Birches Lo (Live EP)

by Max García Conover

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  • Digital Album

    Immediate download of 6-track album in your choice of high-quality MP3, FLAC, or just about any other format you could possibly desire.

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1.
03:37
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2.
04:28
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3.
03:49
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4.
02:57
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5.
03:54
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6.
04:21
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about

Recorded with engineer/producer Jonathan Wyman on that random snowy Saturday in October of 2011, Birches Lo is a bare-bones, live EP.

All profits from Birches Lo go to Chewonki, a Maine non-profit that offers a range of programs designed to foster an appreciation for the natural world and for working in community with others. When I first moved to Maine in 2005, my first few days were spent exploring Chewonki. I was and continue to be inspired by the work that goes on there. Natural spaces play a key role in the songs of Birches Lo, so I wanted those songs to play some role in the exploration and appreciation of natural spaces.

Thanks for listening.

-Max

credits

released 10 February 2012
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Recorded by Jonathan Wyman
thissoundsgood.com
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Mastered by Focus Mastering
focusmastering.com
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Duplication by Crooked Cove
crookedcove.com
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tags

tags: folk acoustic avett brothers bob dylan bon iver fingerpicking folk folk rock indie john prine maine mary oliver modern folk mumford and sons singer-songwriter tallest man on earth Portland

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Track Name: Barn
Barn

You don’t have to be
plucking old machines barefoot
tapping splintered planks
and spitting through smoke rings

Must be a hundred feet
above this chair the sheet metal roof
the coughing bats
a’hanging like dead leaves

This barn she’s
about to fall your family history is
rotting in her stalls
you don’t have to be

--
Barn swallow in the hollow wind shake
these alabaster days
carve lines on your face
how many ways can you say okay
--

And fell the trees
laying living trunks amongst her beams
to keep her keeping you
to keep her off her knees

To Ellery
moving two towns east this barn
rolled down the street
summer 1963

Your granddaddy
sitting in this chair barefoot
wheezing through his teeth
and cranking old machines

--
Barn
swallow in the hollow wind shake
these alabaster days
carve lines on your face
how many ways can you say okay
how many ways can you wait, can you wait
--

Now wavering
the trees have died inside
and she leans against the storms
as her body whines and creaks

You don’t have to be
dug into this ground tapping
only to the sound of your own dying
you don’t have to be

Capo 2
Tuning: C – G# - C – E – C – E
Key: D
________________________________________________________
Track Name: The Marshes
The Marshes

I will run to the marshes
I will sink my feet into the ground until the Grass tickles my chin

I’ll let the sun turn my hair red
I will let the leaches have their fill and call Them all my brethren

I’ll grab the roots high above me
And with all my strength and all my blood I’ll Pull myself up into the tree

And when this day ends as it may
I won’t go crashing through no gates
And when this day ends as it may
I won’t go peeling skin off snakes
And when this day ends
I will leave this place unchanged

I’ll trade my bones for the white birds
And my flesh will move like willows
And my heart will be a flutter in my shirt

I will lose what I don’t require
But not for freedom’s sake my dear
And not to be a spark about the fire

As I lap up spring rain from the mud
I’ll be good as I ever good as I ever
Thought I was

And when this day ends as it may
I won’t go crashing through no gates
And when this day ends as it may
I won’t go peeling skin off snakes
And when this day ends
I will leave this place unchanged

I will write the song of my best hopes
I will take all of my words
And pan them in the river for gold

When I return hands pruned and empty
I will hear the birds a singing
And finally understand what they mean

As I lap up spring rain from the mud
I’ll be good as I ever good as I ever
Thought I was

And when this day ends as it may
I won’t go crashing through no gates
And when this day ends as it may
I won’t go peeling skin off snakes
And when this day ends
I will leave this place unchanged

And I will be for a moment in the mud
Good as I ever good as I ever thought I was

Capo 2, Open D
_________________________________________________________
Track Name: Thatch House
Thatch House

I built a thatch house
on a hill grizzly brown
no the dirt doesn't taste like the truth

Each morning the dawn
came a flickering on
the river that loved her right through

Shake me awake
for both of our sakes
save for summer your fluttering wings

Not every line
eulogizes my time
but death does weigh heavy on me

--Oh she'll say my bones get hollow too
hey this river rolls not round but through
like that we move

Some cold river storm
came and blackened my doors
and clipped all the seeds from my wheat

Now I wait for wind
just to be touched again
pick me up whip the mud from my feet

