Nomads*Indians*Saints Producer: Scott Litt © 1990 Hammer and a Nail Welcome Me World Falls Southland In The Springtime 1-2-3 Keeper of My Heart Watershed Hand Me Downs You and Me of the 10,000 Wars Pushing the Needle too Far The Girl With The Weight of The World In Her Hands

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Hammer and a Nail
Words and Music: Emily Saliers

Clearing webs from a hovel blistered hand on the handle of a shovel
I've been digging too deep I always do
I see my face on the surface I look a lot like Narcissus
Dark abyss of an emptiness standing on the edge of a drowning blue

I look behind my ears for the green
And even my sweat smells clean
Glare off the white hurts my eyes
I gotta get out of bed and get a hammer and a nail
Learn how to use my hands
Not just my head I think myself into jail
But I know refuge never grows
From a chin in a hand in a thoughtful pose
Gotta tend the earth if you want a rose

I had a lot of good intentions sit around for fifty years and then collect the pensions
I started seeing the road to hell and just where it starts
My life is more than a vision the sweetest part is acting after making a decision
Started seeing the whole as a sum of its parts

I look behind my ears for the green
And even my sweat smells clean
Glare off the white hurts my eyes
I gotta get out of bed and get a hammer and a nail
Learn how to use my hands
Not just my head I think myself into jail
Now I know refuge never grows
From a chin in a hand in a thoughtful pose
Gotta tend the earth if you want a rose

My life is part of the global life I found myself becoming more immobile
When I think a little girl in the world can't do anything
Distant nation my community street person my responsibility
If I have a care in the world I have a gift to bring

I look behind my ears for the green
And even my sweat smells clean
Glare off the white hurts my eyes
I gotta get out of bed and get a hammer and a nail
Learn how to use my hands
Not just my head I think myself into jail
But I know refuge never grows
From a chin in a hand in a thoughtful pose
Gotta tend the earth if you want a rose

Welcome Me
Words and Music: Amy Ray

Welcome me to your city of angels
Devil prophets still hold my hand
I walked your stillborn streets for hours
Ethnic echoes spitting out their trials
They tell me, I'll be the first to praise the sun
The first to praise the moon, the first to hold the lone coyote
The last to set it free

Welcome me to a haven given
It's well received into my open arms
I ran in my sleep through shaking tremors
I felt the splitting earth echoing in my ears
I feel it I'll be the first to praise the sun
The first to praise the moon, the first to hold the lone coyote
The last to set it free

Welcome me to your city of angels
There's a devil monkey laying on our backs
Now tell me where's the heart where's the bullet for breaking
Who's gonna give me a weapon, a pacifying weapon
I need it I'll be the first to praise the sun
The first to praise the moon, the first to hold the lone coyote
The last to set it free
I said welcome me

World Falls
Words and Music: Amy Ray

I'm coming home with a stone strapped onto my back
I'm coming home with a burning hope turning all my blues to black
I'm looking for a sacred hand to carve into my stone
A ghost of comfort angels breath to keep this life inside my chest

This world falls on me hopes of immortality
Everywhere I turn all the beauty just keeps shaking me

Now I woke up in the middle of a dream scared the world was too much for me
Sejaraz said, "don't let go just plant the seeds and watch them grow"
I've slept in rainy canyonlands cold drenched to my skin
I always wake to find a face to calm these troubled lands

This world falls on me dreams of immortality
Everywhere I turn all the beauty just keeps shaking me

Now I'm running to the end of the earth and I'm swimming to the edge of the sea
And I'm laughing I'm under starry skies this world was meant for me
Don't bury me (Carry me)

I wish I was a nomad, an indian, or a saint
The edge of death would disappear leave me nothing left to taint
I wish I was a nomad, an indian, or a saint
Give me walking shoes, feathered arms, and a key to heaven's gate

This world falls on me dreams of immortality
Everywhere I turn all the beauty just keeps shaking me

Southland In The Springtime
Words and Music: Emily Saliers

Maybe we'll make Texas by the morning
Light the bayou with our tailights in the night
800 miles to El Paso from the stateline
And we never had the money for the flight
In the backseat sleepy from our travels
Played our hearts out all night long in New Orleans
Dirty from the diesel fumes drinking coffee black
When the first breath of Texas comes in clean

And there's something bout the Southland in the springtime
Where the waters flow with confidence and reason
Though I miss her when I'm gone, it won't ever be too long
Till I'm home again to spend my favorite season
When God made me born a yankee he was teasin'
There's no place like home and none more pleasin'
Than the Southland in the springtime

In Georgia nights are softer than a whisper
Beneath the quilt somebody's mother made by hand
And the farmland like a tapestry passed down through generations
And the peachtrees stitched across the land
There'll be cider up near Helen off the roadside
Boiled peanuts in a bag to warm your fingers
And the smoke from the chimneys meets its maker in the sky
A song that winter wrote this melody lingers

