Lyrics for In That Black Sky coming soon.




Thunder of hooves, the dust it chokes the day
Flames took my home, the smoke was my child's grave.

Run away, run away, shoulda killed me where I lay
Run away, run away, revenge is the price you'll pay

Dixie has fallen, the Union Might has won
Our boys swore your oath, but you fed 'em to your guns

On the run, on the run, I’ll hunt you every one
On the run, on the run, my war is not yet done

I headed west, with the Jayhawkers on my trail
I’m heading down into Texas, I’m gonna take ‘em straight to hell.

Run away, run away, shoulda killed me that first day
I run away, run away, I’ll lead you to your grave

Last of my kin with a price upon my head
Five thousand reasons for them to want me dead

On the run, on the run, I’ll hunt you every one
On the run, on the run, my war is not yet done

My name called out from the captain of the Cavalry
My gun ran dry, but with his sword I bled him slowly

On the run, on the run, I’ll hunt you every one
On the run, on the run, my war is not yet done

Words by Matthew; Music by Ned, Kim, and Liz

There is a triangle
On the corner of Hewes
Hole in the Broadway wall
Doorway’s hidden from view

Voices rise, spirits fall
Gypsy jazz on wide guitars
Ladies come, raise a toast
To La Fee Verte

Warm, gold filaments
Room is shining like brass
Treat your date to treacle sauce
And velvet in a glass

Voices rise, spirits fall
Gypsy jazz on wide guitars
Ladies come, raise a toast
To La Fee Verte

Black and white acrobats
Pealing off the walls
The fiddle flips
To a minor chord
While the five-string banjo rolls
And the banjo rolls, and the banjo rolls, and the banjo rolls

Train shakes and rattles past
The band continues to play
Mustache strums and sequined hats
At the Moto Café

Voices rise, spirits fall
Gypsy jazz on wide guitars
Ladies come, raise a toast
To La Fee Verte

There is a triangle on the corner of Hewes

Words by Kim and Matthew; Music by Ned

I strayed downtown As Nellie Brown
Lying about my name
Lodged in a room on Second Avenue
I played insane

I screamed all day 'till they took me away
And dragged me to my fate
Damned by their words, my sentence assured:
Ward of Blackwell state

'cause
Black water laps over black stone beaches
Black skies weep over broken homes
Black are the buckles bound to the bed frames
Black are the dreams not my own

Tossed to the ground, they shackle me down
A sheet across my face
My teeth chattered, my spirit shattered
Numb to disgrace

Long tangled hair, and a fierce wild stare
Munching of the nails
Trembling on the floor, naked and ignored
Echoing my wails

'cause
Black water laps over black stone beaches
Black skies weep over broken homes
Black are the buckles bound to the bed frames
Black are the dreams not my own

They drugged our days in a yellowing haze
Throat so thick and dry
Morphine itch, insect twitch
Underneath my eye

My pen bleeds: slit by your needs
Witness to your pain
Words stab back, printed in black
To cut away the stain

'cause
Black water laps over black stone beaches
Black skies weep over broken homes
Black are the buckles bound to the bed frames
Black are the dreams not my own

Black water laps over black stone beaches
Black skies weep over broken homes
Black are the buckles bound to the bed frames
Black are the dreams not my own

Blackwell dreams are not my own

Words and music by Matthew

The tide pulls, the moon grows, the stars fall by and so it goes
A rhythm that’s steady and endless.
But through it all fate she drew the lines that led me straight to you
She made no mistake about it

Faceless Weaver
She laughs at me spinning webs of love and sorrow
Cause your rhythmic calmness, still pulses through a part of me I can’t forget

Well your rhythmic ways drew me in, your calming eyes they spoke to me
That sees all things wild and flowing
Do you remember that cold dark night
Our bodies melded in the light
The love raged like fire

Faceless Weaver
She laughs at me spinning webs of love and sorrow
Cause your rhythmic calmness, still pulses through a part of me I can’t forget

I don’t know why your love came to flow inside me
Cause love has turned to pain, never be the same

Well the tide pulls, the moon grows, the stars fall by but we both know
That rhythm is just an illusion
But through it all fate she drew the lines that led me straight to you
She made no mistake about it

Faceless Weaver
She laughs at me spinning webs of love and sorrow
Cause your rhythmic calmness, still pulses through a part of me I can’t forget

