Old Oak Tree

from Easier, Better by Calamity Janes and the Fratney Street Band

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lyrics

I can't begin to count the ways that you've been counting down

I can't begin to spin a story from the suffering

I trim the taper of another day

I bend the time that's in my way

To the leash I bind the beast

Still I'm running for his teeth

The eagle in the old oak tree hasn't ever had any song for me

The memory of melody is scarce

The riverbend's been promising again what it never will be nor has been

The moonlight's only daylight in pretend

This time I'm calling off the clock

Is maybe now or maybe not

It's may we catch a shred of sin

An open gate we'll hunger in

Beholden tropes keep traipsing through

But what else do you want to do?

The eagle in the old oak tree hasn't ever shared her song with me

The memory of melody is scarce

Cut it down, we'll burn it up

It's not enough but it's enough for us

To disinherit any from its where

You look at her, I eye your friend

So the old book wrote, it's continuing

The trouble comes when sultry slips

Beyond the realm of fingertips

But who's to blame a moral breach

If you confess you may well preach

The tempest in that old oak tree has been calling my name deliberately

The memory of melody is scarce

Birds that wing have flown from here

The sky's the same it's only us they fear

It's every each and only disappeared

credits

from Easier, Better, released June 14, 2014
Written by Elizabeth Altman

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Calamity Janes and the Fratney Street Band Milwaukee, Wisconsin

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