HAPPY (OR WHATEVER)

Taylor Leonhardt / Jordy Searcy

Last night I bought a lie / I saw an ad online / all these smiling people had it figured out / If I could be someone else / someone beside myself / I might have a little less to cry about / I’m on the other side of the glass / Lookin at the life they have / Ain’t it so much better / It’s always easier to believe / It’s easy for them to be / Happy or whatever / I’m feeling all alone / My sister moved back home /All she talks about now is her brand new job / And her fancy MBA, her lawyer fiancé / I’m the jerk for wishing she would just stop / CHORUS / Why do I do this / Play a game I keep losing / It’s all so elusive / The closer I get the target keeps moving / I had a photograph / where I thought I’d be by now / But I don’t even recognize the girl in the frame / So I think I’ll rip it up / I think she’s had enough / She might even be proud of who I am today / Maybe I have all that I need / To be happier than ever / Happy or whatever 

MOTHER’S DAUGHTER

Watching the chasm grow wider / Standing at opposite sides / She’s not backing down / I’m not backing down / Come hell or high water I’m my mother’s daughter / You recognize my independence / Well, I come by it honestly / I was born with the fire / She was born with the fire / And nothing can stop her / She’s her mother’s daughter / You think I’m easy to love? Just try to push me around / You wanna rile me up? Just tell me to calm down / I’m my mother’s daughter / I never thought she understood me / I swore we’re nothing alike / Now the older I get I was wrong, I admit / This stubborn, fast talker is her mother’s daughter / A girl’s allowed to complain about her mama sometimes / But if you say one little thing about her, you’re gonna find / I’m my mother’s daughter / She knows she’s riding my case / I know I rattle her nerves / We both know just what to say to make the other one hurt / If anyone is strong enough to change / To bend to break to learn / Then it’s my mother’s daughter / it’s my mother / I’m my mother’s daughter / Come hell or high water / I’m my mother’s daughter

THE BRIDGE

Taylor Leonhardt / Leslie Jordan

Imagine a castle and just beyond the walls / A river surrounds it and there’s only one way across / Inside is a treasure / Sitting right at my feet / But for too long I left the door open and I let in the thief / Some people take what you got til you got nothing to give / I could play the victim but let’s call a spade what it is / It’s nobody’s fault but my own / It’s my hand on the switch / I’m drawing the bridge / When I live at the mercy of everyone else / I die a little inside every time I abandon myself / CHORUS / If it’s peace of mind, power to draw a line, and knowing which fence I can mend /Then its not about who I’m keeping out / It’s what I’m keeping in / This side of the water I wanna hold my friends close / And I’m learning to like who I am even when I’m alone / CHORUS / I know how let it down and I know how to say when / I’m drawing the bridge

GRANDFATHER MOUNTAIN

I’ve been out all night trying to find you / Calling but you won’t pick up the phone / Dragging your heavy heart behind you / Do you really want to be alone? / Head down, dark clouds moving in / You’re not the weather / You’re not the wind /You’re grandfather mountain /The rain comes the rain goes / You are still you are still standing / How easily blue skies turn to thunder / Just a word could bring you to your knees / You got the choice to run for cover / Or you could feel the earth strong as steel under your feet / CHORUS / No bad advice no Bible verse / I promise I won’t say a word / But if you think you need a friend / If you want to let me in / When it’s really coming down together we can ride it out / No feeling is forever / CHORUS / The rain comes the rain goes / You are still / You are still standing

HUMAN

Taylor Leonhardt / Thad Cockrell

My God my head / I said one but I had more instead / My God it’s a train wreck / Crash collision with a side of regret / Cheap thrill cheap faith / Standstill on the interstate / and I’m all give, no take / I hate to see you lookin so bent out of shape / Signs and wonders / I’ve seen the lion’s share of them / I feel it underneath my skin / Ooh / Human / Heartache sometimes / Is the only way to know that you’re alive / Heartache / Cry and cry / how do you know when to let it die? / I get lost sometimes / I need something to clear my mind / CHORUS / Come on baby, come on baby / Need a little less clever and a lot more heart / Come on baby, come on baby / Need a little less clever and a lot more heart / Come on baby, come on baby / Need a little less clever and a lot more heart / Come on baby come on baby / Get a little less clever and a little more heart / Signs and wonders / I’ve seen the lion’s share of them / I feel it underneath my skin / Ooh / The sky’s a thunder / The earth is shaking once again / I feel it underneath my skin / The thought of you / My God, I’m only human / Signs and wonders / I feel it underneath my skin / Ooh / Human

