SWU - 2021, Week #1
Sweet Addiction, words and music by Lauryn Shapter

You're my sweet addiction
With your honey coated tongue
Crave your benediction
'Til I'm unraveled and undone
It's a dangerous predilection
Got me breaking all the rules
This once sweet addiction
Is bitter and cruel

Chorus:
Can I fly on my own
Honey I don't know
Can I find my way home
Can I let you go

You grant me second chances
Again and again
Changing circumstances leave me
Wondering when it's gonna end
Second hand dances
I'm not who you want me to be
All these second chances
Are killing me

Chorus
Can I fly on my own
Honey I don't know 
Can I find my way home
Can I let you go

Gonna fly on my own
Just letting you know
Gonna find my way home
I'm letting you go
I'm on my way home
Now that I've let you go

Sweet Addiction (demo version)

SWU - 2021, Week Two

(I'm Not) The Celestial Kind, words and music by Lauryn Shapter

Lyrics:
Down here in the bottomlands
There ain't no wishing wells
Not much for higher ground
You won't find a citadel
It's just where me and my skeletons
Landed when we fell
Ain't no paradise here where I dwell

Your hands, they look a little too soft
And just a little too clean
You're looking like you're looking for
A sweet-hearted beauty queen
But I don't wanna be handled like some
Glass figurine
And sometimes I can be a little bit mean

Chorus:
Don't know what you came here for
Or what you're hoping to find
If you're thinking I'm your angel, boy
Well you must be outta your mind
I don't want your seventh heaven
Don't want cloud nine
'Cause I'm not the celestial kind

My neighbors are the ghosts and haunts that
Follow me around
Not much peace when they swing by
Even though they never make a sound
Telling me I’ll never be
Eden bound
But I like it here on the ground

Chorus:
Don't know what you came here for
Or what you're hoping to find
If you're thinking I'm your angel, boy
Well you must be outta your mind
I don't want your seventh heaven
Don't want cloud nine
'Cause I'm not the celestial kind

If you wanna venture down
To these muddy banks
My sweet old shack is shelter from
The cold, dark, and dank
I'm warning you my table here is
Where my demons drank
And that river there is where
My good dreams sank

Don't know what you came here for
Or what you're hoping to find
If you're thinking I'm your angel, boy
Well, you must be outta your mind
But if you let go of seventh heaven
I might make you mine
I might be your kind
You might be my kind
I just might make you mine

(I'm Not) The Celestial Kind - rough cut

Quarter to four
Lock the car door
Walk the park
Like a thousand times before

Fall sky blue
You never knew
As the colors rained down
That you’d fall too

One life gone now
Gone gone gone
One soul flies now
Why why why

Heart full of rage
Barely of age
Thoughts twirling round
Trapped in a cage

Lying in wait
Beyond the gate
Hardened by grudge
Blinded by hate

One life gone now
Gone gone gone
One soul flies now 
Why why why

Just go along
You’re not that strong
Don’t think about the ways
It all could go wrong

Need to rebel
No thoughts of hell
’Til you’re biding in your time
Locked up in a cell

One life gone now
Gone gone gone
One soul flies now
Why why why

Day of the Dead
To laugh instead
Of fearing the end but then
A blow to the head

Rosary beads
Apostles’ Creed
Was the love of God there
In your hour of need

One life gone now
Two lives gone
Three lives gone now
Why why why

Three lives gone now
Gone gone gone
One soul flies now
Fly fly fly

Why Why Why (demo)

Fiddle-laden anthem with gritty guitar and heavy stomp. Written by Lauryn Shapter and performed by Society of Broken Souls with Troy Morgan on bass. 

Tired Of Toein' That Line

An introspective coming to terms with an adversarial muse backed by ethereal guitar and piano.

Here I Am

The lessons of the road told by way of a spontaneous and beautiful side step off the beaten path.

Chase County Line

Rough Road, No Shoulder

Shape I'm In

Creakin' Boards

One More Kiss

We are Society of Broken Souls. We believe in living life authentically and honestly, fearlessly and without apology. By embracing the idea that we’re all a little broken, we have discovered a solace that comes from bringing our broken-hearted jewels out of the darkness. And so we look to the cracks in our hearts and the chips on our souls to invite you, by way of song, to discover beauty and freedom, strength and courage from the cracks in your own beautiful souls.

We are Dennis James and Lauryn Shapter. We write, record, and perform songs for fearless hearts, using words and melody to create musical snapshots — snapshots that confront our shared, raw humanity while they celebrate the beautiful mosaic of the human experience. We write our songs individually and arrange them collectively, and then produce and engineer our recordings at home in our attic, playing most of the instruments you hear on our recordings.

We support each other when the going gets tough and stand together as witnesses for our own struggles, the struggles of those we love, and the struggles of those we’ve not yet met. We laugh — a lot — and we cry a lot, too. Sometimes we swear and sometimes we drink, because sometimes we feel beaten up by the world. But sometimes we swear and sometimes we drink because we are giddy with the richness of our lives. Through it all, though, we live, with as much honesty and integrity as we can muster, two gypsy souls who found home making music. We would be honored if you would come along for the ride.

Society of Broken Souls

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