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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 

LYRICS

PHOTO BY BARBARA FG

INDIE FOLK FROM AUSTIN
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