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Kept the river to my right
The night I couldn’t see past my hands
I followed screams the way home, lost my feet, didn’t know what was wrong
They got the best of my father; he died with eyes pinned to the sky
My mother’s hands curved in a plea, of tooth and claw, of blade unsheathed
My senses in sleep still know the fire, the acrid smoke of human skin
And red-hot steel, scorpion sting. I had one shot, I let it ring
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Justice, I never knew the word till you carved it in my kin
Helpless to trace a line to vengeance that was blistered in my skin
Brought to bear, only to be spared and be blooded unto ever
Darkness please, throw your cloak of pity over me
But if hell don't want me yet, I'll make my case
And if hell don't want me yet, I think I'll toe that line
Between the living and the dying, you know it's just killing time
Mercy, wasted on the wanted and the price that's on your head
Hellbent, nothing's gonna stop me, whether tin or gold or lead
Anoint one hand with the other for brutality
The violence seeps down from your monopoly
'Cause I take what I want, I want all I take
What does it matter to you?
If it wasn't your home, your blood or your chained hands,
would you be playing with guns?
Widowmaker
And if hell don't want me yet, I think I'll toe that line
Between the living and the dying, you know it's just killing time
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“Commander could I freshen up your coffee” I ask with bloody hands
My request to speak freely is promptly denied
With a drag on his pipe he says, "We don't make peace, we make demands"
"We'll do what we must if they won't step aside"
If I get out of this alive
I fear I'll just come back for more
When the cavalry arrives
My company will be ignored
When the petition at Ojo Caliente is sent back overturned
And Victorio's riders dispatch to oppose
I’ll venture to voice my apprehension with a question on my mind-
When did the gray wolf start dressing in indigo clothes?
Fix bayonet and ready arms!
Take a knee and raise them high!
It's getting hard enough to aim
With the bastard standing on our side
Boundless plains and open skies
A kettle quick becomes a cage
If I break off before the fall
Will I meet ruin, just the same?
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4. |
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Stiff upper lip
Bet you can guess how it ends
When you’re hands are getting slower and the sun is sinking lower and
You find yourself lacking in friends
Your ambition’s a condition that will worsen your position
And will certainly end up with you dead
So if your life is unsustainable and peace seems unattainable
Why don’t you just pour another drink instead? Oh no...
One for the show
Two to make it stop
You say you’d like to die quiet but you can’t pick your poison
When you’re drinking from the devil’s cup
Judgement day is coming, but the bounty started running
Better take another swing at the top
But why stop the show when it’s the only thing you know
The crowd is clamoring to see and prays you end up bathed in blood
You’ve tried to run away but you can’t
When you fled across the pond you made waves
The man you finally managed to love
Is the man you couldn’t manage to save
You think that you can change but you can’t
Now that wickedness and violence chase you
The day you go to give up the gun
We’ll find ya lying face down in a grave
Will you beg?
Will you cry?
Will you just lay down and die?
Will the heavens not let you in, oh will you burn? (will you burn)
Will you scream?
Will you shout?
Will you finally figure it out?
Will the hand that turns the wheel show no concern?
When they finally snuff you out...
Jack Swift you really ought to talk about it
When your number’s up you’ll be the lucky one
Tell me was the West too far to run?
Jack Swift you really thought a lot about it
When the devil’s due, you’ll pay for all that you’ve done
Oh was the west too far, now?
Jack Swift you really ought to think about it
When your number is up you’ll be the lucky one
Oh was the West too far to run? (to run!)
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5. |
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I make a living putting people in the dirt
Good people, bad, all the kinds that walk the earth
Yes I do, it don't matter what they're worth
He was born, he paid, he died, only things of which I'm sure
Some men get a bullet, some a cinching rope
Some lose fights with their own brains, others just lose hope
But no matter what you've done or been or seen I don't discriminate, I turn away no folk
Yes we are all the same under the grass, inside the pine, below the stone
Well I'm an enterprising man, that no one can doubt
But I've been known to rush a soul or two on the way out
Lord, lord, lord, how the thankless scream and shout
But as far as I'm concerned, you know I'm just helping a stranger out
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6. |
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Forward!
