Get all 11 The City Streets releases available on Bandcamp and save 25%.
Includes unlimited streaming via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality downloads of Pretenders, The Instrumental EP, Sawdust & Rum, Winter Lightning, Decline of the West, Peacemaker, The Jazz Age, The Hipster Cull, and 3 more.
1. |
There are Stories
06:55
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Give it a rest now, I’m not your boss. Give it a rest man, can’t you see I’m dying. I’ll be the first one to tell you it’s gonna be alright. I’ll be the last one to tell you how to live. You never see me crying, that’s 'cause I’m not sad. When you crash into parked cars at 18 and I wasn’t mad. I’m glad that I taught you how to drive - you were 13 those nights I was loaded, you kept us on the road. I told your mother I’d always love her it took 50 years to discover everything that I lost is right here after all. I don’t mind losing a game of cards go in on Sunday don’t mind working hard. These hands may shake but they’re as strong as they are sure. Sure. It’s sad but it’s worth it. I was born on the east coast, then I got to wandering, headed up out west drove a taxi taking fares and runnin’ rum. Worked a spell as a mailman I was young, waking up with the sun. There are stories, nights I can never tell you and you’ve got your own, this dark part of being a man. There is a part of me I keep for myself only gotta make peace with yourself this life is all we have. I had one and you had two, one of them had one man she looks up to you and all we know is we just keep going. He must have been 8 or 9 he asked me, ‘grandpa why do you drink all the time?’ We had to leave the restaurant, I couldn’t drive. It was me and him in the backseat the kids didn’t even get to eat I said I don’t know, I’m sorry I don’t know why. But I will try to take care of everyone I love in some way.
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2. |
The Deer
02:24
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Hemingway would have been washed away in the tides of your careful wisdom. You built the good life and the table you drank them under and I know you know this is how it goes, you forgot the things nobody else knows but you won’t let on.There are no idols there is no altar your heart is strong it will not falter when it comes to all of this. Where were you all those years you were before me? You live in all those years I left behind me. When you shot the deer did you see the fear you were trying to hide somewhere in the darkest part of you? Finally we are dust dancing in the beams of sunlight shining through your morning window.
We have returned.
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3. |
Sawdust & Rum
02:51
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Sawdust and rum, cigarettes and Old Spice on, cigarettes and I never saw you cry but I watched you die, you were restless at night reaching for the light. I dream of meeting you in ‘55 meeting you and every night is madness, we were meant to have this then I realize it’s a dream and I tell you everything. I am the only son of your only son, your only son. I came back in time you haven’t lost your mind you will have a long life, 6 dogs and a beautiful wife. Fading the light gets dimmer, starts to flicker then finally goes out. Things we can be grateful for: not going senile, or dying in war. What I got from you the courage to see it all through, stubborn too. A world so full of wonder, this spell that I’ve been under you said this is your life make sure you get it right. You made friends everywhere
after work or on a train, after work you stop off at the club car thinking I’ve made it this far then you leave that dusky room outside a winter moon shines bright.
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4. |
Be Good
03:26
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I had another one of those days where the dust in every breeze was amazing. I love this life and yes it hurts, children laughing and old men talk to birds. I want you to know I’m always thinking of you it’s better than talking on the phone. ‘Cause then you’ll know in your darkest hour you’re on my mind, you’re never alone. Oh, I just want to be good. When I was younger twilight held on right until the dawn the northern lights above us like a thousand dancing stars that don’t belong. Nothing like a summer in this northern town I waited all winter for you to come around. Patience. It’s more than patience that gets you through the cold. I don’t know why, I’ve got no proof but I bet you it’s different from what anyone supposed. I had another one of those days that passes itself off as perfection. Our lives just like the wind always changing direction. Oh, I’m just trying to be good.
