Here are the lyrics for Whisky Priest. Ever since I created this site I've wanted to do in-depth song stories for each song, showing the creative process behind my music. I love getting to look inside someone else's creative mind and see how they make sense of things and I finally have published work to do it with my own. I have been heavily inspired by two projects (The DNA Project by J. Views and the blog of Ryan O'Neal from Sleeping at Last). Their transparency has greatly inspired me and helped me to see how they took a song from a voice memo to a beautiful final master. My plan is to show the story of how each song was created on this album, highlighting both where it all came from and how it all came together. The motive is not narcissistic; I want to do this both as a personal memento to look back on this project and as a means of hopefully bringing inspiration to others. I've already started working on these new posts. Stay tuned.
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Birthmark
Bullet holes inside my body Death’s number on my arms The shattered state, the cooling fade of my lungs
Ravened soul, years in the breaking Wearied as a beggar’s bones Too many mornings writhe in fate’s disguising song
Oh I am bleeding out from these scars Oh I’ll run recklessly into the dark For a new start, a birthmark
Sea of glass on which I’m walking Bends to break beneath the shame Why do we slave to build an able ship with doomed remains?
Oh I am bleeding out from these scars Oh I’ll run recklessly into the dark For a new start, a birthmark
Healer Might
The healer might, healer might come today The healer might, healer might, healer might come and take The healer might come and take away the pain He might come and take it all away
The healer might, healer might bring the rain The healer might, healer might leave you in the hurricane Oh but keep breathing though the pounding waves They might come and take it all away
The healer might, healer might come and take Oh when you feel the light come and your body break Come on, keep it steady as the sun, let the body say We aren’t in our final frames
I've been waiting here Chicken scratch prayers, come to pass, I have ripped out the last of me (can’t you see) I've been wasting here I forgot how to breathe
Come, hold me Hold me
I know that we're still gonna die some day Would you come and take it all away
Daughter
Father, lead me by your still waters Save a place for my daughter Oh with your spirit The way is dark, how I’ve feared it A shaky heart is the courier to guide her through the grey
Father, I’ll wear the word as I wander Through all the world with my daughter I am broken and faithless I can’t begin to unmake it A winter’s hymn is a worry heard beside me on my way
Father, if you hear could you call her Save a place for my daughter
For my daughter
Little One
Little one, I see Tender spirit struggling Little one, I see Sickened panic, desperate to your knees
Little one, the seed Symptomatic stuttering All the world, the grief Ruin’s grip will come, will wait to feed
Little one, I see Oh, my love, come free Your scars the start, you see You’re all my heart
Cutting Teeth
Oh, the places that I’ve been The faces mine offends Fumbling, fumbling
Though, with murky miles ahead The fates sing softer, they’re Humming
Slow, though hurried in the dark, I hear them calling when it starts
"Go, they’ll find you in the glen The horsemen closing in Rumbling
Row, though wilder blows the wind" Into the river raging white, I’ll start again
"Sleep, while you cut your teeth Whisky priest
Hope, take it slow Through the habit’s prey, through the whisky’s weigh You’ll learn to grow"
Hold
Worldspin
It wasn’t death, it wasn’t flight It wasn’t debt, it wasn’t blood, it wasn’t crime The day the Angels fell
It wasn’t lust, it wasn’t sight It wasn’t sex, it wasn’t love, it wasn’t lies The day the angels fell
Heaven’s hue, haunting you
It wasn’t trust, belief in a lie Not the red tape ripping or the run You can name it all In a box tethered off to the side Settle-safe, your labels state your case The way the angels fell
Heaven’s hue, haunting you Heaven’s hue, haunting you
It was just a word, whispered light Just a horsefly ringing in your ear “You’re in the right” You can play the fear, you can move the sky You can make the world spin however you want With your crooked pride
But it will haunt you, it will haunt you It will haunt you at night But it will haunt you, it will haunt you It will haunt you, the light
The Sea and the Moon
Lover, you’re a vapor, chasing an evasive rest Lover you’re the melody I can’t get out of my head Lover, you’re the amber, the face affixed in every step Lover you’re the memory I can’t get out of my bed
It happened so soon The sea and the moon Weaving the darkness with the light The sea played its tune To reason the muse But it fell far, far, far
Lover you’re a cancer, a strain equipped for second death But lover you’re the remedy, and I can’t get you out of my head
It happened so soon The sea and the moon Weaving the darkness with the light The sea played its tune To reason the muse But it fell far, far, far
It’s a long way down It’s a long way down It’s a long way down From here
Madness
When the madness is gone And the earthquakes have weathered away When the breathlessness is hushed And the best is burned to grey
When the magic is lost In passion and promise’s phase When tenderness is far Far with the rest it fades
The end of love, the end of love Will we find love at the end of love The end, the end of love
When the damage is done When bickering burns through the braid With emptiness the start, the star of a doomed sky
Darling will we find
Love, the end of love The end of love Will we find love at the end of love The end, the end of love
Brick by brick we’ll set our place We’ll carve our names tick by tick into the face Cause the walls we’ve built will stand the rest of our days
When the madness is gone My love, will the music still play?
Morning
Wake up slowly, still and softly Let the looming torment still to break of day All your weeping, feeble easing When you cease the feeling you swore
Wait for the morning flood Wait ’til the glory comes Wait for the morning
Wake up boldly, firmly walking Any passing vice a crutch to still the pain All your drinking, feeble easing As you see her sinking from shore
Wait for the morning flood Wait ’til the glory comes Wait for the morning
Unmade in the warring You’ll say how the story goes Just wait for the morning
Secondhand Savior
I am a heartbeat triggered by an unseen tremor In a waning light A season’s sigh
I am a watchword waking in the woodshed Weeping till my words are found Writing till the ink runs out
Rugged and tried Covered in lines
I’ll be a secondhand savior to the wasting Later I’ll be freaking out A shiver with a scathing doubt
There’s a wrestling venom in my vessels crippling Everything I’m waiting till my time runs out
The harder I fight The steeper the lie Just see that I’ve tried I’ve tried
Ikon
Gentle little light Kicking at the walls, you hear a call from right outside Little look-alike My heart
Bitter storming fight Chaos of the call, constricting walls The ending line Blinking azure eyes My heart
Autumn night Terrified The image and the infinite collide Spirit burned inside Your image is the infinite
Please don’t go
Image of my heart
Image of my heart
