Crying Child

by Thomas Kivi

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1.
03:10
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2.
04:22
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3.
03:04
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4.
03:21
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5.
03:11
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6.
03:41
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7.
03:43
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8.
03:24
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9.
04:48
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10.
03:33
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about

Release date: 2/8/2011

"Stained Glass" download-of-the-day on 89.3 The Current and University of Minnesota's Radio K.

“Honest and unassuming, Kivi's lush harmonies are a largely acoustic blend of folk, bluegrass, and traditional Americana.”
-89.3 The Current

Runnersup for "Best Minnesota Albums of 2011"
-City Pages

"[Bridalveil Falls] is the saddest song I've heard this year and quite possibly the prettiest... With a spare accompaniment and a confiding vocal, the tragic story pulls me in like a gloomy indie movie."
-CMT

"deceptively simple folk-pop songs that should appeal to fans of Bright Eyes, Bon Iver, and Chris Koza's Rogue Valley."
-Ross Raihala, Pioneer Press

"It's not that often that Radio K features country, but with Thomas Kivi's heartfelt debut full length album it's a hard one to pass up."
-Radio K

credits

released 08 February 2011

tags

tags: americana rock alt-country alt-roots indie folk indie-folk roots singer-songwriter Minneapolis

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all rights reserved

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about

Thomas Kivi is a Minneapolis songwriter.

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Track Name: Stained Glass
He left home for the world outside the window. The wind blew the willows and he followed far from his pillow and bed. He had a headache from the same old space--despite the chains his will was strong. He'd been looking through stained glass
for far too long.


The path was clear but the fog was ever so deep. Those he met on the way never stayed, never strayed in step or speech. Either you're coming or you're going--deafly marching to a song's steady beat. They'd been looking through stained glass
for far too long.


Houses marked the roads but the gates were tall. He climbed, fell, and crawled--he knocked on doors that were always locked. She looked into his face only to remark how wrong the colors seemed. She'd been looking through stained glass
for far too long.


Panes see the sunrise like eyes that haven't closed all night. Though a mist veils roof and trail, his smile isn't a stranger's guise. Being neither here nor there but forever in between doesn't mean you can't belong. You've been looking through stained glass for far too long.
Track Name: Withering Heart
I miss you sometimes; some is more than enough for me--because I can't say the things you need to hear or be who you deserve to be. I lay up some nights--not feeling the comfort I chose to lose; but in my dreams you touch my heart and it breaks every morning. I'd sleep all day and night if I could choose.



Stone erodes and my heart sheds like granite

As it drags behind my mind as it roams

Home was your love that I decided to forfeit--

Now I'm losing my head and the rest that I own.



You're seeing some man but I know he's got only half of a whole. You gave angelic love and I gave only admiration and unknowingly stole your hallowed soul. You've come from some place--there with you I can only repent. Now you cry and curse my name for how I left it all when I owe so much more than what I spent.



Stone erodes and my heart sheds like granite

As it drags behind my mind as it roams.

Home was your love that I decided to forfeit--

Now I'm losing my head and the rest that I own.



I think as time flies, my heart (as it softens) doesn't burn--It only withers in the sun, where your love was a shadow, I'm losing hope that to your shade I could return. That's why the moon shines--because he wants to know how loneliness is won. I'm sure that we are both most alone and aching, and I'm the one most sorry for all I haven't done.



Stone erodes and my heart sheds like granite

As it drags behind my mind as it roams.

Home was your love that I decided to forfeit--

Now I'm losing my head and the rest that I own.

Now I'm losing my head and the rest that I own.

Now I'm losing my head and the rest that I own.
Track Name: Day in Darwin's Land
I lie here in bed and you might lie here too

You breathe just like anything (I breathe just like you)

This feels like something special (then again, it's nothing new)

Life is extraordinary: Evolution.



I look in the mirror and my face is painted there

The eyes that I see out of reflect my tired stare

It feels like there's something behind them--a point of view (but from where?)

Explain the things that scare you: Evolution.



I sleep in this place that I'll never understand

But I dream of a world where purpose guides my hand

They die here every morning for this is Darwin's land

(Don't you ask questions) Evolution.

(Don't you ask questions) Evolution.
Track Name: Only So Many Mornings
Darling there's only so many mornings

And this man won't ever outrun the sun.

I close my eyes and I waive my tomorrows--

No guarantees when the day is done.



Darling there's only so many mornings

And restless nights are all my patience affords.

A song unsung if I just had you near me

But searching fingers all they find are these three chords.



The dawn will come and the clouds will pass--

I see the mirror in every hourglass.

So why do even the lonely hearts need a fair warning?



Darling there's only so many mornings--

I've had all the dreaming that I can stand.

This mirage looks so much like the future--

With your eyes in mine we will walk this desert sand.



If the stars and that black so great

Convince us both we are the reprobate,

And if your soul yearns more as your body dies, well:

I am your savior and darling: you are mine.

So why do even the lonely hearts need a fair warning?

