Mat Kearney Album

CHORUS:
It's undeniable how brilliant you are
In an unreliable world you shine like a star
It's unforgettable now that we've come this far
It's unmistakable that you're undeniable

February 5th, Friday morning, purple dawn,
Broke a yawn, as I stepped through the fog, like I stepped to a song
A moment like a poem, you wish you could hold it
I shut my eyes like it's frozen, it's gone when I open
It slipped past the clouds right there where it lingered
Like your band and a girl could slip through your fingers
My feet hit the ground like a beat for the lonely
On a path beaten down by the crowds in the morning

If only I could touch past the phony
If only they were there now to hold me
As the questions keep droning

You're the only one who stuck it out last night
The only other one who caught the other line
You're the only one when this world collides
The one that I can't deny

CHORUS

It's my last year here
My first class moved to portable 'A'
Under construction since summer
And it's cold today
I can see my breath, and what's left of the west parking lot
And all the spaces that we fought
And it all seems forgotten, left in the bottom
In past piles of rubble, in puddles of rain water
That hurt last night when I left like that
When I won't come back
Speaking my peace to the past
I can't help but wonder. who is this wind at my back
A whisper to walk on, come on from all that

You're the only one who stuck it out last night
The only other one who caught the other line
You're the only one when this world collides
The one that I can't deny

CHORUS

How am I gonna take it away in this winter wind
You found me on a summer breeze
How am I gonna run away when the autumn breaks
Now that you found me in the spring
Come on and sing it out

CHORUS x2

something's in the air tonight
the sky's alive with a burning light
you can mark my words something's about to break

and I found myself in a bitter fight
while I've held your hand through the darkest night
don't know where you're coming from but you're coming soon

to a kid from Oregon by way of California
all of this is more than I've ever known or seen

come on and we'll sing, like we were free
push the pedal down watch the world around fly by us
come on and we'll try, one last time
I'm off of the floor one more time to find you

and here we go there's nothing left to choose
and here we go there's nothing left to lose

so I packed my car and I headed east
where I felt your fire and a sweet release
there's a fire in these hills that's coming down

and I don't know much but I found you here
and I cannot wait another year
don't know where you're coming from but you're coming soon

to a kid from Oregon by way of California
all of this is more than I've ever known or seen

come on and we'll sing, like we were free
push the pedal down watch the world around fly by us
come on and we'll try, one last time
I'm off of the floor one more time to find you

and here we go there's nothing left to choose
and here we go there's nothing left to lose

I can still hear the trains out my window
from Hobart street to here in Nashville
I can still smell the pomegranates grow
and I don't know how hard this wind will blow
or where we'll go

come on and we'll sing, like we were free
push the pedal down watch the world around fly by us
come on and we'll try, one last time
I'm off of the floor one more time to find you

and here we go there's nothing left to choose
and here we go there's nothing left to lose

These back steps are steeper to the ground
The brightest stars are falling down
I'm walking the edge, walking the tightest rope
We can be frank, reality rips on through, rolling like a hurricane
I'm over the bridge and under the rain

If everything's falling, if everything's changed
If I'm in the open, if I'm in the way

What am I doing here
If you're not with me
What have I got to live for, if it's just my own dream
Take it back to the beginning, back to the start
When gravity's pulling, you're still holding my heart
You come crashing down
Crashing down

These four walls are closing in on me
The talk is louder than I'll sing
I want to be there, want to be where you are
but you know it all, Every look and smile that aren't meant to break
I'm over the bridge and under the rain

If everything's falling, if everything's changed
If I'm in the open, if I'm in the way

What am I doing here
If you're not with me
What have I got to live for, if it's just my own dream
Take it back to the beginning, back to the start
When gravity's pulling, you're still holding my heart
You come crashing down
Crashing down

And you say that everything is different, why don't we just hold on
And you say that everything is different, why don't we just hold on

