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Labor Against Waste

by Christopher Paul Stelling

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1.
Warm Enemy 03:34
- time don’t mean nothing if you waste it - good advice is gonna cost you, a little effort’s always free and me i’m only here to train my replacement, but for now i’m gonna make it all come home to me rather than setting off in pursuit of a warm enemy - it sure seems we got off on the wrong foot, you betting that your gift horse had a mouth full of rotten teeth - me i’ve never been much if not persistent, slow waltzing all my burdens on down to the sea resisting every urge of my warm enemy - well your packing up your bags, suitcase full of rags and your going - don’t even try to be discrete tell them there’s nothing you don’t know thats still worth knowing - but you can’t survive on bread alone yet can you baby, i said no - well it looks like we’ve come to an impasse, end game or a stale mate go on and take your pick - not as easy to see through sand as it is glass, but for that to ever happen we’re gonna need a little heat, so i’ll wait out a retreat from my warm enemy, then i’ll intercept the fleet of my warm enemy, not surrender but defeat for my sweet warm enemy -
2.
Revenge 04:00
- you can drag my name through bleach and muddy water see if i don’t still call you a friend until the dying ends - and if you ever though you were in for nasty weather I’d say go on and build a shelter out of my bones and skin - it’s just fine if you’re not sorry I’m afraid I may be in time, try so hard to want for nothing not a damn thing is mine, although the thought you at times make me cringe - there ain’t no sweetness in revenge, no - you lined our bed with razors and barbed wire thinking if and when you still desire I’d lay down with you like a fool - heard it said it’s best to let the wicked all just fall on their own snares but it’s hard to know the difference though when we both just been so cruel - i’m not talking bout a forgiveness that only serve me - i’m talking about forgiving all i thought we could be and i know sometimes i fly off the hinge - and there ain’t no sweetness in revenge, no - you left me gagged and bound and stranded on a dusty lonesome desert highway just to find when you got home i was sitting waiting there for you - heard you say under your breath this boy just don’t know when to quit, when it comes to standing by your side ain’t much more i’d rather do - now i’m black and blue and bloody from this war i’ll never win and I’m tired and defeated everybody’s heard my spin i just hope the end is where the better things begin, and there ain’t no sweetness in revenge, no -
3.
Scarecrow 04:28
- we were lost and set adrift on a red clay unmarked road - with nothing ‘cept what we could hold, free of every debt we owed - we’d left behind our sorted pasts and all we had held dear - we’d dropped the sails climbed the mast, made a promise in the mirror feeling so inspired - so breath, breath it out, lay your burdens down to rest - breath, through the doubts - never let them get the best, the best of you - hey now look yonder darling whats that i see , don’t that scarecrow on the hillside look an awful lot like me - with his arms all spread out wide like he was measuring the fields, or was he out there standing guard over something long been concealed - using his body as a shield - or maybe he’s more like jesus christ, out there crucified - for what he held inside his heart that he could no longer hide - did it make him out a liar - so breath - breath it out, lay your burdens down to rest - breath, through the doubts, never let them get the best, the best of you -
4.
Castle 04:05
- may there be no remorse here for the patience you have shown, save the satisfaction of knowing your house is made of stone - but who you going and kidding yourself man, you ain’t got no house at all - you’re gonna sleep under the skye tonight, where that green grass grows tall - come on let’s sleep under the sky tonight, well beyond these castle walls - well the hangman woke and made his bed when the gallows they did call - said he’d like to keep things tidy before the ground beneath him falls - that way next time he come round through these parts again he’ll have a place to rest his head - bet it sure do get exhausting coming back again to live amongst the dead - may there be no remorse here for the patience that you have shown save the satisfaction of knowing your house is made of stone - but who’re you going and kidding yourself man - you ain’t got no house at all - gonna sleep under the sky tonight where that green grass grows tall - come on let’s sleep under the sky tonight well beyond these castle walls - the jester’s crying to himself in the east tower of the castle - with a razor to his wrist, he’s so sick of getting