Get all 10 Ash & Eric releases available on Bandcamp and save 20%.
Includes unlimited streaming via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality downloads of Where We've Been EP, Sure, Autumn Hymn, Gold, Until My Heart Grows Quiet, Simon, Taylor, Denver, Cash, Every Seed Must Die [The Instrumentals], Every Seed Must Die, and 2 more.
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There’s a river that runs from the border of Canada
Down the east of Vermont, the west of New Hampshire
Right through the center of a state that gave me a home
And that river, it runs through the city of Hartford
And if you followed it south, you’d find the place I was born
Right at its mouth, where it rips into the Sound
And I’ve followed that river every mile
From the north as a woman, the south as a child
It taught me to carve my path through the wild
And with it, I’ll run - run - run
Until my heart grows quiet
There’s a highway that runs from New York to Boston
And, in a week, this old car has driven it twice
Through sun, sleet and ice, I’ve been on it all my life
And I’ve followed that highway every mile
Counting the exits since I was a child
It taught me to carve my path through the wild
And with it, I’ll run - run - run
Until my heart grows quiet…
(Will it ever grow quiet?)
Oh, I’ve followed that river every mile
Been running from something since I was a child
But it brought me to you, so I’ll stay here a while
And with you I’ll run - run - run
With you, I’ll run - run - run
With you, I will run - run - run
Until my heart grows quiet
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2. |
Do Something
05:41
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Suspended, above me unreachable light
I’ve kicked and clawed like a junkyard dog
But I’m the loser in this fight
Below me, the door to the endless night
A blackness seen in a cold sweat dream
But there’s no waking from this fright
I have given it all I got
Holding tight to my last thread
If you don’t do something now
This’ll be the end
I had dreamed of so much more
Seen it flash before my eyes
If you don’t do something now
This’ll be goodbye
Did you hear me?
I’m screaming in my head
I’ve maybe moments left
And I’m going down
I said, did you hear me?
My heart is ripping through my chest
This can’t be my last breath
Oh am I going down?
I have given it all I got
Losing grip on my last thread
If you don’t do something now
This’ll be the end
I had dreamed of so much more
Seen it flash before my eyes
If you don’t do something now
This’ll be goodbye
Is this goodbye?
Is this goodbye?
Oh my god
Oh my god
I’m hanging on by a thread
And I’m broken from trying to bend
I see how this one will end
As all your defenses crumble again
I didn’t wanna walk away
But you’d rather fight than face up to the pain
I’ll no longer carry the weight
I see through the lie that I was to blame
And you never hear me
And I ain’t got nothing left
I’ve given you my last breath
So if you want to go down
Well, I’m not going down
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3. |
In My Head
03:59
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I think that you think I forgot about you
Forgot about all of the years that I knew you
But every time I step up to the line
Where the ocean meets the land
I remember all you showed me,
All you taught me and all that you owe me
I remember wearing white & holding your hand
I think that you think I don’t think about you
That I never wonder what you have been up to
But every time that I hear a man lie about
The size of the fish that he caught
I remember and I feel an ache in my heart
I don’t know how to tell you
We always left it unsaid
Oh, I love you
I just love you in my head
I know that you think I don’t care about you
Truth is, I never came back to see you
‘Cuz every time I cross that county line
I’m afraid of what you won’t say
And I remember how that silence drove me away
I don’t know how to tell you
We always left it unsaid
Oh, I love you
I just love you in my head
And I don’t know if I will ever go
Back to our home, back to the loneliest
Place I have ever known
I don’t know if I’m ready, don’t know
If I’m steady enough
To drive down that road
But I’ll carry the memory with me
Wherever I go
I don’t know how to tell you
We always left it unsaid
I don’t know how to tell you
Maybe it’s better unsaid
Oh, I love you
I just love you in my head
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4. |
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In the center of town stood a beacon of light
A church with a steeple all painted in white
But for a handful of outcasts, the true sacred space
Was the wall on the sidewalk with the smooth granite face
In the afterschool hours, we’d mount for a ride
It was wood, wheels, and thunder, there was nowhere to hide
As our feet pound the pavement to answer the call
To barrel our boards across that old granite wall