And there's something bout the Southland in the springtime
Where the waters flow with confidence and reason
Though I miss her when I'm gone, it won't ever be too long
Till I'm home again to spend my favorite season
When God made me born a yankee he was teasin'
There's no place like home and none more pleasin'
Than the Southland in the springtime

1-2-3
Words and Music: Amy Ray, Chris McGuire, Cooper Seay, Brian Lilje, and Scott Bland

From the bowery to the brimstone I tried to find your heart
The drugs of initiation, the bottom of a barrel that drops
I understand your causes sympathize with motivation
All the details of this war are just self-infatuation

1 2 3
Nothing's for free
4 5 6
Pick up the sticks
And go home

Your manic blood runs thick my friend are you looking for a clean escape
What's left when the locks have all been broken young children of authority
Tell me how long can you be agile dancing between the alter and the merci seat
Now here's a chance to make a choice are you aware of the fire beneath your feet

1 2 3
Nothing's for free
4 5 6
Pick up the sticks
And go home
You better own up to me
Yeah Yeah
Go home

The basement lies within us
Our fear comes through the door
Now there's nothing left between us
As the fear becomes a roar

Once that wheel is in motion don't lose what you have found
We're talking bout the burning wheel of tongues everything that makes it go round and round
We're all born in the devil's scorn he wants to see you die
I'm asking you, "are you true", and everything they say is a lie is a lie now

1 2 3
Nothing's for free
4 5 6
Pick up the sticks
And go 1 2 3
Nothing's for free
4 5 6
Pick up the sticks
And go 1 2 3 (we're all born)
Nothing's for free (in the devil's scorn)
1 2 3 (we're all born)
Nothing's for free (in the devil's scorn)
And everything they say is a lie it's a lie now
Everything they say is a lie it's a lie
Pick up the sticks (pick up the sticks)
Pick up the sticks (pick up the sticks)
Pick up the sticks (pick up the sticks)
Pick up the sticks
And go home

Keeper Of My Heart
Words and Music: Amy Ray

For you I would tattoo me with lines crossing into a hand and a heart that would never bleed
With the twilight and the horse drawn on my arm
Standing for an addiction pray we go unharmed

Here is my love and anger you see now
These are my gods, these are my scars
Here is my love and anger
Well these arms are burning but they're open wide

Some things I hold too tightly
Some things I'll never, I'll never touch
But I'm wearing down the stones in the river
And you see all my life I've painted with anger's brush

Now, now could you lift me through my love and anger you see now
These are your gods, these are my scars
Lift me through my love and anger
My arms are burning but they're open wide

Oh you precious kid
I have a motion and it's just for you
I see a warrior barefoot and dancing
Oh with tears of pain and beauty and all of this is true for you

Lift me through my love and anger you see now
These are my gods, these are your scars
Lift me through my love and anger
My arms are burning, and they're open wide

Pointing out the graveyards
I will be the reaper
If you will be the keeper of my heart
I will be the reaper
If you will be the keeper of my heart
You are the keeper of this heart
Of my heart

Vocals & Acoustic guitar: Ray
Bass: Sara Lee

Watershed
Words and Music: Emily Saliers

Thought I knew my mind like the back of my hand
The gold and the rainbow and nothing panned out as I planned
They say only milk and honey's gonna make your soul satisfied
I better learn how to swim cause the crossing is chilly and wide

Twisted guardrails on the highway broken glass on the cement
The ghost of someone's tragedy how recklessly my time has been spent
And they say that it's never too late but you don't, you don't get any younger
I better learn how to starve the emptiness and feed the hunger

Up on the watershed standing at the fork in the road
You can stand there and agonize till your agony's your heaviest load
You'll never fly as the crow flies get used to a country mile
When you're learning to face the path at your pace every choice is worth your while

And there's always retrospect to light a clearer path
Every five years or so I look back on my life and I have a good laugh
You start at the top, go full circle round catch a breeze take a spin
But ending up where I started again makes me want to stand still

Up on the watershed standing at the fork in the road
You can stand there and agonize till your agony's your heaviest load
You'll never fly as the crow flies get used to a country mile
When you're learning to face the path at your pace every choice is worth your while

Stepping on a crack breaking up and looking back
Every tree limb overhead just seems to sit anyway
Till every step you take becomes a twist of fate

Up on the watershed standing at the fork in the road
You can stand there and agonize till your agony's your heaviest load
You'll never fly as the crow flies so get used to a country mile
When you're learning to face the path at your pace every choice is worth your while

Up on the watershed standing at the fork in the road
You can stand there and agonize till your agony's your heaviest load
You'll never fly as the crow flies so get used to a country mile
When you're learning to face the path at your pace every choice is worth your while

Vocals: Saliers & Ray	Acoustic Guitars: Saliers & Ray
Electric Guitar: John Jennings	Bass: Sara Lee
Drums: Kenny Aronoff	Percussion: Paulinho Da Costa
Keyboard: Peter Holsapple

Hand Me Downs
Words and Music: Amy Ray

I've taken so many down I've helped them all to dismount
I've followed so many down I take their hand me downs

All with hope all with hope
That emptiness brings fullness
And loss of love brings wholeness
To us all

