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1.
A Miracle Mile They live and they lie. And they barely get by. On a Miracle Mile (2x) They scratch and they claw. Wait for God’s body to thaw. On a Miracle Mile (2x) Well they run and they hide!!! And they lose all their pride. We’re waiting…. I’m waiting…. On a Miracle Mile! Verse 1 Elaine “The Bridge”, a beauty queen From Canada , whose eyes have seen The Mayor getting high with famous men. She met the quiet army cat In 109 who told her that “Shooting straight’s the only way to Zen!” Chorus On a Miracle Mile (2x) You can stay a day, a week, or awhile- Come and check in on A Miracle Mile. Verse 2 The scholar living with his Mom He cried about the atom bomb He said that intuition was the key. Well, he fell in love with Scott “The Hag” Doing monologues in drag Standing on the roof for all to see! Chorus On a Miracle Mile (2x) You can stay a day a week or awhile Come and check in on a Miracle Mile. Verse 3 So take your pictures of our pain Holding buckets in the rain This is the asylum for the brave. Those built to live in other worlds Unfit to work as counter girls Ineffably drunk on God’s sugar cane. From mushroom clouding U.S.A. Come ye newborn Fausts to play A game called “we’ll be famous for our fun!” Let the voices win the war Scare them at the grocery store Spend Christmas Eve with thieves and whores We’ll be remembered each and every one! (3x) Chorus - End
2.
Outer Space Jesus VERSE 1 I was the son of the man on the moon. Flew into space, on a hot-air balloon. Met with Jesus on a comet said "Here's what I pray: Don't come tomorrow, I'm a sinner today." (2x) At a sock hop with angels, jitterbugged with the wind. Talked of storm-chasing mysteries that God won't defend. Then the chaperone inside with the platinum soul Said "I'll be at your place tomorrow, be ready to go." (2x) CHORUS Outer Space Jesus don't take it away. I wanna' stay stoned on this paper mache. But tomorrow I promise my will can be strong... Until then find what's Holy in the outlaw's theme song (2x) VERSE 2 I traveled in shadows and lived by the light Of hung-over stars at the end of their fight. And before lovers leave, I watch them brush their hair. I say "Just 10 more minutes” but they never stay there. (2x) CHORUS (2x) Outer Space Jesus, I don't know why I like whiskey and the way that bad girls make me cry. But tomorrow I promise my will can be strong… Until then find what's Holy in the outlaw's theme song. VERSE 3 Now my life's a bullet in the bark of a tree Stuck but still stoned on its first energy. When an outer space carpenter cut the tree down. Took me as the timber to build a Holy Ghost town. CHORUS (2x) Outer Space Jesus makes art from the trash. A wrist half-cut opened filled with cigarette ash. Tomorrow I promise my will won't be strong... ‘Cause a child is loved for his rights and his wrongs.
3.
Gethsemane Blues Verse 1 Judas of Iscariot where ya’ rambling? Ya’ got a new steel guitar and some silver spurs. He said “Junkbox Jimmy, I been all night gambling With Pharisees in the trees where it all occurred.“ Well, them righteous hillbillies They were drunk and fat. There was a rodeo clown and a Cheshire Cat. Messiah in the kitchen unleavenin’ the bread. I got money in my shoe but my soul feels dead. Chorus Gethsemane Blues (2x) Gethsemane! Verse 2 Weren’t you in that crew with that heretic? Messianic beatnik with a banjo stick. He was singing that song that I still can’t play About the Truth, The Life, The Love and The Way. Until a blackjack game they asked me play Said Judas, I was innocent, just trying to pray. Had my head bowed, eyes closed, words to say His eyes glowed like a bourbon-black judgment day, yeah! Chorus Gethsemane Blues (2x) Gethsemane! Verse 3 Well, I didn’t have money to bet against gold They said no sweat you can bet from the safe in your soul. I didn’t think twice to lay it all down Nobody gets hustled by a Rodeo Clown! But lo’ and behold it was the Cheshire Cat Who shuffled the cards and started to deal. Never seen an apparition throw cards like that So I bet my whole soul thinking this can’t be real. Chorus Gethsemane Blues (2x) Gethsemane! Bridge and Finale All of a sudden he looked up at the sun. Traded me his steel guitar for my old man’s gun. We heard a hammer and the lynch mob cry. They put his boss on a cross made o’ railroad ties. And Judas said I didn’t think that it would happen to the chosen one (4x) He can get down! Why don’t he get down?! (4x)
4.
