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Garden Variations

by Cory Fay

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John Brownell
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1.
Building the Machine 03:23
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I know I'm building a terrible machine anything to break my daily miserable routine I wave a crooked wand and I forget How bad I always let things get The devil makes the world how it is god damn I'm innocent I never hurt another soul but I tried to sell my own to myself And how the hell do you learn to dance without the help of anybody else? And all the things you think you need to do eat up the things you think that you'll get to And all your friends and all your loaded guns are just as broken in the rain and mud The devil's not alive anymore they found his body in a liquor store there was a note in his coat that read "I didn't really mean it" How much you hate to wait and how you just wish that you could make a decision He knows that every moment is brand new you're never truly trapped no matter what you do it's never too late to start over again you don't have to see every mistake out to the bitter end and he can't turn off the machine
2.
The Dying Garden Waltz 01:41
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What I'd give just to share a dance with you tangle my fingers in your hair in a very dark room oh, as the garden ages into carbon I'd like to lie you down there I see you yellowing like the tree leaves nothing to see under neath the dirt freshly tilled where the roots wind a round your neck now
3.
Carnival Killer Boogie 03:26
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You could always sing 'em all to sleep by the time they start to bleed they wouldn't feel a thing and their spines would come apart in between your teeth but in the fading lights you wear that dress I've always liked and find a place to lie somewhere I'll believe even on honest nights I remember her starry hair and crystal, August heat felt like sleep she made me feel like I was in a dream that she had when my mother was just a kid, I sat on her lap watching people on the midway You know that all you've ever been is a nervous circus freak trying to pretend that the others don't see Why don't you bury it for good? The garden's grown in grey. You'll pass into dust with the lions and all what will people say? Oh wasn't it grand? wasn't it like magic? how the world seemed to bend into imagination How the stars in her hair fell out over the summers but the Carnival would never ever forget her I remember every thing wrong in places that don't fit with the way the light looks in the pictures I can't tell who was talking I can't find my favorite dress, I miss all the nights I surely have forgotten I can't see what I can't see was it always quite this dark? Describe to me the lightening were the storms always this hard?
4.
She's a Witch (but that's alright) 02:01
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Well you can hear the owls screaming as they try find their way out from the eves of the old church whenever she comes in to pray She never sleeps, she never eats she collects books on the arcane she keeps a claw hammer in her boot and when she pulls it out she makes it rain She's had some troubles with the law she trails pitchforks where she goes they all want to see her burn as for me I love her so To hell with all this talk of heresy Darlin', do you think that maybe you could ever fall under my spell and be my sorceress baby
5.
Christmas Card 1988 Early Draft 05:12
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you were asleep slowly, slowly, slowly like glass and marrow, marrow, marrow Mingus on dancing, dancing, dancing short socks snowing, snowing snowing mass unletting, unletting, unletting radio traces spreading, spreading, spreading christmas lights untangle, untangle, untangle left the car running, running, running machines building machines I want to see and to be seen if a heart hangs by the spirit it claims we are all dirt and all dirt is the same when I forget I'll be new
6.
The Cursed Old Possessed Preacher Blues 02:22
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The Earth is hot and blind and full of nothing but dirt and time to sin and disappoint your mother and die Don't think of me as no kind a' preacher I'm more like a teacher and I'll keep your soul safe by my side And I started carrying a gun around it's like a hot lead Christ leaving footprints in all the sinners in town Ain't no devil never stood with me I'm as clean and pious as any man could ever be I wear all black, I keep the hell off of my back I am holy, and I am free I see angels made of bone and weed and the bark of birch trees in my mind saying the towns rising up and coming after me well let them come I got my gin and the word and the shadows in the church pews speaking in tongues I ain't got nothing to fear fear's for them what tries to find me here
7.
You Don't Have To Die 03:51
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It always goes from nothing to more nothing, oh my head can't bear the weight of all that I got in my skull a spider sits dead on my wall his body sticks to the paint and never falls the day gets away and the flies gather 'round me and they burrow under my skin and you don't have to die you don't have to die you don't have to die you don't have to die cause god she will protect you she'll make you good and right and you will go to heaven but you won't have to die the light always sneaks away from me and the nights always see the kinds of things that are inside of me stepped on flowers and birds with torn off wings I try to think about your naked body in bed next to me it is the only thing that helps me sleep it's the only thing that gives me any peace You've never thought about the things I've thought about god will make you better if you let her do it now.
8.
Green Flowers 04:27
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Come down, they've got me in room B 23 Have the boys been told? I want to be more than the end of something. God Bless her, let her go! Oh How we danced and you fell into the sea how the days erode how sharp became my teeth Forgive the bone, but not the cell. Pay more than you owe. Hear the twenty peice a' raisin' hell. So the boys will know. Why don't you give your heart weeds and all away like it's yours to give away la da da
9.
Perchta 05:55
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Pt. I – Mustard and Pepperment I was made from mustard and pepperment born by caesarian section my father held me tight and cried when they couldn't put my mother back together again. I am scattered in my own mother's memory and I weave from the yarn she left, My father's lost himself to the drink again, in the warp I weave my weft. Once a year, in our slumber the floors are swept. No coin is left, despite all I've woven. I know it's only a matter of time before she slits my belly open. Pt. II – All Good Boys and Girls Go To Sleep oh, boy I watched you grow so cold you hunched by the fire stuck in your father's mire while your heart grows mold I know that it's a long long night and you're afraid but I need you to show me how you can be so strong and brave I got my old white robes on and I've wrapped up this old goose foot of mine I'm coming down, I'm gonna see you soon we'll be together in no time I came inside and found you so fast asleep I can see you have no peace I will give you peace oh it's so sad to see someone so afraid of their own life but Perchta's here now, she's got her broom she's brought her knife
10.
The Bee Sting 05:33
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11.
Sleep No More 03:06
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All the Winter is filling your shoes the clouds take your heaven, the pond takes your the moon When you're alone with me, I'm alone with you. Time will break your watch, your bones, your heart so soon. And now the crows and the flies that die here in the summer gather 'round the ribbons in your hair you still wear for your mother You're too old to grow up, so take off your spoiled shoes, sit besides me and I'll make sure nothing bad ever happens to you. Sleep no more, everyone knows what you did somebody's gotta help me dig Deeper down than ever, god's crooked hands, man returns to dirt, dirt returns to man. I only did what needed to be done in the end Now she's in the garden, she'll grow back happy again When a seed goes underground it becomes something new, If everything has to follow your rules you have to follow them too.
12.
Violet Rondo 02:13
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This is a secret you'll keep from yourself And I, I will keep you, dear. Time catches up across our sleeping throats, How long were you bleeding? See the red glow coming off of the moon? I'm stepping from land now. You grin violent and the weather goes strange Was that what you wanted?
13.
Run, Thomas, Run! They All Want You Dead!! 06:11
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Well they call me Thomas Ever After See me shining, redolent unashamed I might be mad, I may be clumsy but I make everything lovely That was always the reason for my fame. There was a girl that I loved but she's all gone now My family, my wealth all the same. When the darkness gathers 'round when you're swallowed up by the ground, well, buddy, you know my name. But you must be careful inside the garden. Don't cut your foot. Don't break a toe. There is trouble on every path you'll ever follow. Everywhere, the shadows grow the deeper you go. There's the nails, the splinters, and the jewlery. The roses with their thirsty red thorns. There are seeds there that find their way inside of you. They'll have you growing flowers from the tips of your horns. Don't believe what you hear in the barrooms don't pay attention the den of the blasphemers You can't be judged by a bad wind or a fire I would never have done those kinds of things to her. Follow me Follow me into the garden. Everything is gonna be fine from now on, you'll see. you'll be right with the lord you'll never be ignored I can tell you're one of the good ones, like me.
14.
Oh Sunshine 03:24
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And on that sunny day with all that birdseed in your hair how you thought you'd never need anyone else or anything and the clouds all came and they blew your seeds away how he stayed and kept you warm how to you he'd always sing "Oh, my Sunshine! You make me happy when skies are gray you drive all my dark thoughts away! Oh, my Sunshine! I don't know what I'd do without your light here everyday, without you I would surely lose my way." When I was born you painted pictures of me you said they were the best you'd ever made they were the best you'd ever made but now I've seen every one of your paintings, they are all perfect in every way they are perfect in every way and you sang "Oh, my Sunshine! You make me happy when skies are gray you drive all my dark thoughts away! Oh, my Sunshine! I don't know what I'd do without your light here everyday, without you I would surely lose my way." And how the years passed by and how you got very sick how we prayed and prayed and prayed and how very sick you stayed We prayed to god to help you out of bed Oh lord, don't let her die Oh please lord don't let her die we sang "Oh, my Sunshine! You make me happy when skies are gray you drive all my dark thoughts away! Oh, my Sunshine! I don't know what I'd do without your light here everyday, without you I would surely lose my way." Oh shovel cut the Earth break my back for what it's worth the old Garden went to seed nothing out there but weeds her fever broke how I cried, how I cursed It took her with it in the night It took her with it in the night and Oh, my Sunshine! You make me happy when skies are gray you drive all my dark thoughts away. Oh, my Sunshine! I don't know what I'll do without your light here everyday, without you I will surely lose my way.
15.
Goodbye Forever, See You Tomorrow 01:07
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about

