All music and Lyrics by Karl Eisenhart
1. "A Different Empire" 11:25
Picture the Empire upstate where I grew up,
A middle of nowhere that once was a railroad town,
Starry nights in winter snow, skating frozen ponds
"Sunlit valley, mountain fields, here all life abounds."
Mom and dad captured life in a slide show reel
In a tiny house on the hill surrounded by fields
my world went on as far as my bike wheels could go.
when I think back now it doesn't seem long ago.
The cool of the shade of the woods and the smell of the hay
Fireflies lit up the night like youth lit the day.
The far horizon called like a siren song
but the stone and steel Empire's glow couldn't warm me for long.
[Chorus]
It was not the Empire you think of
It was lost on a back road of time
An old place in the path of progress
What happened to the hometown I left behind?
I set off in search of my life as soon as I could.
Like a moth to a flame, I flew like a young man should.
And the men and their promises came to build and expand
But saw all of their plans laid to waste by the lack of demand.
[Chorus]
[Bridge]
The commuter lines and condos have all gone to rust
Left the Empire a ghost town covered in dust
The power plant pours its poison into the sky
While the ghosts who still live there choke down another lie.
I used to know whose woods these are I’m stopped by
Before they were slashed and scarred by the big power line
Houses and gas stations stand where we once raced our bikes
And the same sun that lit my youth doesn’t seem quite as bright
[Chorus 2]
It’s not the Empire I dream of
When I’m lost on a back road of time
An old place in the path of progress
What happened to the Empire I left behind?
"Dreams flow across the heartland
Feeding on the fires.
Dreams transport desires,
Drive you when you're down.
Dreams transport the ones who need
To get out of town."
2. "I Am. I Think. I Will." (For 11-year-old me.) 5:03
You don’t have to be my friend, just leave me alone.
I’ll never be the kid that fits the mold
The in-crowd feels the Noise while Signals lights my road.
“Detached in the mass-production zone.”
[Chorus]
I am. I think. I will.
Ride the road less travelled for a while.
I think. I am me still.
I'll stand my ground against the rank and file.
I’d never think to take The Pass, but one day I'll wonder how.
Time will heal the wounds I’m feeling now.
History is written by the winner, so they say
We’ll find out who the winner is one day.
[Chorus]
[Bridge]
Every day I fought the tears because I had to fight the tide.
A target on my back because I let my heart guide.
Though scars remain inside of me, those days made me the man I am.
But I wouldn’t turn the other cheek if I could do it all again.
I wouldn’t turn the other cheek again.
3. "Collision Course" 6:22
Two heavenly bodies
Glinting in the light of the same sun
Drawn to one another
relentlessly
whether by pull of gravity
or fate of momentum and trajectory
Neither aware of the other one
until seconds before tragedy
[Chorus]
Nearby planets continued in their orbits
Some uncaring, others in dreamland
Too busy in their own flight for stopping and staring.
Too busy being glad it wasn't them to lend a hand.
In the dusty aftermath
was there any sense of regret
for one plowing thoughtlessly
into the other?
Was it accumulated karma
That saw this meeting set?
Or was the collision course they flew
Just down to the numbers?
[Chorus]
Did the dinosaurs see the meteor's glow
and wish for time to change their fate?
Or did they only shut their eyes,
fear the worst
and hope for the best?
Part of me remains
abandoned on the road
As part of me moves on
without the other.
4. "Black Telecaster" 6:23
A young boy floating aimlessly,
Heard a sound that turned the sky
from black to blue in the blink of an eye
The music time had long forgot
Awoke in him that day
He bought a black guitar to carry him away
He let the music flood inside
To drown the growing pains
An awkward boy with music on the brain
Life-long Friends and a life-long love
From this glowing guiding star
Were channeled through that battered black guitar
[Chorus]
Hanging in the store window
December ‘85
Three chords were all it took for him to know
A six-string made of Magic Power
Made him feel alive
A black Telecaster let the future glow
A million songs and a million miles
And mistakes turned into art.
The music biz was tearing at his heart
He had to sell the black guitar
For rent and food and gas
And he felt the magic fade into the past.
[Chorus 2]
Hanging in a store window
In 1995.
The wrong dream at the wrong time didn't pay.
As The World turned slowly on
And he turned to wave goodbye
He knew that he’d be back for it one day
Eight years on in a music store and something caught his eye.
A road-worn black guitar on a bottom hook
It still had the battle scar from a bottle in a bar
A deep breath and three chords were all it took.
Time had passed and the love was back
And the black guitar made him whole again.
The voice of youth and the sound of thunder
The music time forgot turned up to “10”
5. "The Island" 2:36
I spent four years on an island
Walking on the shore
Judging the sea around me
Though I never swam before.
It’s hard to learn a lesson
When you’re sure you’re always right
And the castaways that surround you
Are hiding in plain sight.
I regret the way I was then
And what I took too long to know:
Youth and pride and sunlit days
hid the real world down below.
And maybe blame was spread too thin
For the damage left behind
With my eye on where I’d been
I rowed out with the tide.
Think about what you think
Why does this seem right to me
You can rest a while on your island
But you’re still part of the sea
6. "Ready Made" 4:14
I once met a girl with raven-black hair.
With a word and a smile, I was hers.
She told me her story of trying to trust
As she pushed past her life’s saboteurs.
With two children in tow from another life lived
The warrior in her stood strong.
And I found myself fighting to stay who I was
While finding a way to belong.
People aren’t born afraid; they’re taught to be.
The things she had been through almost became
A wall between her world and me.
[Chorus]
It’s not the fairytale romance we all dream about,
But the stones on the path made us strong.
