BLOOD TEST (2014)

Produced by Anders Parker & KD

Kris Delmhorst’s new release describes a moment of reckoning and centering in the songwriter’s life, and in society as a whole. In this collection, Delmhorst acknowledges the work of an intentioned life – and the new American dream of presence and perspective in a frenetic time. Featuring new collaborators – songwriter/producer Anders Parker (Varnaline, Gob Iron, New Multitudes), drummer Konrad Meissner (Brandi Carlile, The Silos) and multi-instrumentalist Mark Spencer (Blood Oranges, Lisa Loeb, Laura Cantrell, Son Volt).

CREDITS

KD - vocals, acoustic guitar, piano
Anders Parker - electric, 6 and 12 string acoustic guitars, bass (5,7,9,10,11), vocals
Mark Spencer - pedal steel guitar, organ, piano, bass (1,2,3,4,6,8), electric guitar (5,9,10), vibraphone
Konrad Meissner - drums, percussion

Recorded and mixed by Andy Taub at Brooklyn Recording, Brooklyn, NY
Assisted by Don Piper (tracking) and Adam Tilzer (mixing)
Mastered by Alex McCollough at Yes Master, Nashville, TN
Design by Ben Tousley, NYC, NY

LYRICS

BLOOD TEST

Remember how it used to be?
Nothing on the radio and nothing on TV.
Just us and all those hours,
The humming roads, the singing stars.
We could listen in, we could drown it out
We could listen in, we could drown it out

It’s a blood test, tell me are you real?
It’s a blood test, show me how you feel.
It’s a blood test, tell me are you true,
Like I am to you?

Whatever happened to the night?
It’s full of buzzing and the blazing lights.
Trade the darkness for a screen,
Lose the moon and just keep the gleam.
Are we listening, are we drowning out
Are we listening, are we drowning

It’s a blood test, tell me are you mine?
It’s a blood test, show me how you shine.
It’s a blood test, tell me something true.
I’m listening to you.
I’m listening.

HOMELESS

The silence & the sea
Who you’re supposed to be
When the faces on the page and the faces in the mirror look the same
The cradle & the crutch
It’s supposed to hurt this much
When the highways turn to roads into streets into alleys
Then at last into paths you can’t get through

Do you know that you’re homeless
Do you know that you’re lonely
Do you know that you’re only passing through?

Years roll along
Sorrow turns to song
And your tears flow like rain into streams into rivers
That at last find their path to the sea

Do you know that we’re homeless
Do you know that we’re lonely
Do you know that we’re only passing through?

Do you know that you’re holy
Do you know that I love you
Do you know that above you is blue?
Do you?

92nd St

Up on 92nd street
One of seven million faces
Maps inside your jacket sleeves
Keys to all the secret places

Through the university
We walked while the snow was falling
Nothing you could say to me
Drown the sound of my heart calling, calling

Lying in your room all day
Jasmine tea and dirty movies
Listening to Monk and Trane
Play little Naima through me, through me

You said there aint no real mistakes, you said there
Aint no real mistakes, you said there
Aint no real mistakes, you said there
Aint no real mistakes

Using all the longest words
Singing all the way to Bleecker
Sweetest sounds I ever heard
Coming through a broken speaker

SAW IT ALL

I saw the red sky warning
I saw the new day dawning
I saw the big bird lifting
I saw the slow world shifting
I went high, saw it all

I saw the braided veins of rivers
I saw the burdens they deliver
I saw the silence of the neighbors
I saw the fields cry out for labor
I saw the sky all unfurled
I saw the the worn green skin of the weary world
I saw the big machines with their claws all curled
Digging, dragging, digging, dragging
I went high, saw it all

From the deep black blade of midnight
To the thin white line of daylight
I saw the thunder and the rainbow sign
I saw the flood and the fire next time
I saw the world was just a stage
And I sat down and watched the play
I saw the waiting and the waves
I saw the wheel inside the wheel inside the wheel
I went high, saw it all

I saw the red moon rising
I saw the white boat sailing
I saw the sinking skies and
I saw the great unveiling

BEES

Well our dreams are full of bees, they’re full of buzzing bees,
When we gonna waken honey?
We’re on our knees, on our bended knees,
When we gonna stand up right?

Fields of poppies send you off to sleep.
Pray your holy road your soul to keep.

All the miles, all the restless miles,
When we gonna stop this running?
It’s been a while, been a long long while,
When we gonna break on through?

And the sky looks down on me and says
What are you doing with your one little chance to be free?
And I look up at the sky and say
What am I doing with my one little chance to be alive?

Well the leaves are turning gold, they’re turning red and gold,
God at least there’s something changing.
It’s getting old, getting awful old,
When we gonna make it new?