Crucifixion Song And when You became a man Well, the Spirit fell upon you like a dove. And the river flashed and the lightning swelled With the clamoring of angels, from above. And you learned what it was to be sanctified To be taken up in a blinding cloud of light. And you learned what it means to be crucified To be left alone in the silent, screaming night. Chorus This Train, this train, this train, this train Gonna’ take me to where I’ll be. And this pain, this pain, this pain, this pain Gonna’ take me to where I see. Verse 2 And when you were just a girl Well, the spirit fell upon you like a dove. And you learned about the pain and rain you gotta’ stand in by yourself because of love. Well, you bled some tears and you cried some blood and you wrestled with angels in the mud for light. And you learned what it was to be crucified Though you try to run, though you try to hide tonight. CHORUS (2X) When I was just a boy The Spirit fell upon me like a dove Well I shook it off and I crawled away Searched the naked neon clay, for love I bled some blood and I cried some tears And tonight that bird may reappear, in light I’m gonna’ learn what it means to be crucified Though I try to run, though I try to hide tonight. CHORUS (2X)
5.
LOVE SONG FOR MOLLY DAVIS IN THE KEY OF BLUE SHOES Your beauty is a raindrop. My love is like a train. Your heart is beating thunder. And there’s lightning in my brain. Remember me to Jesus. When the truth’s lost its way. And know I was dying. In your dream of Christmas day. CHORUS And all the lovers stare At my electric chair. They say I'll burn so beautifully in June. And the color of the air Is burned into her hair. And the shadows that she wears are gone too soon. She used to explain How flowers, fear and pain Grow together while our children play. And after cigarettes, coffee and regret They agreed there were no prayers left to pray. Verse 2 We got lost in the obsession for your favorite lullaby. I listened for you screaming So I couldn't hear you cry. Distracted by the blood With which I wrote my mother's name. Well, on the prison wall Where love and sadness are the same. (Chorus) They couldn't call it murder. Even though she can't be found. In my songbook a confession Though I never wrote it down. Carolina Summer Solstice Cocaine clouds turn into rain. You can't tell I'm crying Or make out my Mark of Cain. (Final Chorus) Picasso children stare At the cemetery where They bury all the dead no one claims. And that's where she was found Throwing flowers on the ground And giving back to all of the lonely dead their names. Well, I used to explain How every human stain Washed off all the roses when she came. Now I’m in my prison cell I put on my diving bell. And I’m content where love and sadness are the same.
6.
Zenda 03:52
ZENDA There was a man made from light and sand. He came down from Arkansas. Three scars and a blues guitar; Sayin’ “Let me tell you what I saw!” “Let me tell you what I saw!” CHORUS The dead came up from the grave. The sun turned to blood and the sky fell down. The moon picked up the sea and set it down On the banks that you built from fear. The Earth died and we were purified ‘Cause he said ya’ know the Zenda’s near. VERSE 2 He had the eyes of William Blake If they were made from Leadbelly’s birthday cake. The mayors and the ministers said he was mad, Sick with the disease Mary Magdalene had. And when he stopped At the fortune teller’s shop Just to break his crystal ball. Looked in a shard of glass Saw a baby named Cass Saving Icarus from his fall And that’s when he said CHORUS All men who fly ain’t born to die. So don’t be afraid when I tell you that Gravity lies. Began to bleed from the glass he could read And when the cops came…Well, he disappeared. Left a letter, said “I feel much better” Since knowing that the Zenda’s near. VERSE 3 An absurd, clairvoyant songbird Rain-danced on the Governors grave. Then the magical poor Broke down the church-house door In a riot for the end of days. Meanwhile, he was building a boat Made from junk-yard cars And old road-signs. When the hound-dogs sang And a mercenary gang Yawped trails through Missouri-borne pines. Hell-bent on the madman’s scent They set fire to the witches and shrines. They found his ark about after dark As he yelled to the fugitive kind! BRIDGE Come widows, come children Come sad and come sick! Leave all your possessions behind! The world will not end Until it’s once again A friend to its Maker and Mind! Citadels fall by the words of St. Paul Come orphaned, come crippled, come blind! There’s blood on the Sun. The dead rise and run. My death’s but a moment And not the last one! Not the last one! (3X) FINAL CHORUS The good man doesn’t board the boat she builds. A rainbow saves the life that a carpenter kills. And when the moon picked up the sea and set it down And the wonders of the world disappeared Muddy faced kids, ridin’ junk yard skids sang together that the ZENDA’S here.
7.