hassled - then he recalled this punchline he’d forgotten from way on way back when - hate to think but what without a little humor that situation could have been - but may there be no remorse here for the patience you have shown, save the satisfaction of knowing that your house is made of stone, but who’re you goin’ and kid’n yourself though man you ain’t got no house at all - gonna sleep under the sky tonight where that green grass grows tall - come on let’s sleep under the sky tonight way beyond these castle walls - the old king knew he’d find himself finished without a son - already had himself four daughters with wife number one - he’s hoping wife number two ‘ll give him that baby boy of his aging hearts desire - swears if he don’t get his way this time he’ll set his whole kingdom on up fire -
5.
Horse 03:22
- i dragged that horse to water - you know he wouldn’t drink - i shot him in the shallows before i had the time to think - now i’m out here on foot - still gotta cross the great divide - i’m feeling awful lonesome, wishing i still had a horse to ride - come on, now - my daddy always told me not to play around with matches - got me ahold of a flame thrower, how that fire catches - wouldn’t you know it me and daddy and mama didn’t have nowhere left to live - i was quick to remind daddy though jesus preached we all should just forgive forgive forgive - they took me to the river to get my spirit clean - wouldn’t you know it buddy like nothing you’d ever seen, that river spit me out and threw my bare ass right there up against the shore - i swear it started raining blood and the thunder start to roar - preached screamed that boy got the devil in him lets burn him at the stake - mama jumped in front of me and told them all to wait she said my baby got the devil in him, oh, he got the devil in him too - she said my baby never hurt a fly but look what y’all was about to do - mama said now - I dragged that horse to water that bastard wouldn’t drink so i shot him in the shallows before i had the time to think now i’m out here on foot still gotta cross the great divide feeling awful lonesome wishing i still had that horse to ride - now that i’m a grown man not as young as i once were - reckon in my growing that i found myself a cure - settle down take your time and try not to get caught up in all that haste, but i reckon if it ever came to blows i’d still lay some fool to waste -
6.
- oh my darling golden ones, oh what have we become - just like they always said we would, well fed and fat and numb - last night i went out walking, heard the wind rush through the pines, looked up saw there hanging on a nail an old bucket of turpentine - well i put it down like whiskey and i set myself ablaze - figured i’d burn in the hear-after, might as well burn on my last day - i said i death of influence must grow strong - pour me one more shot i’ll sing you one more traveling song - i said the death of influence must grow strong, if we’re ever to get on - at night my dreams are riddled with visions of fire raining from the skies, whirlwind round a chorus of a million children’s cries - bloodthirsty mobs going out to even up the score - all they ever want round here is more more more more and more - i said the death of influence must grow strong - pour me one more shot i’ll sing you one more traveling song - i said the death of influence must grow strong, if we’re ever to get on - I’ve seen the eyes of jesus in the ones with no tongues to speak - i’ve seen the eyes of satan in the powerful elite - seen the eyes of compassion in the ones who killed in wars - i’ve seen the eye of wisdom in an old and battered whore - seen the eyes of death himself in a baby just newborn - seen the eyes of liberty in a bible torn and burned - seen the eyes of injustice in that judge whose gavel does decide - I’ve seen the eyes of safety in the ones with no where left to hide - I said the death of influence must grow strong pour me one more shot I’ll sing you one more traveling song - i said the death of influence must grow strong, if we’re ever to get on -
7.
Dear Beast 03:28
- second only to the guilt for a lost redeemers bloody knees - in spite of loss, in spite of your doubts, in spite of all we think we need, we sing - dear beast i know you keep your watchful eye on me - as well as all your wayward children, as we all yearn to once more be free - dear beast i see past my own towering vanity - there’s no punishment here for the wicked - the righteous stumble fall and bleed - dear beast i tried, tried hard to sew my own seed, in spite of all your tricks and trials, i must go where your road leads -
8.
Hard Work 03:12