HOLD STILL

You’re on the move again / Saying you’re through again / Don’t know what to do again / On your own/ Walking the street tonight / Under the neon lights / You just want some peace and quiet / I know / Hold still don’t run / You’ll never find the love you want / If you take off when it gets real / You wanna be held you gotta hold still / You’ve heard it all before / the tired metaphors don’t move you anymore / You’re out of tears / If you get cold enough / maybe come close enough / to let somebody love you / Maybe me / CHORUS / Everybody has to land sometime / You’re born to fly, I know / I’ve been watching from the ground / Sending smoke signals / In case you need a little sign its safe to come down / No shame in coming back / from all that greener grass / turns out you never lacked a thing / CHORUS / You wanna be held / You gotta hold still

BELLY OF A WHALE

I could dive into the ocean / Into the bottom of a glass / I could hide out in the future / I could burrow in the past / But you cannot resist your tendency to save me from myself / And I am living on your mercy in the belly of a whale / I have done some things I'm proud of / And so many I am not / Some vows I remembered / And others I forgot / But you cannot resist your habit of forgetting how I've failed / And I am living on your memory in the belly of a whale / Ooh / Maybe time will make me humble / And love will make me pure / Til you spit me out at last onto a distant shore / And I'll open up my eyes to see the world beyond the veil / For now I'm living on your promise in the belly of a whale / Ooh / I'll open up my eyes to see the world beyond the veil / For now I'm living on your promise in the belly of a whale

SOMEDAY YOU’RE GONNA LEAVE ME

Taylor Leonhardt / Thad Cockrell

Lost in the shadows of a midnight mind / I was stuck inside my head / Dead of the winter is the loneliest time / Couldn’t drag me out of bed / I was almost defeated / By the hungering dark / You were just what I needed / A cold nose on my arm / Found you in the morning near the county line / Baby you’re just skin and bone / Don’t you go lookin at me with those eyes / Little girl, I’ll take you home / Instantly my companion / Sittin right at my feet / Is it you that needs caring / Or are are you caring for me / Someday you’re gonna leave me / Someday I know it’s true / Someday you’re gonna leave me / And I don’t want you to / Been through the ringer and we’ve been through hell / Made it to the other side / Never known a day when you didn’t like me / Means more than love sometimes / CHORUS / What was I thinking? I could see it coming down the line / What was I thinking? I knew it was only a matter of time / CHORUS

KEEP ME AROUND

When I say the wrong thing / When I go too far / When I make a bad joke and then it breaks your heart / When I can’t help showing off and playing to the crowd / I hope you’ll still keep me around / When I get defensive / When my ego’s bruised / When I start throwing punches and the punches land on you / When I’m trying to save face to find I’m only losing ground / I hope you’ll still keep me around / For the love that I am lacking / For the good I leave undone / I confess I have not been the friend I’m desperate to become / Somehow, you let me in no matter how I let you down / And I hope you’ll still keep me around / When I’m overwhelmed / And I won’t ask for help / When I look in the mirror and I don’t recognize myself / When I miss out on the fun cause I’m too busy being proud / I hope you’ll still keep me around / For the lessons I’m still learning / In the hard-earned fields of truth / For when I say I’m sorry / Just to add some sad excuse / Forgive me / Forgive me / Let’s leave it there for now / I’m sorry / I’m sorry / When I take you for granted / As I’m prone to do / When I forget how good it is to be at home with you / You know just how to remind me when I can’t quite figure out how much you still want me around / Sometimes I can’t believe / You still keep me around

POETRY

Isn’t it so hard for most of us / to find the kind of patience that will trust / the slow steady work of God beneath the surface / every moment working for our good / Cause under all the snow is something green / hiding in the winter is a spring / I know it will take the barren field of heartbreak / a little time for a new rain to fall / I will not hang my head / His banner is over me / He said I am his poetry / He won’t waste a word /I’m gonna wait / wait on the Lord / Surely I’ve been wrong along the way but I will not be called by my mistakes / He calls me his friend / When all I see’s where I’ve been I hear him tell me where I am going / CHORUS / There’s no wound that he cannot heal / No child too far gone / I’m the clay on his spinning wheel / He knows what I’ll become / CHORUS