Everything that I believe crawls from underneath the streets
And everything I truly love comes from soemwhere far above
Everything that I believe is wrong with you is wrong with me
Everything I truly love I love in you and I love in me

All with hope all with hope
That emptiness brings fullness
And loss of love brings wholeness
All the hope all the hope
That emptiness brings fullness
And loss of love brings wholeness
To us all

Hand me downs

Now you ask me why I'm here
The same as you i'm scared--it's fear
I've become the beggar now and you've become the saint somehow
Twist the words and place the blame tell me aren't we the same
Tripping in our yellow feet checking underneath our sheets

All with hope all with hope
That emptiness brings fullness
And loss of love brings wholeness
All with hope all with hope
That emptiness brings fullness
And loss of love brings wholeness
To us all

You And Me Of The 10,000 Wars
Words and Music: Emily Saliers

You and me of the 10,000 wars
Dividing life into factions of pleasures and chores
A bed to be made and a bed to lie in
A hand in the darker side
And our sights set on Zion
The heart of a skeptic and the mind of a child
Put my life in a box
And let my imagination run wild
Pour the cement from my feet
The heart and the mind on a parallel course
Never the two shall meet

And all the dissatisfied with the satisfied
Everybody loves a melodrama and a scandal of lies
But still you held your arms open for the prodigal daughter
I see my eyes in your eyes through my eyes
Still water

Try making one and one make one
Twist the shapes until everything comes undone
Watch the wizard behind the curtain
The larger than life and the power of seeming certain
The evil ego and the vice of pride
Is there ever anything else that can make us take our different sides
I wanted everything to feed me
Bout as full as I got of myself and the
Upper echelons of mediocrity

And all the dissatisfied with the satisfied
Everybody loves a melodrama and a scandal of lies
But still you held your arms open for the prodigal daughter
I see my eyes in your eyes through my eyes
Still water (still water)
Still water (still water)

After the battle and we're still around
Everything once up in the air has settled down
Sweep the ashes, let the silence find us
The moment of peace is worth every war behind us
You and me of the 10,000 wars

Pushing the Needle Too Far
Words and Music: Amy Ray

I woke up this morning, grey dawn, a prayer on my breath
I lost something precious, God will save me, from losing myself
I think I know what's wrong I think I know what's wrong

Now I've met the queen and I understand why she, she closed the door
I'm not making excuses but you know I've been there a few times I was knocking on the door
I said I think I know what's wrong I think I know what's wrong

See there's a man he lived in a house had a family of five
Well he blew out the windows and the doors, he said "I just couldn't, I just couldn't survive"
We've all been removed one way or the other
Don't know our families, don't need our brothers
Pushing the needle too far
Pushing the needle too far

You wake up in the morning, grey dawn, a prayer on your breath
You lost something precious, God will save you, but don't lose yourself
I think I know what's wrong, let me hear ya,
I think I know what's wrong

It's the queen who closed the door the family that lies
The people who turn the cat that has died
The boy that ods the girl with a gun
The world on its knees and a band on the run

I think I know what's wrong I think I know what's wrong
Pushin' the needle too far

The Girl With The Weight Of The World In Her Hands
Words and Music: Emily Saliers

She won't recover from her losses
She hasn't chosen this path but she watches who it crosses
Maybe move to the right maybe move to the left
So we can all see the pain she wears like a banner on her chest
And we all say it's sad and we think it's a shame
And she's called to our attention but we do not call her name
The girl with the weight of the world in her hands

Cause we're busy with our happiness and busy with our plans
I wonder if alone she wants it taken from her hands
But if things didn't keep getting harder
She might miss her sacred chance to go a consecrated martyr
The girl with the weight of the world in her hands

I wonder which saint that lives inside a bead
Will grant her consolation when she counts upon her need
It makes us all angry though we feign to care
But who will be the scale to weigh the cross she has to bear
The girl with the weight of the world in her hands

Is the glass half full or empty I ask her as I fill it
She said "it doesn't really matter pretty soon you're bound to spill it"
With the half logic language of the sermon she delivers
And the way she smiles so knowingly at me gives me the shivers
I pull the blankets higher when I'm finally safe at home
And she takes a hundred with her but she always sleeps alone
The girl with the weight of the world in her hands

And I wonder which saint that lives inside a bead
Will grant her consolation when she counts upon her need
It makes us all angry though we feign to care
But who will be the scale to weigh the cross she has to bear
The girl with the weight of the world in her hands

Vocals - Saliers
Acoustic guitar - Saliers
Strings arranged by Billy Myers
Featured quartet - Bruce Dukov, Joel Derovin, Robert Becker, Larry Corbett
String section - Suzie Katayama, Bruce Dukov, Joel Derovin, Armen Garabedian, Michelle Zivahl-Fox, Sid Page, Berj Garabedian, Robert Becker, David Campbell, Ilene Novi Novag, Larry Corbett, Daniel Smith
Contractor - Suzie Katayama
Concertmaster - Bruce Dukov
Conductor - Billy Myers