NEW BLOOD ALBUM LYRICS

STRING OF HARD LUCK

Words and music by Beth Wood
Tuning – DADGBD

You stick your head in,
Say – something has gone wrong here
Well, I can’t love any more than you can
And that hangs in the air

And your car is somewhere on the east side
Wherever you left it last night
No one owes you nothing
But you owe everyone in sight

It’s just a string of hard luck, string of pearls
String of hard luck strung all over this world
String of hard luck around your wrist
It’s just a string of hard luck, baby — that’s all it is

I say fortune is a woman
She’ll pin your arms to the wall
And she’ll toss you the cards
And laugh while you watch them fall

You got no gas in the gas tank
‘E’ stands for “et tu, Chevrolet??”
We’ll all be looking back on this
We’ll all be laughing at this one day

Chorus

There’s a change coming around the alley
Change gonna break that string
Cause time ain’t nothing short of magic
Time’s gonna fix everything
And what it won’t fix, it will erase
So get that look off of your face
A change is coming to this place…

Chorus

It’s bound to break

RIP IT UP

Words and music by Beth Wood
Tuning – Standard

Don’t you know it’s strange – the day comes on like a miracle
It’s like a present to unwrap, like a gift

But don’t you know I’m gonna tear it down
Don’t you know it’s strange – the night comes down on me like a veil
It’s covering up my face, it’s covering me
But don’t you know I’m gonna tear it down
Tear it down and rip it up

Don’t you know it’s strange – I got this wall built around me
I thought once it’s up I’m trapped inside, once it’s built

But don’t you know I’m gonna tear it down
Don’t you know it’s strange – my bad memories hang like a portrait
Staring me in the face, they’re staring at me
But don’t you know I’m gonna tear it down
Tear it down and rip it up

Chorus

Because now is the time to forgive myself
Now is the time to let it go
Now is the time to take my fear and write it down, pin it up,
Look it over, tear it down, and rip it up

Tear it down and rip it up

NEW BLOOD

Words and music by Beth Wood
Tuning – DADGBD

(for Jeff Buckley)

Double eagle double down
Shiny gold coins under the ground
It’s been so long since new blood in this town

Dark on the surface and dark underneath
River get mad and show her teeth
River reach up and grab his feet

Leaning heavy on yesterday
And thick with mississippI mud
This town ain’t got no open vein for new blood

Double helix double wide
Time playing tricks on a mother’s pride
Gonna meet his old man on the other side

He got no time he got no place
Bride’s veil turns to a widow’s lace
Gonna lay him down in the land of grace

Chorus

He ain’t got no pretty conclusion
We didn’t ask for no transfusion

Chorus

Amazing grace how sweet the sound
Memphis, Tennessee
I’m going to Graceland…

ALL YOURS

Words and music by Beth Wood
Tuning – DADF#AD

If your silver chain was on my floor
And your shoes were on my back porch
Would you say to me in a gravelly voice
I’m all yours

If your t-shirt was in my living room
And your watch was still on the sink at noon
Would you say to me it’s all too soon
To be yours

I saw you stand up to greet me
Your eyes green glass your lips still smile

If your car was parked outside my house
And your sunday paper was on the couch
Could you say to me without a doubt
I’m all yours

NEARNESS

Words and music by Beth Wood
Tuning – DADGAD

I still have your sweater from the day it snowed
our city slept beneath a blanket of white
I stretched out the sleeves cause my hands were cold
I’d like to keep it if that’s alright with you

And I’ll give you points for persistance
Cause in this baby you were fearless
You were ready to go the distance
But you could not go the nearness

This might sound like a strange thing to say
But no color surrounds you cause none would be so brave
And the sad thing baby about you and me
Is we work much better hypothetically

Chorus

I still have your sweater from the day it snowed
Our city slept beneath a blanket of white
I stretched out the sleeves cause my hands were cold
I’d like to keep it if that’s alright with you

YOU AND BLUE

Words and music by Beth Wood
Tuning – Standard

You and blue
Falling through these moments like rose-petal rain on the moon
Calling to my sense of what is good and true
Show me the way to you
This lovely shade of you
This color made of you and blue

You and blue
Weaving tales of love and laughter like old friends often do
Leaving me my sadness after I walk away from you
What do I say to you
I’m so afraid of you
And this feeling made of you and blue

Blue and me, you know we see the same thing in you
Floating there in the air with the gravity of two
I’ll do what I have to do
Cause you’ve made me mad for you
And this dream I had of you and blue

You and blue
In the middle of my madness I fall away from you
But the riddle to my sadness leads me straight to you
The starlight parade of you
The spark and the fade of you
The twist and the braid of you and me and blue