"With Garden Variations, Cory Fay invites listeners into a fairy tale Old Testament Western where devils, witches and gunslingers share feelings of heartache and regret. Equally gifted with a pen as with a guitar (and indeed every instrument on the album, save a few guest spots), Fay forages into new territory on track after track. On this first solo album, Fay reinvents familiar characters and unveils new perspectives to flesh out his conceptual world. Whilst flitting from one musical style to another with panache, Fay manages to hold everything together with ease. The ideas seem to come so rapidly for Fay that he rarely repeats a chorus or a line, and when one might expect a triumphant refrain, Fay instead opts to cut a song short and move into the next piece. Sounding like Harry Nilsson one minute, and Modest Mouse the next, Montana-born Fay might be compared to Father John Misty, but dares to get weirder faster."

credits

released September 16, 2017

All songs written & performed by Cory Fay
All instruments & vocals performed by Cory Fay except:
Lauren Norby performed otherworldly synth on Track 9 & committed even worse acts with a mandolin on Track 10.
Nate Biehl bent the power of industry to his will on Tracks 10 & 15.
Josh Wagner performed performed original, underground poetry on Track 10.
Rob Truax breathed real hard on Track 10.
Christina Scruggs played the part of Sunshine on Track 14.

All engineering, capture, mixing & production by Cory Fay in Missoula, MT
Mastered by Chris Hanzsek at Hanzsek Audio in Snohomish, WA
Cover art by Lauren Norby

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