May we love before the mourning.
Track Name: Anything (Whistling Song)
Build a house to crown a future

Tear one down to douse the past

In a world where much is fleeting

Need a crutch that everlasts

And time is on your side

But we seldom ever learn

Time's a traitor in the end

In leaving--never to return

But don't hang your head in sorrow

For now is just a thought away

You can't do everything with all of your tomorrows

But you can do anything today.



A man gets used to anything

Of this we all stand accused

For every ship in my heart's harbor

There are ten my lips refuse

The light upon my map

Comes from the very sun

That will shine upon the treasures

Even when the day is done

Whether you beg, steal, or borrow

Either way you gotta' pay

You can't do everything with all of your tomorrows

But you can do anything today.



Dismay, my friend, is far too easy

When you only see October leaves

Protection is an age-old practice

When you've been told we are all thieves

This is it: my only heartbeat

These are the only hands I know

It's true that no one lives forever

It's true that seeds can only grow

So to those who sulk and wallow

Don't try and dress this in cliche

You can't do everything with all of your tomorrows

But you can do anything

You can do anything

You gotta' do something today.
Track Name: Good and Bad Men
I carry a wallet, phone, and keys

Or is it that they carry me?

I'm alone and locked out and broke all about

Lost freedom or cruel destiny?



There are believers and those who conceive

Wielding these cleavers we're all bound to bleed

Damned or riteous, your loss I do grieve

Maybe someday you'll be there for me.



Honesty and kindness were married

Until an irreconcilable split

For you can't be both good and well understood

I'm not sure who's the first one to quit.



There are deceivers and those they deceive

Hands for these levers is all that we need

You may not be riteous but your loss I do grieve

Maybe someday you'll be there for me.



The stage is ever my footing

And life: an ongoing play

Where good and bad men are just men in the end

There: I just gave it away.



A good thing that dies will live on in name

Among all the tombstones of evil remains

The big picture don't have any edges to frame

Love life and you'll die in vain.
Track Name: Bridalveil Falls
Never said that he moved on; just took all the pictures down

Her body harbored the demons and his bride's now in the ground

A casket is not closure--it's just some out-of-the-way place

He knows not to go to the graveyard because he'll never forget her face



The FBI was after mother and those weren't the good-ole' days

When she hopped that bus to Milwaukee we young sons and daughters prayed

"Mary, loving mother, your love we couldn't doubt.

The psychiatric ward (I guess) we simply shouldn't talk about."


There's a gap between real and imagined and there ain't no fence, no cops

You live just by understanding that you can't survive the drop.

Either fear or faith it's called--you died in your firstborn's arms

At the bottom of bridalveil falls, Mother Mary: be my good luck charm.
Track Name: I Just Work Here
Wearing my chains back in '43

There's a sign on the wall--reads that this work will make you free.

This labor of ours has taken a toll

The bodies are counted as if they're still on roll.



Standin' in line as he checks the time

One man's duty is another man's crime.

Naked I stood as the guard I asked, just before we walked--just before the gas,

"Is it you that I come crying to when the water is cold and deathly clear?"

He said no, "you ain't got nothin' to fear.

And anyways: I just work here."



Between earth and sky just shy of AD

the king of Jews was writ for all to see.

This crown of mine's worth more than gold

But roseless thorns, you know--they can't be sold.



Said, "Give unto Caesar your nickels and dimes"

One man's duty is another man's crime.

Just then that line shown in my face--

Just as those nails were hammered in place,

"These poors souls--they know not what they do,"

As my words are now printed in a rosy hue,

And the soldier said as he raised the spear:

"Man, I just work here."



Now I'm bothered as hell and it's hard to say why

Won't you please sign and date so I know that you comply?

There's honor in the nine-to-five--

The family's alright, not sure my neighbor is even alive.



Giving more to Caesar than nickels and dimes

One man's duty is another man's crime.

For here I stand with my apron in hand--

Won't you try our meatloaf? The burgers are bland

I play at nights for meager crowds

But at least there--I can think outloud

Because come lunchtime I'm just a thoughtless gear,

Because man: I just work here.

Yeah, I just work here.
Track Name: Lighthouse
Treading from the lighthouse down towards the shipless shore

Witness to one silent night, though a quiet million fore

To wonder at the tide that rises, falls, but never sleeps

Ever the rain-kissed surface but untouched: the darkened deep.



Seasons condemn as makeshift all his walls of wooded frame

The town feigns permanent with her so nurtured shape and name

And even he then felt like leaves of some late autumn breeze

Once the green of summer trees--loosen, fall for winter's freeze.



Homeward bound beneath the sun--now the gauntlet of the stars

So tiny on their blanket black but as giant as they are far

Nature's dirge his jaunt disturbed like an uninvited stranger

So futile is his door's defense to this sensed predestined danger.



Up the stairs to chambers there to rest with no repose

In lamplight the words escape his lips, "alone, we with our woes."

But his wife awoke and spoke, "thy lighthouse--ships lost woefully,

I am the lighthouse and you: the ship. This life, it is our sea."