DELICIOUSLY

Words and music by Beth Wood
Tuning – DADF#AD – capo 4th (all strings) and 7th frets (bottom 5 strings)

The city wears a veil of grey
But the children they still play in a major key
We all have the same day
They just go about theirs a little more deliciously

The honeymooners play a part
Of roll and tumble and don’t-forget-to-breathe
We all have the same heart
They just love with theirs a little more deliciously

Deliciously the sun sets in the sky
And licoricely it spashes in my eyes
Silly old me I watch the days go by
And I never know why but they keep the beat
Deliciously

The poet’s throat is full of birds
He tosses thoughts up in the air effortlessly
We all know the same words
He just uses his a little more deliciously

The dancers move in subtle tones
They sweep across the floor so gracefully
We all have the same bones
They just move in theirs a little more deliciously

Chorus

Chorus

DANGEROUS KISS

Words and music by Beth Wood
Tuning – DADGCD

Never heard nobody talk that way
Her daddy said you better steer clear
But all those nasty things that he say
Ringing all night in her ears

Boy like that from a different side of the track
He gonna put on his front while he watch his back
Got a switch-blade in this pocket, got a lion in his fists
Don’t try nothing til he knock it… dangerous kiss

Never seen nobody walk so slow
Her scissor legs cut the ground
She swing it soft she swing it low
And all the angels follow her around
Girl like that from a different side of the track
It ain’t no fiction, it’s a simple fact
She got money in her pocket, she got a red stain on her lips
She keeps his picture in a locket… dangerous kiss

Never seen no man he couldn’t take down
He knew exactly what he had to do
Spied their footsteps on the ground
Gonna teach that boy a thing or two
Man like that, he laid down these tracks
He owns half the county to the river and back
He got a crosswire in his socket, he got handcuffs on his wrists
He pulled out his pistol and cocked it… dangerous kiss

HIGHWAY WATER

Words and music by Beth Wood
Tuning – Standard

Here’s a story about a man who fell in love with a magician’s daughter
And no matter how fast he ran, he never caught her
And in keeping with his fear, she always disappeared
Like highway water

So I asked him to explain this crazy love to me
He said I’ll take illusion any day over reality
Because I always know, no matter where I go
My illusion will be right there out of reach

Then he saw my tears he said that’s no reason to cry, son
He said it may sound strange and it may sound surprising
But I know in my heart illusion is her art
So it pleases me to see her on the horizon

So that’s a story about a man who fell in love with a magician’s daughter
All his life he ran, all his life he sought her
And in keeping with his love she turned into a white dove
Just like her old daddy taught her

Like highway water

FINGERNAIL MOON

Words and music by Beth Wood
Tuning – Standard

Fingernail moon… hanging off the edge of the sky
Well you never did inspire a wolf to cry
Or a witch to fly upon her broom… fingernail moon

Fingernail moon… positioning yourself in a smile
And you’re snickering at me all the while
You are hanging from the night sky like a wound… fingernail moon

I want to reach my hand up and turn you upside down
I wonder what would come tumbling out
The storybooks say that you are made of cheese
I say fine – pass me a cracker please

Fingernail moon… you are what you are not and nothing more
There’s no monsoon tide to beat upon the shore
And no evil spirits rising from the tomb… fingernail moon

SIMPLE MAN

Words and music by Beth Wood
Tuning – DADGBE

I am a simple man from the south side of town
When I woke up this morning my world was upside down
You see my lady she left me with nothing but a note
And these are the words that she wrote

She said I like peaches and you like cream
I have my nightmares and you have your dreams
We never want what we can’t control
And vultures feed on the blood of souls

Sister Elizabeth, won’t you tell me my fate
The ferris wheel’s shut down and it’s getting late
Won’t you read my palm, stare into your crystal ball
And help me make sense of it all

Sister Elizabeth, she read my leaves, she read my cards
Her Gypsy face was long and her eyes they were hard
She said you never want what you can’t control
And vultures feed on the blood of souls

I am a simple man from the south side of town
And I know now things aren’t as simple as they sound
I never want what I can’t control
And I circle over what I could not hold
All day I circle…

SNOWBIRD

Words and music by Beth Wood
Tuning – BADGAD

The winter of a life so cold
Should show now change in temperature
Everyone knows a fist is no fun to hold

The lamp that sits beside your bed
Has lost all its illumination
Just like all the pretty stories inside your head

They say that some were made for the cold
Never wanting for anyone or anything
I feel your arms dangle and then fold
A snowbird’s wings

Snow falls like confetti on this wilderness
Everything leans toward indifference
I feel more and more, but it comes out less and less

Sometimes in November when it rains
When the cold wind cuts into my skin
I wonder does that same cold run through my veins