Crashing down

my girl america is just a youth is this world
her smile is more precious than the sparkle of pearls
and though her age reads she's just a young girl
the age behind her eyes show the pain that she's swirled
through the hand that's been dealt though it's quiet as kept
the weight was all felt last night when she slept
and as she crept into the dreams of the things of her past
seems to have grown so fast, way beyond her own class
though they're right there with her, her brothers and her sisters
a natural born leader even when her peers dis her
my girl, she's at a crossroads, people praying for her
some are preying on her magazine ads, sex, drama
smoking marijuana, longing for a father to call her, ‘daughter'
she's part of a generation longing for reconciliation
and this future that they're facing and this poison that they're tasting
my girl, i know this love that your chasing

my girl america's crying when she's lying on her bed at night
i can see that she's screaming when she's dreaming for her freedom
my girl america's dying while she's trying just to stop this fight
don't stop believing, my girl america

boys with hungry eyes have been beating her door
telling her that's what she's for, trying to rob at her core
then leave calling her a whore, but still she knows there's more
i know she knows there's more because there is a voice she can't ignore
‘cause it was founded in the foundations, from the day of her creation
in God we trust engraved on the treasures of her nation
and the void that the boys can't fill
with the tipping of the bottle or the popping of the pill
but still most of her friends don't care as they glare
ready to drown down the funnel as they frown down the tunnel
they stumble and the tumble breaking down into rubble
my girl america, stop can't you see
it's not the circumstances that determine who you're gonna be
but how you deal with these problems and pains that come your way

it's for you that i pray with hope for a brighter day
and so i say, your deliverance is coming

faith like a child from your first birth
you left it in the dirt on your worst hurt
and i see each tear and every scar
the hands that have held you where you are
and i can see we've strayed so far
a king born under that morning star
as a crown of thorns was placed to erase
each tear that's touched your face
and his palms and sides where pierced with spears
he hung in love just to draw you near
my girl, out of this whole world
can't you see this is where we started

I meant it all and every part
And every word right from the start
I'll never let this love fall in the middle

'Cause you know you broke the hardest part
You know you broke the hardest heart
I'll never let this love fall in the middle
Through it all

Fifteen years old in a sea of blank faces
Swimming bold against a stream that's mocking as it races
In these halls, mountain high under a tangerine sky
Crack a smile just to hide the race that's inside
Eighteen years old bags packed and a pass for the rail
One last look at the past as it drowns in the hail
One in a million, still I keep feeling you keep me from a fall
A world to lose coming back with you tall
Through it all

No parachutes or safety nets here
One foot on the water to face these fears
I'm coming out strong like I can't be wrong
I said "Hey, I won't fall in the middle"

Twenty five here I am with freshman LPs
One life to write one, two years to repeat
Behind a curtain, uncertain if an encore's in store
Tuck my shoulder like a soldier to knock down the door
Thirty something here I'm running with kisses for one girl
These scars upon my sleeve still casting out my pearls
Throw each stone microphone like it's my last turn
With a kiss to the abyss and watch the ripples return
Through it all

No parachutes or safety nets here
One foot on the water to face these fears
I'm coming out strong like I can't be wrong
I said "Hey, I won't fall in the middle"

I said I'm gonna be alright, I'm gonna be alright
With you by my side
I said I'm gonna be alright, I'm gonna be alright
With you through this fight
Through it all

No parachutes or safety nets here
One foot on the water to face these fears
I'm coming out strong like I can't be wrong
I said "Hey, I won't fall in the middle"

I meant it all and every part
And every word right from the start
I'll never let this love fall in the middle
Through it all

She says today is gonna be the last one
I know there's never gonna be an easy way out
She's rolling round the town with a fast gun
And I know I can't be there to catch her when she falls

Well half way down is half way out of here
We're either halfway drowned or half way 'round the pier
When you're that far gone