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5. |
Nothing Can Be Planned
03:27
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You never really though about what you couldn’t change. You built things from nothing, sometimes don’t that seem strange. You built a house for shelter somewhere to sleep at night, if it burns down and your things with it that would be alright because we’ll just live somewhere else, you can make another start, another part of life. We are not the fearful ones they will not like it here where nothing can be planned. Down a dirt road in the Rockies, wasn’t on the map found a lake high on a mountain and what you’re looking at is a kind of beauty unadorned the water so still and blue. Gonna drive all night to pick you up so you can feel it too. The creeping sense of unreality washes away any sense of past.
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6. |
Calendar
02:27
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As we get older almost every day is some anniversary of a marriage or your daughter’s birthday, a friend’s or the day your mother died, any number of your loves fading off quietly one by one you mark them down on a calendar each x marks some significant connection in your life. I’m not jealous of him but how he lives in your memory. So we lie to each other now when we grow old, then how to reconcile all the broken parts, this machine is breaking down and I can’t find you now. Can we settle for living in each other’s memories? I’ll say it now in my old age. We should have stayed together.
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7. |
Everything Works Out
02:52
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Never let a girl go by he said that to me when I was 16. I have to believe him when I think of all the beauty he’s seen. Everything works out in the end, the words that he lives by. Every afternoon down at the Dover hotel, seniors’ discount happy hour. He tells me not to drink so much with that grin on his face I’m told I’ve got the same one. Everything works out in the end it gets me through bad times. Ran away from home at 14 in 1944 just before the war was done. Searching for a better life, that’s all I try to do, that’s all that we should ever try to do. Everything works out in the end she’s always been there for him. I worked with him when I was 13 a carpenter by trade wouldn’t let me use the blade. He taught me that you can work a job, be proud of what you do and have your own life too. Never let a girl go by he said that to me when I was 16. I don’t believe in heroes but he’s the closest thing for me.
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8. |
Better Than Silence
03:34
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I wanted your song to be better than silence. The melody sparkles, shines brighter than diamonds. Don’t wake me up I just started flying. It’s been way too long since it felt like the first time. Mosquitoes and fireworks free verse no slant rhyme. Put memories somewhere you’ll never find them, found a hundred dollar bill in an old coat she left here. She left here. I have no faith in what they call fate still I walk through this town like I own the place, the sign says destiny - I might have to wait. Sing to this earth wrought with terminal cancer. I pleaded with her but I know the answer. It’ll take more than work, it’ll take more than love to clean this mess up.
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9. |
When I Was A Younger Man
02:13
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Headed straight for the great unknown all night diners and payphone calls. Pulse racing and low moan, taking naps in shopping malls. We long for the dawn we start again.Out in the desert, the desert’s cold a crooked trail led to a cross. I know you didn’t like getting old, I’ll carry on what you have lost. You live on in me you start over. This is for the lives that never had a chance to live. You chose your words so carefully they cling to me like wet leaves. You had no use for finally, it’s braver to do as you please. Deft hands build a history from which we will not have to atone.
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10. |
Labyrinthine
02:47
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Life is a labyrinth, tunnels lead to other tunnels. Time is just static, it’s not a giant funnel. You wrote me a poem like the Japanese:
Stale water with leaves
Crumbled and dissolved, breaking
Barky and bitter
See my knees tremble when we leave the ground. See my jaw clench when I hear the sound of your lungs screaming let me go home, don’t you know you’re going home? Millionaires sleep on my floor, a distant pulse from the underworld. If there’s something going on down there they’ll make sure it’s bought and sold.
Time is not linear. This novel’s not narrative. A collection of moments. To make the most is imperative
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11. |
The Squirrel
02:46
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She said, "Daddy, wouldn’t it be funny if great grandpa came back as a squirrel that followed you around Montreal and watched over you, made sure you’re all right when you stay out at night?"
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The City Streets Edmonton, Alberta
Rick Reid, Matt Leddy, Mark Chmilar. 2005-2013. Edmonton/Montreal.
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