Words and music by Kim

I lie to my mother, I lie to my dad
I lie to my woman, I lie to the badge
I lie to the preacher, I lie to the judge
But I never lie to my guns

In Shawnee West Virginia
I was a wanted man
Shot two from the railroad
Over a half-dollar hand

I put my irons on the table
Before the bettin' got too hot
Made a promise to them pistols
Any cheaters would be shot

But the Railway men are brittle
Like hammer-driven slate
They'll break on the payday
And they double down their fate

I caught a diamond on the river
It cost me a flush
The cheatin’ man was winnin'
Dealer sold him my luck

I lie to my mother, I lie to my dad
I lie to my woman, I lie to the badge
I lie to the preacher, I lie to the judge
But I never lie to my guns

I saw the fix in their eyes
As I reached for my gun
They begged my forgiveness
But mercy I had none

Muzzle flash and powder smoke
A new hole in a chest
A promise beats a cheater
But we'll all be laid to rest

Now I stand on the gallows
Rope itchin’ at my chin
You can feed me to the buzzards
Let 'em pick away my skin

Just bury me with bullets
When you ring my funeral bell
Cuz I'll lie my way to Heaven
Once I shoot my way through hell.

I lie to my mother, I lie to my dad
I lie to my woman, I lie to the badge
I lie to the preacher, I lie to the judge
But I never lie to my guns

I lie to my mother, I lie to my dad
I lie to my woman, I lie to the badge
I lie to the preacher, I lie to the judge
But I never lie to my guns

Words by Ned and Matthew; Music by Ned

Standing in the dust
Over her bones
Tracing my finger around them
Like so many times before
You cut her down
Right in front of me
and my family
So fast I remember
Down to her grave

’Cause I bleed like you
I hurt like you
I can weep and I can mourn
But the difference is
That I never forget

Standing in the field
That was our home
I saw your people before me
While my elders are gone
I beat him down
Since shaking, the dirt is all I have now
They found him under the branches
It’s our only way

’Cause I bleed like you
I hurt like you
I can weep and I can mourn
But the difference is
That I never forget

Lying in the dust
Shell in my side
Culled out from the others
So few are alive
You tracked me down
Broken and brittle
and bleached in the sun
With only vultures to mourn me
Who will cover my bones

’Cause I bleed like you
I hurt like you
I can weep and I can mourn
But the difference is
That I never forget

Words and music by Kim

Music by Matthew

Baltimore, Baltimore,
Tell me what’d you do that for
You left me lying on your red brick floor
Never woke up with a chin so sore
Baltimore

I had half a mind to believe you
I had half a mind to leave you
But was tired of being cut in twos and fours
Take a stand and move down south
Use my legs and rest my mouth
Baltimore

Got a bit lost up in the hills
It ain’t just the ice that kills
Road salt will rust you to your core
Figured I’d find some sunshine
Even if I lost that sweet, sweet smell of pine
Baltimore

Baltimore, Baltimore,
What’d you have do that for
You left me lying on your red brick floor
Never woke up with a chin so sore
Baltimore

I pulled into Darly Park
I pulled out my weary heart
And went looking round for a cold, clean pour
Walked into a watering hole
Well you know that I found that same old same old
Baltimore

She had a smile but he had fists
And all I had was hope and wits
And in a place like that neither gets you far
I stumbled down to the harbor
Feeling like a pointless martyr
Baltimore

Baltimore, Baltimore,
What’d you have do that for
You left me lying on your red brick floor
Never woke up with a chin so sore
Baltimore

Saw the ghost of Edgar Allen Saw the ghost of John Wilkes Booth You can try to start all over But you can never cut your roots
Baltimore, Baltimore,
What’d you have do that for
You left me lying on your red brick floor
Never woke up with a chin so sore
Baltimore

Baltimore, Baltimore,
What’d you have do that for
You left me lying on your red brick floor
Never woke up with a chin so sore
Baltimore
Words and music by Ned

Your heaven, in wildflowers
Your world is in a grain of sand
Your doors opened to oceans
Your heart beat in our hands

Light a fire with me brother
Lean in close and breathe in slow
Light a fire with me brother
We are living in your glow

Cold water pulled you under
Cold water pulled you down
Cold water held you close
Cold water stole your sound

Light a fire with me brother
Lean in close and breathe in slow
Light a fire with me brother
We are living in your glow

We watched you, shine on mountains
We heard you, shine on our prayers
We felt you, shine through the darkness
We see you, shine everywhere