I walked the steps to her apartment with the window by the shore
And saw her curled on the tile through a crack in the door
I've been searching for the words I don't know how to say
I've been searching for the words to make it go away
I spent all of last night and the night before that
With my feet in the sand and the wind on my back
Watching a ship sail out to a blue wide sea
There must be more than this with a kiss we can't see

[chorus]
Well half way down is half way out of here
We're eighter half way drowned or half way round the pier
I can't break her, I can't break her fall
She's lying in the back room, crying on the bathroom floor
Singing I can't take it, I can't take any more
Just one reason, one to believe in
That's not that far gone
Not that far gone

I held the back of her head and laid her in the bed
And watched the sheets raise and fall to the rhythm of her breath
Turn the lock on the handle and slipped down the stairs
To the cover of the night with diamonds in the air
I'll say a prayer in my breath and take a left at the water
To the rhythm of my feet a sister and a daughter
To the rhythm of the sea with the breeze in the autumn
As it blows through the trees my hands into the water

[chorus]

I can't break her, I can't break her fall
She's lying in the back room, crying on the bathroom floor
And I can't take it, I can't take anymore

She says today is gonna be the last time
And I know there's never gonna be an easy way out

I'm sure that I'm moving to St Louis
Three long years wondering here in New York City
I guess I'm looking for the right way to do this
I guess I'm looking for the right things to call pretty
Young boys playing in the park turning their backs to take a shot
You know I'll stay sharp around here 'cause they're stoning and leaving type
It's the kind of love that comes and goes when there's company coming around

What's a boy to do who knows no man now?
What's a boy to do who knows no man now?

Daddy's been looking down his nose at all of them
And I've been looking round for someone to tell me who I am
He kept saying I was to young to finish a fight
I'd die each time they came I never got to draw my knife
Well it was just a pair of shoes in a middle school room with the world watching in
And angel is crying I'm dying just a little inside as they ran away
Funny which words stick around 20 years down when you're driving alone

What's a boy to do when there's no man at home?
What's a boy to do when there's no man at home?

Well I'll stack all my books in perfect rows
From the biggest down to the smallest ones
And I buy all the perfect clothes
Bullet proof and black, where I look like a son

Well it was just a rain night at his house
A bottle spinning around the room
And everybody's singing and slipping down the bottom halfway rush of blood
And I was grabbing Missy but I was trying to find the light switch in the dark

What's a boy to do with no man in his heart?
What's a boy to do with no man in his heart?

It's all quiet for the first time
With no voices left to fall
I saw a boy at the bottom of the bridge
His car was left there on the top
It's four o'clock in the morning
Didn't need to be like this
There's a white sheet left to cover up
What should have been a holy kiss
It's not like those days
It's not like I'm scared of you

What's the son of man and a boy to do?
What's the son of man and a boy to you?

The wind hit my back, cold as I remember
And caught me off guard, in the middle of December
Sometimes a crowded room, can feel the most alone
Sometimes I wonder why, I won't pick up the phone when

[bridge]
This wall is glaring and it's too high for me to climb
I've ran and ran and now there's nothing left behind
I see a picture of a broken man inside
I've tried and tried and now there's nothing left but time

[chorus]
I'll wait for you, I'll wait for you alone
And I'll wait for you, I'll wait for you alone
Together we will fly tonight
And leave all the rest behind
I'll wait for you

These hands can feel like they're not even mine
A tree and a nail and a cry in the night
Sometimes a little step is the greatest divide
Sometimes I feel your breath right at my side when

[bridge]

[chorus]

Here I am at the edge of the road
One hand on the end of the rope
One crack and it breaks alone
Wondering who'se gonna take me home
On my knees when you call my bluff
Begging please from the edge of the ruff
And I know I've had enough, and I know it, and I know it

[bridge]

[chorus]

Yesterday I was sitting. recalling. reminiscing
Trying to remember whenever there was nobody listening
Before the hugging and the kissing, the booing and the hissing
All I had was just a vision,
All I had was my ambition
Your love without condition
Kept me swinging when I'm missing
My eyes upon the prize
Kept me striving for the mission
When I was down for the count, falling out of commission
I can hear you voice now screaming out "son, listen"
Get on up, don't give up, though you struck opposition
Time to buck all that stuff, find out what's you condition
Like a pull in my soul, like keys in my ignition
Call you all my commission, my love and my vision and...