Well our dreams are full of bees, they’re full of buzzing bees,
When we gonna wake in honey?

WE DELIVER

We deliver the rain
Every day
It’s always the same
We deliver the rain
It’s like a beautiful play
Every day
We know just what to say
It’s a beautiful play

Oh, I think I’m coming apart
Oh, it’s like we know it by heart

We deliver the sun
Every day
Second to none
We deliver the sun
It’s like a hand on the wheel
Every day
We know just what to feel
It’s like a hand on the wheel

Oh, I think I’m coming apart
Oh, it’s like a work of art

We deliver the rain
Every day
It’s always the same
We deliver the rain

LITTLE FRAME

I was 81 hours on the train just to show you what?
I was 81 hours on the train just to show you what’s inside my little frame.

I was wondering what to hope for, I’m so glad you came.
I was wondering what to hope for, I’m so glad, so glad.

It’s just time, what does it matter?
Time, what do we know about Time?
Time, what does it matter?
What does it matter now?

Who can say where I would be if you hadn’t said all my names?
Who can say where I would be if you hadn’t? Back the way I came.

I was 81 hours on the train just to show you what?
I was 81 hours on the train just to show you what’s inside my little frame.

BRIGHT GREEN WORLD

All that you have, all that you don’t
It takes all that you have, all that you don’t

I saw you coming for a long long time
In the bright green world that lives inside my mind
In the bright green world I live in all the time

All that you have, all that you don’t
It takes all that you have, all that you don’t

In the middle of the longest night
The widest wide, the brightest bright
And a big green swirl that covers up the sky
In the big green swirl there’s nothing left of you or I

I found the heart you always hide
I found that heart and looked inside
Saw a deep green field just rolling to the sea
Saw a deep green field that rolls away from me

All that you have, all that you don’t
It takes all that you have, all that you don’t

TEMPORARY SUN

If you want to shout it, go and get it off your chest
You were right about it, let’s be wrong about the rest
You say you’re waiting for the right one
Don’t need the light of a temporary sun

Well you can go and get it, like a rabbit on a rail
Or you could just forget it, say you’re in too far to fail
You set your sights on the long run
Don’t you know by now it’s temporary
Let’s slip one night under the big gun
Bathe in the light of a temporary sun

HUSHABYE

There was a time I sang to you
There was a time you were singing too
And every word that we sang was true, it was true
Now leaves come down in Union Square
Sparrows fly through the dirty air
And I could look for you anywhere, you’re not there, you’re not there

So hushabye hushabye
Hushabye now

Making all our days by hand
Regular folks didn’t understand
With the pie in the sky and the lines in the sand
Long past the curtain call
Devotion & doubt and the wrecking ball
But all of that sound couldn’t hold up the walls not at all, at all

So hushabye hushabye
Hushabye now

You know and I know
And you know and I know
And you know and I know
We don’t have to bury it, we just have to sing it to sleep

There was a time I sang to you
There was a time you were singing too
And every word that we sang was true

MY OHIO
For Roger Beatty

It was kind of like I’d known you before
The windy day we met by the shore
And we didn’t really have to talk at all
You had just put your lover into the ground
And I was just a little storm spinning round
And we walked along that old seawall,
My Ohio

You were born among the fields and the cranes
Grew up knowing all of the names
Of the flowers by your grandma’s barn
Kissing cousins and an eye for the boys
Willows waved and made a beautiful noise
When you shook your wings and flew right to the dawn
My Ohio, green and blue

Green like the rollingest hills of home
Blue like the ocean you made your own
Green like the brilliantest bird that flew
Blue like the blue that swallowed you

I wish I could show you my little girl
She opens up so wide to the world
And I know that you’d see eye to eye
And I guess you called her down from the sky
The windy day that we said goodbye
And she fluttered like a songbird to your hand
My Ohio, green and blue

LIGHTHOUSE

The harbor to the ocean
The ripples to the waves
The harbor to the ocean
And the ripples to the waves

When the clouds roll into your pretty sky
The seas get rough, the wind gets high
Put your eye on the horizon, at the edge of the blue
There’s a shining in the darkness gonna guide you safely through

I’m living in the lighthouse now
I’m looking out, I’m looking out
I’m living in the lighthouse now
I’m looking out, I’m looking out for you

Wherever you may sail, even half the world away
And no matter what I’m doing in my long and busy day
There’s a little part of me at the edge of the blue
Standing on the shoreline, shining out for you

I’m living in the lighthouse now
I’m looking out, I’m looking out
I’m living in the lighthouse now
I’m looking out, I’m looking out for you

All songs ©2014 Kris Delmhorst/Big Bean Music (ASCAP)