DO NO HARM
2019
CONFETTI TO THE HURRICANE
I'm on holiday from the things that’re bringing me down
I pass them on the way back up again
Feel my feet leaving late off the ground
She was on the back porch yelling out orders
Didn't realize wasn't getting any younger
I was in the backseat forgetting all about her
Heard a little voice, I was wanted by the water
I had built a vessel by the time she caught me missing
And I fastened to it everything I'm counting as a blessing
I was leaving shore as she rounded out the clearing
Wailing like a siren, I was far beyond her hearing
She was up a tree with confetti to the hurricane
Vocal cords ringing a machete through the sugar cane
She was turning red and the river running redder
I was waning edges like the ending of a letter
I'm on holiday, recurring themes that’re taking me down
Expound ‘em on the way back up again
See the street fading into the town
And signs do pull, and sounds do push
The impossible, the possible
(Dalton / Rowland)
MOVE TO GIRLS
My old Romeo called me, high on diodes & ions
Saw your name on LCD, electricity kiss me
I don't wanna seem absurd or an eccentric
I don't need to open your mind
I don't wanna draw attention to it, baby
But I can't help but pray tonight
I see mistakes about me I may never realize
Giving in easy, underestimating my size
You don't know what it's like
I don't wanna wake up wasted not remembering
I cannot cave into the curse
I could wake tomorrow in another body
I could easily move to girls
I go to public houses, draw attention to sound
I do this night after night, oh in town after town
I'm coming back to this town
(Rowland)
EVERYTHING WAS BEAUTIFUL AND NOTHING HURT
My mild mind, my Valentine
Microscopic signs flying by with the time
Hurt on either side, I could die with a smile
Leave em asking why, Mary mine
You’ve been on my ugly mind
Gave all my days and hide away
For the chance to gaze on a face that I made
Diving bells from space to the place where she lays
Where cicadas made all the praise to our lady of the cadence
Everywhere, everyone was wonderful
None of it was painful, everything was beautiful
Everywhere, everyone was colorful
No one knew what mourning was, nothing yet was dangerous
So it goes, so it all surrounds
Just when I think that I had figured it out
So it goes, so it all surrounds
unstuck in time as the world rewound
Everywhere, everyone was colorful
Nothing was painful, everything was beautiful
(Dalton / Rowland)
DISSOLVE
I did not fare well with what I befell
I was rolling ‘round the rhythm of the carousel
As the evening wanes, I subside the grade
Shifting down into the clarity of infinity
But to me and my dismay, as the eaves gave away
I was slipping down a stream in perpetuity
Gathering satellites, I submit a sight
And a sound into a mirror, in a chandelier
Before me across the room, through the haze and the fumes
I dissolve into your oat straw and big sur blues
I dissolve into, I dissolve in you, I resolve into
(Dalton / Rowland)
SWOON
Far beyond the star and sea
Upon one time, I fell into a dream
I fell into a spiral, a swoon
Drawn by the moon
I thought I'd never be free
From teeth ensnared, I wrestled free
Into the streets
Embrace the dark, all born from light
We'll set it right, and then we'll tie it up tight
Propelled into a spiral, a swoon, drawn by the moon
I thought I'd never be free
The dead of night and dawn entwined
I watched the right and left a wedding of minds
Meet me where the dogwoods flower
Where wolves come address the hour
I still see the embers from when the barn burned down
Meet me where the cattails sway
Underneath the lion’s mane
I can see Saint Elmo’s fire ignite your crown
Acolyte, it’s time
(Dalton / Rowland)
STARK RAVEN
East wind tells you where to go
When the North is white with snow
Close your window, city South
To your arms I’m Westward bound
Your wide eyes
Stark raving, heaving sighs
Your rosy cheeks
Your wild eyes
Stark raven, heathen size
Your rosy breast
You’re wild
In the light
Kindness calls a cardinal
Light me up before the fall
Calls a falcon, calls a dove
Sign your name and do no harm
Daggers shooting out your chest
Lightning glow about your head
Milestones around your neck
Seven hands spell out your name
(Rowland)
CHILL VEIL
Through the veil, a portal to
An elegy to conjure you
I love the way I lost the way
Along the way I lost the way
Along the the way
The sleepy boughs all full and fine
Betwixt the days and good goodnights
The light, the lie
She peeks and pries
And lowly dies
And turns us down
Her darkened eyes
I love the way I lost the way
Under the veil, endure the bloom
Inter the void and swallow you
High above the treeline
I’m high
(Dalton / Rowland)
HOW NOT TO DIE
My father’s house, my mother tongue
My frozen cells give me away
I’m more than sound, I’m more than skin
I’m more than self
I’m more without than I’m within
Or so it seems, seems like it could be drunk
It could be driving me
I want to see, I want to be, want to believe
Hangin up my three sheets thinking of thee
How not to die, how to let go, how do you do
That which you do with your eyes closed
Get down sometimes, give something up
Get good and by, I know you are cause so am I
It’s in three whiskies deep, obscene, pickin up steam
(Rowland)
WALKING IN SPACE
My body is walking in space
My soul is in orbit with God, face to face
Floating, flipping, flying, tripping
Tripping from Pots-ville to Starlight
Trippiping from Starlight to Moonville
White-white. black-white
Yellow-crimson, purple-pink
All the clouds are cumuloft, walking in space
Oh my God, your skin is soft, I love your face
How dare they try to end this beauty
How dare they try to end this beauty
To keep us underfoot, they bury us in soot
Pretending it’s a chore to ship us off to war
In this dive we rediscover sensation
In this dive we rediscover sensation
Walking in space, we find the purpose of peace
The beauty of life you can no longer hide
Our eyes are open, our eyes are open
Our eyes are open, our eyes are open
Wide
(MacDermot / Ragni / Rado)
Engineered by Michael McLeod and Grant Johnson
Mixed by Travis Kennedy and The Deer
Mastered by Gavin Lurssen
Recorded at Church House Studios & the Falcon Ledge house (Austin, TX), Mountain Star
Studios (Blackhawk, CO), Bonnie’s house (Lyons, CO), & the Inverness house (Point Reyes, CA)
Produced and Arranged by The Deer
Album Art by Grace Rowland, based on family photos
Grace Rowland: Vocals, guitar, piano, synth
Michael McLeod: electric guitar
Jesse Dalton: vocals, electric bass, upright bass, synth, acoustic guitar
Alan Eckert: vocals, piano, synth, drums, percussion
Noah Jeffries: fiddle, mandolin
SPECIAL GUESTS
Bonnie Paine on vocals
Charlie Rose on pedal steel
All songs © ℗ The Deer (Owl Bum Records) 2019 except “Walking in Space” © Sony/ATV Music Publishing LLC