Fifteen years of this ready-made life
Turned the stones to dust before long.
The first-born was the girl on the moon
With a crutch and a chair and a smile.
Funny girl trapped on a runaway ship
Overshadowed my life's biggest trial.
Then Little Boy Blue scared he wouldn't be seen
And fighting to be his own man.
The wonder in him awoke wonder in me
I never thought I'd feel again.
I sang that Harry Chapin song a thousand times
As years go by, I finally see
The reason in the rhymes.
[Chorus]
“Love's like the sea. It’s a moving thing
That takes its shape from the shore that it meets”
It gets pulled into life by its own gravity
and it turns with the two hearts that beat.
[Chorus]
7. "Ninety Years" 7:03
Watched the country grow like the elm tree
you planted in the summer of ‘35
From the great depression through the great adventures
of sharing the riches of a teacher's mind
You built the world up stone by stone.
Your legend and your legacy
The last great generation’s mark
A monument for all to see
[Chorus]
Tell me about everything that you love
Can you count each life that you've touched
How much love is enough?
How much life is too much
to fill ninety years?
Watched your children grow like the maple tree
you planted in the summer of ‘38
In the blink of an eye they were grown and gone
leaving time to rest and time to wait
Through the times that tried your souls
the great woman behind the great man
ten years alone can seem so long
outliving him wasn't part of the plan
[Chorus]
I’ll always remember the last time I saw you.
I’ll always remember the last thing I said
(“No one leaves you when you live in their heart and mind”)
This house seems so empty with only one thing missing
I close my eyes and feel the way you would
And I remember.
(“No one dies. They just move to the other side.”)
The years go by in a blur
until we live in the lives that we touch
The flow of time makes history
of everything that we loved so much.
8. "An Old Photograph of the Future" 6:22
There's an old house on a lonely road
Beneath the giant oaks.
Generations have come before
And disappeared like smoke.
It saw the end of slavery
The spark of electricity
two world wars, the first cars drive
the computer age arrive
This house drew a line through time
From prohibition through the crash of '29
It stood while Custer rode in June
and saw the first man on the moon.
The house connects me to the past
When time is moving way too fast
It remembers what tomorrow leaves behind
from summer nights to century storms
The Spanish Flu to babies born
There’s hope the scale will balance over time
I wish this house could talk to me
So I could share in that history
The echo of one hundred fifty years
A story about love and loss
And rolling stones and gathering moss
The world would pass while quietly
the old house spoke to me.
9. “Downstream” 2:43
On the gentle tide
Thoughts drift back to childhood
And the way we were
In the blink of an eye
I was pulled away downstream
As way led to way
I never did thank you for lighting the way
And standing aside but close
The lessons of love and life you shared
Were there when I needed them most
The river flows
To where the time runs slowly
No turning back
The current slows
Ripples in the pool
Are echoes of love
I never did thank you for lighting the way
And standing aside but close
The memories of love and life we share
Have become what I count most
10. Blue Flags (Instrumental) 3:45
11. "An ‘80s Youth" 4:11
A pop song about how red balloons
Start a terrible war from a concrete room
First Blood and Red Dawn showed us the way
The righteous and the stoic make the bad guys pay
We learned in school how democracy
Would go ‘round the world setting communists free
While the lakes and rivers foamed in the summer sun
And lawyers in their suits ruined everybody’s fun.
Careful with that nostalgia, mister
It doesn’t tell the whole truth.
The bad all seems to fade into mist here
When I’m searching for meaning, thinking back on my youth.
[Chorus]
The flash of the 80’s
blocked out the pain
A decade of greed fueled by cocaine
MTV fashion on a global scale
With cyanide aspirin and bombs in the mail
How’d we make it through
an ‘80s youth?
Got a twelve-year-old buying cigarettes
While aerosol cans make a hole of regrets.
Young boy breaking while the rap beats play
Thinks just like his dad about minorities and gays.
Careful what you wish for, mister
The bad comes with the good
It’s nice to reminisce about the old days
But I wouldn’t go back even if I could.
[Chorus 2]
The Flash of the 80’s
Won’t come again
No rules and no reason to slow for the bends
They sent us down the path we’re on now
Just live for the moment and we’ll figure it out.
How’d we make it through
an ‘80s youth?
12. "Eight Things" 7:20
1.
We take the first breath of life at birth
We carry it all our days.
When we breathe our last, it circles the Earth
As on the wind it plays
2.
Face the wind and hear the music of life
I still hear your songs drifting by
The sound bounces off some memory
and cascades across my subconscious mind.
[Chorus]
Will I know your spirit when I see it again?
And will the songs that you played sound the same?
I'll follow the wind when the tall trees bend
And feel your life blow through me.
3.
Energy can't be made or destroyed
It simply changes form.
The breath of life gets blown away
Another life to transform.
4.
The sense of smell awakens memories.
Your spirit is a scent on the breeze
Carried on the wind to fill other lungs
To remind them who they used to be.
[Chorus]
5. [bridge]
“Our bodies are nothing but hosts; a collection of brilliant things
When someone dies, I don’t weep over Polaroids.
I begin to look for the breath that has left them
feel out the strongest breeze and take off running.”
6.
I've felt your warmth from a girl and her songs
I've seen the light in your eyes guide the lost
I've heard your voice in my darkest hours
Right when I needed it most.
7.
We are transferred, shifted, and renewed.
separated by degrees
All we are comes from the wind,
stays a while, then returns to the breeze.
[Chorus]
8.
When the life can be no longer contained
do not stand at my grave and cry.
Run to the strongest wind you can find
and breathe me deep inside.