With no chapel and no ordained leader
No choir or sacred song meter
Just a sect of lost souls seeking to be saved
Found peace in the church of the concrete wave
Jojo, his father couldn’t put down the bottle
So he moved like an engine stuck in full throttle
And I can see now he just wanted to fly
The adrenaline hit was just his way to get high
Justin, he lived with his sister and mother
None of us seemed to know what had become of his father
With red Gatorade and a bag full of weed
He said his board and a good beat were all that he’d need
There was Benjamin, he lived in a park full of trailers
Out on the back side of town, they hid society’s failures
He used words unexpected on a body so small
And his tricks, they were perfected on that old granite wall
With no chapel and no ordained leader
No choir or sacred song meter
Just a sect of lost souls seeking to be saved
Found peace in the church of the concrete wave
‘Cause in small towns like ours
You have saints and you have sinners
And children are born to both the losers and the winners
And pain gets passed down
From the old to the young
Like a package too heavy
For any to carry
My father and I drifted apart
We became strangers in a house plagued by anger
So I rode to that sidewalk and prayed to belong
Those boys & their skateboards, and that old granite wall
With no chapel, no ordained leader
No choir or sacred song meters, no
Just a sect of lost souls seeking to be saved
Found peace in the church of the concrete wave
The church of the concrete wave
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5. |
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The first time I heard “Graceland”, my heart fell on the floor
It stole my breath and shook me to the core
Now every Friday night I play it in another crowded bar
‘Cause I think we all need grace no matter how drunk we are
Simon, Taylor, Denver, Cash - these songs can make me cry
But no one's really listening in a dive at ten at night
But it pays okay and it’s hard to say “no” to a little dough
Still, I’m driving home and I never felt so low
Some nights you sing for no one in the corner of a bar
Some nights you sing for hundreds who all know who you are
It can be hollow as a raindrop, it can thunder, it can fill
And applause can even pay a couple bills
The first time that they cheered for me my heart went to the sky
I never knew there was a drug that could get me this high
So I’ve been working hard for hits of it since I was thirteen
But no one ever taught me how to wean
Tonight we played in Boston in this legendary place
There’s a picture of Joni Mitchell from the 70’s backstage
We sold out every seat in there, and we played a perfect show
Still, I’m driving home and I never felt so low
Some nights you sing for no one in the corner of a bar
Some nights you sing for hundreds who all know who you are
Man, it can heat you up like whiskey and go straight to your head
But applause, it cannot warm your bed
Ooooooh
Maybe one day, thousands will know all of my songs
And we’ll come back to Boston and they will all sing along
Or maybe I’ll have children and I’ll write them lullabies
Either way, I’ll do this ‘til I die
Maine to Carolina through sunny fields and snow
Driving back on Christmas Eve all the way from Buffalo
Now, if you ask me if I would, I think that I’d do it all the same
‘Cause if you don’t know how to give, well then you don’t know how to gain
Some nights you sing for no one in the corner of a bar
Some nights you sing for hundreds who all know who you are
And I just drove a million miles and I wanna go home
‘Cause applause cannot save my soul
This applause, it cannot save my soul
Oooooh
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6. |
Autumn Hymn
04:44
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In the cool of the Autumn sun
I turn to the howling wind
And ask her of her mournful song
Where does her pain begin?
She does not pause to answer me
With words I can record
But with a melancholy movement
She cuts me to my core
As her lonesome lilting lifts
Her voice grows clear and crisp
Rousing the tops of the towering pines
Entranced by her influence
They sway in perfect unison
In empathetic time
I lay amongst their sturdy legs
As tears fill up my eyes
I remember a simpler time
Though distant in my mind
A world laid out in black and white
With neatly painted lines
Where stories tell how the good ones win
A just and righteous war
But like a soldier sobered by the fight
I can’t believe them anymore
I’ve felt a darkness so complete
Shake the ground beneath my feet
And tear into the things I love
Like a wolf with gnashing teeth
The sorrow burns within in my soul
Like a bush set all ablaze
Is there nothing I can stand upon
That will not fall away?
Then a voice from above
The haunting hymn of a dove
Calling out o’er the whipping wind
“Breathe in deep, and listen in.”