Save for your shirts
your bodies of words
I can hardly define my own name

Said big gruff to the goats
just go build yous a boat
cause I won't follow you whence you came
no I may never follow you again

--

She said shuck your rye
spread the silk from your eyes
and her laughter awakened the birds

Rip rap on my door
I don't answer anymore
and I don't believe in any of our words
Shake me awake
for the loving lord's sake
I been building a storm in my gut

Save for the dawn
nothing naught and be done
soak me down take me in sweep me up

--
Track Name: The Creek Woman Poet
The Creek Woman Poet
Woman won’t you sing a song
Take my hand lead me past the rosebush and barbed wire
Show me what you’re working on
Tell me in my heart there’s a light among the liars

Where the rabbits run awry
Writing one acts with the dogs and sleeping in the grass
Woman take me inside
Cause my mind’s been wild since I put this place to my back
Everyone’s as free as they could ever want to be but life’s too long for that

Woman how you live here
On these planks in the trees throwing bottles off the side
Did you ever find love
Do you ever even leave this place and is that enough of a life

Show me how you work now
How these lines that you wrote did bridge my waters my gaps
Show me how to hunker down
To let the ticks dig in my skin as I into my craft
Everyone’s as free as they could ever want to be but life’s too long for that

Oh for awhile I’ve been away oh I’ve been away been away
She found me in the creek chucking stones against the clay
She found me she stood up and sang

Woman won’t you sing a song
Take my hand lead me past the rosebush and barbed wire
Show me what you’re working on
Tell me in my heart there’s a light among the liars
__________________________________________________________
Track Name: Among the White Birches
Among the White Birches

Birches lo, the groves
The smoked white birches grow as the getting goes

I don’t want to come or go
Said the runner to the road
And he turned toward the white birch grove
The dew capped weeds were tongues on his toes

If you turn back
Don’t be like that
Fiction of a floating tree
That sprung a creek where its roots oughta be

Runner stand up
Let the cold night come
Let the ground keep you fed
Making knots out your knees as the getting go the way of the wind

Let the bees nest
In the nape of your neck
Let the bears hold their noses high
As you grow so tall and so deep into life

Birches lo, the groves
The smoked white birches grow as the getting goes

Singing Oh my
Oh my
Roots could run with rain
The earth with all my weight
I’m sure

Dreamer I’ll be
As the runner and me
Peel that thin white bark
Pin it as skin to our legs and our arms

Digging our feet
In the deep green weeds
We stand among the birch
Our days so dense as we holler I grew out of the dirt

Singing Oh my
Oh my
Roots could bring the flood
The earth could hold me up
I’m sure

Singing oh I
Oh I,
Would give my feet as firewood
To live a life that still seems good
Among the birch


Call me immigrant
To the runner said the wind
I just move to pass the time
And my footsteps fall so thin and so light

If you turn back
Another runner in the pack
Know that trees don't grow on air
Don't let the getting get you going when the getting was never even there

Singing Oh my
Oh my
Roots could run with rain
The earth could hold my weight
I’m sure

Singing oh I
Oh I,
Would give my feet as firewood
To live a life that still seems good
Among the birch

Birches lo, the groves
The smoked white birches grow as the getting goes
 
_____________________________________________________
Track Name: Spiral through the Wheat
Spiral through the Wheat

Where fields lay down like lakes
He cut a spiral through the wheat
And in dreams the worms were snakes
And the deer knew everything

They never called you by your name
Heads blooming out the thick
Saying babe most days are rain
Look how quick you all forget

--We rode through the trees
With their hearts tween our knees
And their hooves in the mud
Making puddles and thuds

And I won’t call you up
And I won’t call you love
Just run, run
I won’t ever be done

So the grass turned into trees
And the spiral to hallways
With ceilings of sapling leaves
spiderwebs as picture frames

And the moss grew thick below
Blankets spread out in the shade
Where we lived off wild poems
And the deer fed us for days

--

Then planes were locust clouds
And their cameras shot and flashed
And they came from miles around
After crop circles and sap

As their field was trampled bare
The deer white-tailed and ran
But they were never sad or scared
They were just surrendering

--
And the spiral a maze
And the spiral a wheel
The world turns one way
And it ain’t toward the field
Or the smell of wet dirt
Or the mole-chasing cats
Or the light on the leaves
Looking up from your back

But I won’t call you up
And I won’t call you love
Just run, run
I won’t ever be done

Tuning: E – G# - B – G# - B – E
Capo: 5
Key: A