Put the cannons to them!
Till the earth beneath their feet turns red!
Let the vultures will feast
We will feed them the carrion of men
Let your bayonet taste and let slip all the dogs of war
Let them break on our steel
Till they rise no more
Make me now, an instrument of war
Spare the peace, let me bring discord
All the suffering, I give as a means to receive
Wrap your hands around the throat of the world
I’ve come to believe that life is fair
But we don’t wanna know
What that word means or entails
Of patriots and tyrants we expect the same things
“To be made holy in the bringing low”
Put them to the river’s wake
Every man must meet his fate
But today is not that day
So I’ll see them break
Worth every mile of hell
I’ll walk in the end of days
You think you’re spared
but I can small it in the air
The fear and black powder
And the stench of death, the eternal return
Like God’s breath.
Make me now, an instrument of war
Spare the peace, let me bring discord
All the suffering, I give as a means to receive
Wrap your hands around the throat of the world
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7. |
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Under cover of the dark, I spare no sound
Search for you, no reprieve in this den of thieves and jailkeepers
Bring the culling blade to bear, as you would for me
Slip the steel between their ribs, like our fathers' father did and his before
I pierce their ranks like an arrow tasting flesh
Enter in unthinking violence
An exit paid for with torture
With a footfall in the night, I tread unseen
Unaware of where it leads, only knowing I will bleed for you
Put my steady hands to work on a young man's throat
It's swift for him but stays with me, but I won't let it weigh me down
I set my shoulder to the wheel of righteous death
Knowing that someday soon,
It will turn to crush us all
Pale younger brother,
did you think I had a choice?
Do you think you still do?
You cannot remove the blood from the water
Tie me to my horse and abandon me
Abandon me
Abandon me
Abandon me
Abandon me
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8. |
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It all began with a debt
A fire waiting to catch
A banker with a grin, a gun, and a thinly veiled threat
It went to hell with a death
My husband perished in bed
The fever took him quick and and moved to stick me in this mess
The collector comes quickly for the broke and buried
Is it in God that We Trust, or in debt that we drown?
Raising the cattle from birth just to put ‘em all down
When the barn stops burning better bet I’ll be returning to town
The Bank’s got it coming
And if the train is on the wrong track coming for us
When you see it will you say? Oh oh oh oh oh oh
A better time
Another place
And if my heart should start to drift off dreaming with you
Then set to working for the day Oh Oh Oh oh oh Oh
And if you’re mine
You know I’ll stay
With you
Is it in God that We Trust, or in debt that we drown?
Raising the cattle from birth just to put ‘em all down
When the barn stops burning better bet I’ll be returning to town
The Bank’s got it coming
And if the train is on the wrong track heading for me
When you see it will you say? Oh oh oh oh oh oh
A better man, in
A better place
And when my heart is on its last leg longing for you
It means you’re getting in the way Oh Oh Oh Oh Oh Oh
And when it’s time
I will erase
Your love
Oh Oh Oh Oh
Oh Oh Oh Oh Oh
Oh Oh Oh Oh
Oh Oh Oh Oh Oh
Fire away
And build it all back better when you
Let it first burn down
Fire away
You know it’s all for the better
If you promise to change yourself
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9. |
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Dealt from the bottom
This deck was stacked against you from the start
No time to fold your hand
You’ve overplayed your part
I spin the chamber like a roulette painted only red
A game of chance is only fun when we get out the lead
You’re gonna learn the hard way, blood isn’t fungible
Let’s stop the nickel and dime stuff
It’s never enough to beat the House
In for a penny and a pound
I give no quarter now
You’ve got no outs
Blind follows blind
Do you think you have enough to call the raise?
Will you see your final card?
Or will it be too late?
Never bet what you can’t stand to lose
Let’s stop the nickel and dime stuff
It’s never enough to beat the House
In for a penny and a pound
I give no quarter now
You’ve got no outs
Cuz I take what I want
I need all I take
If I have to bleed it out of you
If you win the hand that you’ve come here to play
Will you walk away?