- don’t get cross with me young man - no i’m looking toward my promised land - oh heaven knows i’ve been a fool, but hell don’t dance and i sure don’t duel - i’ve seen some things that’ll twist your spine, go on and tell me yours and i’ll show you mine - listen closely if you don’t mind trying - only one thing needs remembering if we’re all to be fine - that’s to work real hard try not to complain, till that sweet love makes me whole again, and I know my work is never done till i can see the good in everyone - well we crossed that river back and forth, it got too damn hot down there so we headed north - come white winter we headed south with empty hands and dry thirsty mouths - until that water boils and that desert flood, till the cities all sleep and the stones cry blood - till the lame do walk and the blind do see i will give you all thats left of me - and I just work real hard try not to complain till that sweet love makes me whole again and i know my work is never done till i can see the good in everyone - they say that preacher gonna preach, that their gonna steal, devil gonna wound and the lord gonna heal - i said don’t make your mind up too quick which one is which cause they all been known to bait and switch but ain’t that last temptation always the worst the way it all boils down to that final verse - i know even when my songs been sung i will still recall where they all begun - and i just work real hard try not to complain till that sweet love make me whole again and i know my work is never done till i can see the good in everyone.
9.
- wind unknown in a room untouched, both as clean as river stones - a darkened throne in a hollow womb, both left baron and un-sewn - so of crowns and so of wings, both as brittle as tiny bones - as thin as ghosts whose shadows pass through abandoned ancient homes - won’t you wrap me in my burial shroud - fire spins in outstretched hands, palms turned skyward holding light - dumbfounded looks on strangers faces let us know we done it right - but trouble seems to always know where to find us as we rest - we pay forth in adorations and we know we too are blessed - so wrap me in my burial should - let the silence melt these wounds and seal my eyes shut tight - and these prayers fly straight as arrows through hell and blackest night - in a hopeless place we fell in love, there’s no escaping what we’ve become - stillness trembles at the mention of the total of the sum - when them horseman come across the hillside we will greet them standing tall - what more to do when faced with that which gallops over where we soon fall - so wrap me in my burial shroud - let the silence melt these wounds and seal my eyes shut tight and these prayers fly straight as arrows through hell and blackest night - lift these burdens from my heart, lay me down with those i love - to the waters of forgiveness melt these memories washed rid of.
10.
- you backslid into purgatory where the weather is pleasant always - you were so damn tired you unlaced your old boots, decided right then and there that you’d stay - but soon you felt stifled by those new found comforts and you missed that old road and it’s ways - so you set off again for what you knew would be the last time, on that horizon line you fixed your steady gaze - you were too far, too far north - they found you in a snowbank three miles from town, you were stiff as a petrified oak - built a fire by the roadside and tried to warm you but dear you just never awoke - in your pockets they found your grandfathers watch and a lighter and a couple of coins - it was clear to me then that you’d left this old world for the place that we all soon would join - you were too far, too far north - now i’m not much for words but if you’d never have left then dear i never would have known, that it’s better to die with a spark in your eye than a weak dying breath and a groan - unlike most of the rest i will remember you best for that restlessness that filled up your bones, and you kept on trying till the bitter end to escape that old world we had known - you were too far, too far north.

credits

released June 16, 2015

for CD, LP, and other items, visit:
US orders:
kingsroadmerch.com/anti-records/?id=1902&sid=1989

EURO orders :http://eu.kingsroadmerch.com/anti-records/artist/?id=601

written, performed, arranged, and produced by Christopher Paul Stelling
engineered by Christopher Peck and Ben Knox Miller
mixed by Christopher Peck
mastered by Paul Gold at Salt Mastering
album design by CPS
tintype portrait by Josh Wool

additional musicians:
Julia Christgau - Harmony Vocals (2,3,9,10)
Kieran Ledwidge - Violin (1,2,5,6,7,10)
Michael Harlen - Upright Bass (2,5,10)
Jeffrey Prystowsky - Upright Bass (1,6,7)
Danah Olivetree - Cello (1,3,6,7,9)
Lis Rubard - French Horn / Flugel Horn (1,3,6,7,9)
Zack Bruce - Mandolin (2,5)
Aaron Shafer-Haiss - Drums (2,5)
Dominic Billett - Drums (3,6)

recorded at the Columbus Theatre, Providence, RI
and The Hook Studio, Brooklyn NY
MMXV

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