She sings a song for every sadness
A song for every pain
A song for every brokenness
That cannot be explained
I’ll gather them inside my heart
Like seeds carefully sown
They will grow into a tower of light
A shelter from the storm
They will grow into a tower of light
A shelter from the storm
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7. |
Sure
03:32
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Our love is the blanket on top of the sheet
That gets kicked around all night at our feet
With our pushing & pulling, our giving & taking
A comforter heavy with down
Some nights, it’s the pillows that cradle our heads
But end up crushed between the wall & the bed
But we wake with the light and we straighten the blankets
And fluff out the pillows again
Darling, I’m sure as the morning
Sure as the kettle that sings out its warning
I’m sure as an addiction to caffeine
You know I’m sure
As sure as I’ll ever be
Our love is a theory tested and tried
The scientists all said the numbers weren’t right
And we all believed them, the church even paid them
To tell us the earth wasn’t round
But darling, I’m sure as the seed
That grew in the apple that fell from the tree
Yes, I’m sure, as sure as gravity
You know I’m sure
As sure as I’ll ever be
Our love is the anchor I often ignore
Taking for granted our home by the shore
But you never lift it, so we never drift
Into the heart of the storm
Darling, I’m sure as the moon
Waxing and waning from July to June
Yes, I’m sure as the tides of the sea
You know I’m sure
As sure as I’ll ever be
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8. |
Never Walking Out
04:13
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She gave us six months when she claimed our young love was doomed
But she didn’t give a smile when we married in her living room
I was only 16, pregnant with our first of three
Well now, six decades later, you’re still waking up here next to me
I was dogged as a dandelion, tell you what, it’s in my roots
When they say it can’t be done, sure as hell, that’s what you’re gonna do
You were sweet as honey, and handsome as you were cool
Just like a bear to the honey, babe, well I couldn’t keep my paws off of you
If love is a chain, ours is made of iron
Passed through the flame, hardened in the fire
I made you a promise, and that’s just what I’ll do
My word is good
I’m never walking out on you
It ain’t always been easy, it ain’t always been a dream come true
I almost drove right off a ledge just to keep me from murdering you
I’m glad you turned that car around, and you cried out to the Lord above
He gave me a shot of strength, and a heavy dose of stubborn love
If love is a chain, ours is made of iron
Passed through the flame, hardened in the fire
I made you a promise, and that’s just what I’ll do
My word is good
I’m never walking out on you
Looking back on our winding path
With its twists and turns, its peaks and valleys
Step by step we have made it through
Cause you chose me, and I chose you
And I still do
A day is bound to come when one of us will fall asleep
But don’t waste your time thinking I made a promise that I couldn’t keep
This bond is eternal, it reaches past the gates of time
I’ll be waiting with a smile when you wake beyond that great divide
If love is a chain, ours is made of iron
Passed through the flame, hardened in the fire
And I made you a promise, and that’s just what I’ll do
I’m a woman of my word, and I’m gonna follow through
I’m a man standing on his word, Lord, and you know I spoke true
My word is good
I’m never walking out on you
I’m never ever ever ever ever walking out on you
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9. |
The Dogwood & I
04:16
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Won’t you bury me
‘neath the dogwood tree
Pointed east toward the rising sun
Take comfort, dear
Let it bring you cheer
The dogwood & I will be one
Each and every spring
Birds will come to sing
Alighting on my branches
What is truly me
Will never cease to be
My form will be all that changes
As the spring gives way
To the summer haze
I’ll watch flowering fields grow tall
And life's brevity
On display for me
As they’re cut short in the fall
When at autumn’s end
As my leaves descend
I’ll surrender each one, knowing
That my naked limbs
Will bare buds again
As the birds resume their thronging
So when you’ve buried me
‘Neath the dogwood tree
Pointed east toward the rising sun
Take comfort, dear
Let it bring you cheer
The dogwood & I
Are now one
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Ash & Eric Worcester, Massachusetts
Ash & Eric have never shied away from life’s hard edges. Hailing from the gritty heart of the Industrial Revolution -- Worcester, Massachusetts -- the two find consolation in discovering the beauty of being artists in the most stubbornly independent city in the north east. Their musings reflect the hope and pain we all experience sung in voices as vulnerable and honest as their lyrics. ... more
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