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10. |
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When you kill a man
He doesn’t go away
He becomes a brand on your soul
When you kill a friend
Their lover and their child
Then Hell is assured and you’d best just double down
Though I did not hold the gun
No, it was Greed
That made me hire the hand
If this life is not but toil
Then I resolve
To take everything I can
First I’ll mine the gold
Then I’ll drain the oil
I’ll crack the earth ‘til the mountains come to bleed
I’ll steal what can’t be sold
Let the extra go to spoil
Extract all worth form the soil then sell the deed
Pay the miners paltry wages
Just enough
To be reliant on my hand
And if someone comes and threatens
What is mine
You know exactly where they’ll stand
If you turn your back, I’ll be there
With a pistol in hand
Cuz I’m a quick shot and you won’t see if comin’
No Oh, A quick shot and you won’t see if comin’
You can declare me a coward, true, but
At least I don’t pretend
Oh I’m a quick shot and you won’t see if comin’
No Oh, a quick shot and you won’t see if comin’
I’ll work the men in the mine to death
And I’ll purchase all the preachers
Pull the children from the schoolhouse
While I persecute their teachers
I’ll hand each boy a rifle
Flash a smile
And tell him “what he’s owed”
Force their mothers to the brothel
All the while
Shame them as they go
(the brothel that I own)
When you turn your back, I’ll be there
With a pistol in hand
Cuz I’m a quick shot and you won’t see if comin’
No Oh, A quick shot and you won’t see if comin’
You can declare me a coward, true, but
At least I don’t pretend
Oh I’m a quick shot and you won’t see if comin’
No Oh, a quick shot and you won’t see if comin’
And if you question my command
I’ll hang you for treason
Though I won’t need a reason
No, I’ll never show weakness again
At sacred destiny’s demand
We’ll bloodlet the plains
On high in my name
Why progress when it’s much cheaper to expand?
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11. |
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Buried my bullets in the slaver's chest
For to finally get some rest
How I long to close my eyes and just see nothing
Like a blindfold for the firing line
Like a preacher for the killing time
If it helps to ease your mind,
Say you're the cure and not the sickness
Think I'll melt my pistol down to a crucifix
Oh the things we do to forget the things we did
Let me be not consoled, let me be consolation
Like a blindfold for the firing line
Like a preacher for the killing time
If it helps to ease your mind,
Say you're the cure and not the sickness
Just like whiskey for a death row meal
Like rain on a killing field
Does it wash away the feeling
deserve's got nothing to do with it?
I put my hands into the river to wash off all the red
I tear the earth and leave my sins like flowers for the dead
A handful of dirt, a pocketful of gold, a cup of sour wine, the blood from a stone
The lawman’s dogma, the murderer’s prayer, one a shout, one a whisper, but I see no difference there
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Tin, Gold, Lead & Blood is an album that uses the backdrop of the American West to reflect on the empty promises offered by violence, as well as the personal and larger social circumstances that lead us to perpetuate it.
released December 3, 2021
Dave Coffey: Vocals, Drums, Bass (all but 4), Piano, Acoustic Guitar, Organ, Rhodes, Percussion
Drew Bligh: Electric Guitars, Vocals, Bass (4), Mandolin, Banjo, Glockenspiel, Synth, Programming/Samples
Featuring:
Ben Lane - Solos on 6,8,10, leads on 6,10
Rick King - Guitar solo on 5
Jeff Boratko - Tenor sax on 9, soprano sax on 11, bassoon on 4
Keenan Asbridge - Trumpet on 1 and 10
All Songs written by Drew Bligh and Dave Coffey, except 10, written by Drew Bligh, Dave Coffey, and Ben Lane
Recorded and Mixed at Ghost Hit Recording by Andrew Oedel
Mastered by Anni Casella of Shape Mastering
Album Artwork by Erskine Designs
Supplemental Art by Tristan Nuit Artworks
