love
Curtains down to fan the flames
Over time you change your name
If you could find more love

And I feel so heavy I could break 
If there’s something I forsake
In more loving making, everlast again
'Cause what you do for me, I'm blessed

Jailing high up on a limb 
Right before the storm begins
Nearly getting the best of me
Need to out and take a drive
Let the windshield crack my mind
So I can give you the best of me

And I feel so heavy I could break 
If there’s something I forsake
In more loving making everlast again
Yeah what you do for me I’m blessed

Giving up our old way
Riding on the darkest days
Never wanna cause you pain
See the sun rise again

Moon Down coming from your eyes
Only have this time
Where we can buy more love
You Came to disconnect the screens 
Give us both both some better dreams
Said you mean that much to me

And I feel so heavy I could break 
If there’s something I forsake
More loving-making everlast again
Yeah what you do for me I’m blessed

Giving up our old way  
Riding on the darkest days
Never wanna cause you pain  
See the sun rise again
Giving up my old way  
Riding on the darkest days
Never wanna cause you pain  
See the sun rise again

Moon Down

Written by Sean Waters 
Sean Waters - Vocals, Guitars, Synths 
Tyler Lindgren - Drums, Synths, Bass, Backing Vocals 
Recorded by Sean Waters in Fort Collins, Colorado. 
Mixed and Mastered by Tyler Lindgren in Denver, Colorado.
Album photo by Christian Luve; Design by Sean Waters

LYRICS: 
It’s not too late for you to cry
We still celebrate our pride
Sing your blues and take your side
Keep your time with your crystal eyes

You gotta rest your weary head again
In the corner of a midnight store
Lay your body round again
Don’t worry no more, no more
Don’t worry no more, no more 

Take me home, but not just yet
Take me home, but not just yet
But not just yet
But not just yet
But not just yet
 
See you down by the waterside 
The fire burns I know you hide 
Well I don’t mind no I don’t mind
To speak your truth don’t let it die

Rest your weary head again
In the corner of a midnight store
And the deals that knee-jerk around again
Taking my own, my own 
Taking my own, my own

Take me home, but not just yet
Take me home, but not just yet
But not just yet
But not just yet
But not just yet

You give your life 
to something bigger than you do 

River flow the seasons dry
The summer classics in your eye
Don’t play your blues and watch them lie
You don’t care what others buy 

You gotta rest your weary head again
In the corner of a midnight store
Lay your body round again
Don’t worry no more, no more

Not Just Yet

💚 and follow us on Spotify :  https://spoti.fi/3hqmpCV 
 - - - -  in it for the love of it  - - - -

Sean Waters & the Sunrise Genius

Pinned to spotlight

Popular tracks