Ballad of A Traveler’s Sunday I got to Mississippi with my heart in my hand. I was thinkin’ Alabama was the promised land. Drinking beer out of cowboy boots in the back of a truck. Wrote a letter to my Mama and the letter said “I met a girl in Tennessee who was almost dead. From takin’ pills in the hills in a tree where lightning struck.” Was when I was a hitchhiker in a foreign land And I got picked up by a Gospel band. The lead singer had a vile of Virginia and his name was Bill. He showed me a picture of his motorbike. It was a soft-tail custom that he seemed to like. He said “Ridin’ this thing’s like bein’ in church on steel.” CHORUS – (2x) Ridin’ this thing’s like bein’ in church Ridin’ this thing’s like bein’ in church Ridin’ this thing’s like bein’ in church on steel, steel, steel, steel… VERSE 2 Natchez Fall, when the moon gets green It’s enough to make the born again get mean. And in the dance-flow Jane Doe whispered "Do you have a car"? And in the campsite, moonlight (whiskey even tastes right) Underneath a pup-tent (makin’ love at midnight) Stars and guitars and promises I can’t keep. Well I slept beside her collie with a Bible name. The site of her asleep filled me up with shame Then I cried thinkin’ every living thing would die in sin. Jane Doe woke when she heard me cry She said “It looks as if the Devil’s been a tellin’ ya’ lies” And she insisted if I listened to the crickets I could hear Him again. ‘Cause when fires die and pleasures lie And you measure all the silence on Sinai, Jane Doe said with a voice that sounded like gin. Said “Ride your regret and it’ll leave ya’ cold. Ride your ambition and your gift gets sold. But ridin’ this train’s like bein’ in church on skin!” CHORUS – (2x) Ridin’ this train’s like bein’ in church. Ridin’ this train’s like bein’ in church. Ridin’ this train’s like bein’ in church on skin, skin, skin, skin… VERSE 3 Tupelo Mississippi in the Elvis shack I saw Mark Twain have a heart attack. Before he died his old lady made sure he was good with God. I woke up still drunk on Bourbon Street. Huckleberry Finn was massaging my feet. Then he handed me a flask, and he asked “Why’d you steal my gun?” Then the whore from before (at the Bad-Boy store) Took a ferry to a parish called “Elsinore”. And her barks in the dark turned to coos in the morning sun. Where the Mighty Mississippi (on depression pills) Rememberin’ the faces of the men he’s killed He writes a suicide letter he addresses to his wife and son. “To my wife and my boy, don’t grieve me long. All the sunken treasure and the ships gone wrong Done cracked this saddle on my back and I can’t flow free. So tell the folk-singers and the poets too. Never to forget what the River goes through. Cause’ ridin’ this tide’s like bein’ in church on the MISS-ISS-IPP-I River, baby!" CHORUS – (3x) Ridin’ this tide’s like bein’ in church Ridin’ this tide’s like bein’ in church Ridin’ this tide’s like bein’ in church on the MISSISSIPPI River Baby! Ridin’ this tide’s like bein’ in church Ridin’ this tide’s like bein’ in church Ridin’ this tide’s like bein’ in church on ME.
8.
Daydream 04:01
Daydream Verse 1 If you wear that desert dress I’ll put on my moonshine shoes And we can dance intoxicated through New Orleans to Jehovah Jazz. We see the music in a thunderstorm I breathe on you and it keeps me warm. I’m a honkey-tonk prophet you’re a beatnik ballerina in blue. In Los Angeles it’s snowing again. Now the poetry is my only friend. And I pray and say to Jesus “Will you come and stop the bleeding for me?” And He’s showing me a person That I’m too damned tired to be. Far away across the scarlet sea Overwhelmed by a memory Like a tiny photograph that she keeps inside of her heart. And he’s wonderin’ how long They can stand just bein’ apart. Chorus Daydream of me. Daydream of me. Daydream of me and I might just come home. I might just come home. Verse 2 Settin’ sun on Arizona land I pull over on the highway and It’s iridescent on the sand giving birth to the rainbow blues. My broken heart’s in San Francisco Butterflying in cathedrals of booze. Chorus (2x) Daydream of me. Daydream of me. Daydream of me and I might just come home. I might just come home. Verse 3 Drove forty hours from New York to the 10. Hollywood said it’ll be my friend. It’s been a deathbed, pill-fed, daydream deficient, rebirth. And I’m the only Hollywood, Hillbilly, Heartbroken Daydreamer on Earth.

credits

released May 6, 2016

T.J. Volgare - Lead Vocals
David Staples - Rhythm Guitar
Simpson Eason - Drums
Steven DeConto - Bass
Michael DePue - Lead Guitar
Paula Hardy - Additional Vocals, Piano, Organ.

Produced, Tracked, and Mixed Live by Ryan Pickett ( "My Morning Jacket") at "Pickett's Gym" in Durham, N.C.

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St. Anthony and The Mystery Train Durham, North Carolina

A band of storytellers taking cues from the magical realism of Tom Waits, the free-associations of Bob Dylan, and the misfit spirituals of Johnny Cash. The stories inside the music are best described as a stream of Southern-Gothic consciousness, short pieces of theatre in which every musician, playing a combination of garage rock, blues, & country, is a "character." ... more

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