It doesn't matter if they call me wrong
Doesn't matter if they steal my song
Doesn't matter if we're all along
It doesn't matter at all

CHORUS:
'Cause I would take a bullet for you
I would take a bullet for you
I would cross any line, I'd swim across the sea
I would take a bullet for you
I would take a bullet for you
I would lose it all, I'd take my fall
To show you it's for real

Remember when we used to flow together back in the park
You would slang guitar licks under the stars in the dark
You'd say let's grow together as this world falls apart
I was holding on to hope but hardly holding a spark
All the rhymes that I wrote you'd call dope from the start
I'd be like a pure note. like a quote on the mark
You'd go to every show and promote from the start
From the beginning we've been building much more than this art
Remember bearing scars in you car to impart you heart
You cared enough to call my bluff through the junk from the start
That's why you're holding onto half of my heart
You've been there through the times,
Through the nights that were dark and....

It doesn't matter if they call me wrong
Doesn't matter if they steal my song
Doesn't matter if we're all along
It doesn't matter at all

CHORUS

It doesn't matter if they call me wrong
Doesn't matter if they steal my song
Doesn't matter if we're all along
It doesn't matter at all x2

CHORUS

Here it comes, it's all blown in tonight
I woke up this morning to a blood red sky
Burning on the bridge, turning off the lights
We're on the run, I can see it in your eyes

If nothing is safe then I don't understand
You call me a boy, but I'm trying to be the man
One more day and it's all slipping with the sand
You touch my lips and grab the back of my hand
The back of my hand

I guess we both know we're in over our heads
We got nowhere to go and no home that's left
The water is rising on a river turning red
It all might be okay or we might be dead

If everything we've got is slipping away
I meant what I said when I said until my dying day
I'm holding on to you holding on to me
Maybe it's all gone black, but you're all I see
You're all I see

Walls are shaking, I hear them sound the alarm
Glass is breaking, so don't let go of my arm
Grab your bags and a picture of when we met
All that we leave behind is all that's left

If everything we got is blowing away
We got a rock and a rock 'til our dying day
I'm holding to you holding on to me
Maybe it's all we've got, but it's all I need
You're all I need

And if all we've got
Is what no one can break
I know I love you
If that's all we can take

The tears are coming down
They're mixing with the rain
I know I love you
If that's all we can take

Foolish running for miles on the concrete ground
We're eight feet deep and the rain is still coming down
The TV's playing it all out of town
I'm grabbing at the fray for something that won't drown

This is my renaissance
This is my one response
This is the way I say I love you
This is my second chance
This is my one romance
This is the cutting line
On which I stand to show you

It happened fast in a flash just this evening
I hit the gas, horn blast, brakes screaming
Car crash, broken glass, broke my dreaming
I hit the dash so fast my ears are ringing
My sister's on the right side just slightly leaning
I grabbed her hand hard until she started breathing
My brothers in the back jaw cracked from the beating
The breath in my chest has slipped and I'm sinking
Blinking through diamond spider webs of cracked glass
I'm trying to remember all the words you said in the past
Through the ash, siren screams and red beams
I hear you sing softly to me

[chorus]
I can be the wall when you fall down
Find me on the rocks when you break down
I heard it in the song when you call out
But I got to say now it's got to change

This is my broken heart
This is my bleeding start
This is the way I've come to know you
This is my winding road
This is my way back home
This is the narrow door you know that I will walk through