EVERYTHING

Like a thief in the night, with a dog in the fight, took the world by surprise. Woke the woods from a sleep, blew the wind through the trees, shook the dust from the leaves. / Everything, this is gonna change everything, this is gonna change everything, this is gonna change everything. / All the reds turn to blue, all the old turns to new, when we get a look at you. You flipped the whole thing around, brought the sky to the ground, you are here with us now. / CHORUS / The one who stays in my love, who takes his life and gives it up, he is the one who has enough, oh, he has everything. / CHORUS

LAY MY HEAD DOWN

I hear it all the time, the familiar voice of my pride.  Whatcha gonna make of yourself?
Whatcha gonna show everyone else? I need to find release from a life of efficiency. This climb to progress is a road to nowhere / When it comes to you, I don't have anything to prove. You make me rest / You make me lay my head down, you make me lay my head down. / I’ve been guilty of trying to win your heart as if your love wasn’t certain, as if I could earn it. But you’re coming close, telling me all I need to know, where to find a drink and how to open my hands. / CHORUS / You’re not the one who has been hiding, I turn around and you're behind me. You've got a cure for all my striving. Your goodness, your mercy, they always finds me. / CHORUS

SURPRISING ME

I once imagined you an old man in the clouds. Maybe you used to speak, but you're too weak and tired now. / But you're surprising me, the way you say my name, a whisper in my ear that kills my fear, revives my faith, revives my faith. / I used to worry, you’d want the perfect words. Into the thinnest air, I said my prayers, I hoped you heard / But you're surprising me, the way your quiet feels. You put your hand against my anxious lips, and make me still, and make me still. / And you're surprising me, you know what makes me hurt. You say you'll never be apart from me, you never were. / And you're surprising me, this joy I never knew. I cannot hold it back, this river that I fell into.  I cannot hold it back, this river that is loving you, is loving you.

WHEN YOU OPEN YOUR MOUTH

Walking down a foreign street I heard, a cloud of words around my head but none I understood. Riding on the subway and it’s packed, the thing I need’s a face I know that knows me back. / When you open your mouth, I hear the language that I missed, in the warm voice of an old friend. When you open your mouth, I am sure of this, I am home again, when you open your mouth. / Walking in my neighborhood I think, even on familiar ground my heart can start to sink.  I am just as stubborn as I’m scared, that no one really gets me and nobody really cares. / CHORUS / Walking down the steps from our front door, strange to think that our name will not hang here anymore.  You take my hand and slowly I can see, anywhere that you go is where I’m supposed to be, where I’m supposed to be. / CHORUS

SUNDAY IN THE PARK

We watch as the boats sail down the coastline. I smile as your fingers find their way to mine.I am lost in a dream, maybe perhaps we’re inside of a painting. Baby, you are Sunday in the park. / You put on your coat, I’ll wear my red dress. The dog is eating our lunch, I couldn’t care less. I am lost in your eyes, where points of a thousand bright colors collide. Baby, you are Sunday in the park. / The kids have all moved away, we’re growing older. The crowds have thinned in the park, it’s getting colder. I’m still lost in your kiss, so tell me that we’ll spend forever like this. Baby, you are Sunday in the park. Baby, you are Sunday in the park.

BLACK MOUNTAIN

How did we get here, when did we decide, we were better off starving than swallowing our pride? You had to come so far down, to look me in the eye. / Black mountain, I wish I could, see you running free and young, through those woods. Black mountain, is there still time, to make amends, to hold your hand in mine? / Now that I’m older, I see my fingerprints, on half of the shovels, that dug us into this. How much love’s it gonna take, to cover up these sins? / CHORUS / Well if we can’t go back and change what has been said, maybe we can find a better way ahead. Oh, I know that there’s still time, and there’s still hope, there’s still an us, no matter what we might have done, I’ll meet you on / CHORUS 

TODAY IF YOU HEAR HIM

Today if you hear him, skipping rocks on the river, laughing in the garden, like when you were young. / Today if you hear him, walking through the pine woods, racing down the big hill, calling you to come. / Don’t be too grown, oh, for your own sake. Let the children come, let us become like children today. / Today if you hear him, let your feet take off running, don’t worry who is watching, let him kiss you on the face. / CHORUS / Let the children come, let us become like children today.