Light a fire with me brother
Lean in close and breathe in slow
Light a fire with me brother
We are living in your glow

Words by Ned; Music by Ned, and Kim

Two score months set out at sea
Wife of a whaler, I’m bound
Frozen ship to the cape of no hope,
I lost the feel of the ground

Days and days of searching the deep
But only the roll of the waves
New Bedford is a memory now
A home I can scarcely recall

Captain Cole, my husband of old
Fearful in the quest for his goal
Desperate crew armed with harpoons
Aiming for a fluke in the spray

A cheer rose up, as the whale turned his head
Foam cut high in the air
“Let fly the iron and bury the spear”
And Red turned the water below

But you call me to the sea
Cause I’d rather drown where you swim free
I’m a captive here, and you call me to the sea
Cause I’d rather drown where you sing to me

It bled and bled thrashing its tail
Tears from its giant black eyes
Wild and savage it turned the men
The horror staining my sight

It stared at me before it died
Chilled me right to the bone
Piles of blubber that heaped and fell
Hell was the flesh on the deck

But you call me to the sea
Cause I’d rather drown where you swim free
I’m a captive here, and you call me to the sea
Cause I’d rather drown where you sing to me

I never spoke to my husband again
Death had climbed onboard
A spoonful of brandy is what he said
Down in his cabin alone

A musket ball cut through the deck
A hole from his chin to his eye
I climbed and climbed the mast up high
And leapt to the torrent below

Words by Matthew; Music by Kim

I was born in Convict Grade
In the shadow of the crooked mountains
And the winds do howl and the earth may split
I’m thrown again, but I won’t quit.

There’s always a sky ahead that’s blue
There’s nothing I can’t pull on through
When coyote howls my hear does ache
It rips through, but it cannot shake me

I ran free in the fields of clover
With the Paints and the Palominos
Reigns in my fist, a silver bit
I’m thrown again, but I won’t quit

There’s always a sky ahead that’s blue
There’s nothing I can’t pull on through
When coyote howls my hear does ache
It rips through, but it cannot shake me

I fell in love in Livingston
With a dancer of the free rails
Thundering trains I won’t admit
The lonely days that I won’t quit

There’s always a sky ahead that’s blue
There’s nothing I can’t pull on through
When coyote howls my hear does ache
It rips through, but it cannot shake me

I was born in Convict Grade
In the shadow of the crooked mountains

Words and music by Kim

Well who's that writin'?
John the Revelator
Who's that writin'?
John the Revelator
Who's that writin'?
John the Revelator
A book of the seven seals

Tell me what's John writin'?
Ask the Revelator
What's John writin'?
Ask the Revelator
What's John writin'?
Ask the Revelator
A book of the seven seals

Father of the worthy, righteous and holy
Bound for some, the Son of God
Daughter of Zion, Judah’s Lion
He redeemeth, and bought us with his blood

Well who's that writin'? John the Revelator
Who's that writin'?
John the Revelator
Who's that writin'?
John the Revelator
A book of the seven seals

John the Revelator, great emancipator
Brought 'em to the battle of Zion
Tellin' the story, risin' in glory
Cried, "Lord"

Well who's that writin'? John the Revelator
Who's that writin'?
John the Revelator
Who's that writin'?
John the Revelator
A book of the seven seals

Well Moses to Moses, watchin' the flock
Saw the bush where they had to stop
God told Moses, "Pull off your shoes"
Cause out of the flock, it’s you I choose

Well who's that writin'? John the Revelator
Who's that writin'?
John the Revelator
Who's that writin'?
John the Revelator
A book of the seven seals

Traditional arranged by Frankenpine

One of my wishes is that those dark trees
So old and firm they scarcely show the breeze
They scarcely show the breeze

Were not, as 'twere, the merest mask of gloom
But stretched away unto the edge of doom
Unto the edge of doom

I do not see why I should e'er turn back
Or those should not set forth upon my track
To overtake me
Who should miss me here
And long to know if still I held them dear

I should not be withheld but that some day
Into their vastness I should steal away
I should steal away

Fearless of ever finding open land
Or a highway where the slow wheel pours the sand
A slow wheel pours the sand

I do not see why I should e'er turn back
Or those should not set forth upon my track
To overtake me

They would not find me changed from him they knew
Only more sure of all I thought was true

Words by Robert Frost; Music by Ned, and Liz