I got a letter today of why she went away
She said 'it's better this way, you knew I never could stay'
Half empty closets and frames, all that's left to my name
As she left in the rain and left my heart on a chain
Three years I've built this two face tower for hours on a lease
You gave me one yellow flower that said rest in peace
IN pieces I've broken open to think too much or just enough
Alone to trust midst the rubble and the dust
Humbled, it took this much to break down and understand
Spent half my life on castles made of sand
Tossed in the breakers in the palm of your hand
Now I can finally stand

[chorus]

This is my renaissance
This is my one response
This is the way I say I love you

All of your ways and all your thunder
Get me in a haze running for cover
Where we gonna go from here?
Where we gonna go from here?

Car lights in the driveway
I wonder who's going coming my way
Tomorrow we're turning down the highway
With another bright state on a weekday
Green grass and a radio
Watching it fly past and away we go
Seven hundred places, seven hundred faces more

All your ways and all your thunder
Got me in a haze running for cover
Where we gonna go from here?
Where we gonna go from here?
The back of your eyes look like my mother's
When we talk you're like my brother
Where we gonna go from here?
Where we gonna go from here?

Time is moving on our side
How could I miss you to another guy
Pull of the ocean and the roaring tide
Is bigger than my eyes or my design
Father got a best plan
Saving his daughter for the best man
Seven hundred places, seven hundred faces more

All your ways and all your thunder
Got me in a haze running for cover
Where we gonna go from here?
Where we gonna go from here?
The back of your eyes look like my mother's
When we talk you're like my brother
Where we gonna go from here?
Where we gonna go from here?

I've waited and I'll wait some more
Won't see me knocking on another door
But all this is crazy and amazing
There's only one half of us that I'm saving
So I'm praying just to let it go
Watch from a distance just to see you glow
Seven hundred places, seven hundred faces more

All your ways and all your thunder
Got me in a haze running for cover
Where we gonna go from here?
Where we gonna go from here?
The back of your eyes look like my mother's
When we talk you're like my brother
Where we gonna go from here?
Where we gonna go from here?

You woke the morning up
Running off the darkest night
The longest fight I've seen
Here goes a chance I know
Cashing in on all my chips
Let all my ships come fly

These days, a little bit longer than the last
And all of your ways, a little bit stronger than the past
And your light, found my bottle in the night
Gave me second life, kept me in this fight

CHORUS:
And I won't back down
I won't turn around and around
And I won't back down
Doesn't matter what comes crashing down
I'm still gonna stand on solid ground

You found me once and for all
I laid it down in the sinking ground
The hopeless undertow
Singing out the gentle sound
Rattling through my smoking screens
My broken dreams last night

These days, a little bit longer than the last
And all of your ways, a little bit stronger than the past
And your light, found my bottle in the night
Kept me in this fight and gave me second life

CHORUS

Hallelujah ripped through my veins
I heard the hammer drop
My blood in the rain

Hallelujah came like a train
When all is lost
All is left to gain

CHORUS x2

Hallelujah

Breathe in, breathe out
Tell me all of your doubts
Everybody bleeds this way, just the same
Breathe in, breathe out
Move on and break down
If everyone goes away, I will stay
We push and pull
And I fall down sometimes
And I'm not letting go
You hold the other line
Cause there is a light in your eyes, in your eyes

Hold on, hold tight
If I'm out of your sight
And everything keeps moving on, moving on
Hold on, hold tight
Make it through another night
In every day there comes a song with the dawn
We push and pull


And I fall down sometimes
And I'm not letting go
You hold the other line
Cause there is a light in your eyes, in your eyes
There is a light in your eyes, in your eyes

Breathe in and breathe out
Breathe in and breathe out
Breathe in and breathe out
Breathe in and breathe out

Look left, look right
To the moon and the night
Everything under the stars is in your arms

Cause there is a light in your eyes, in your eyes
There is a light in your eyes, in your eyes
There is a light in your eyes, in your eyes

[No lyrics]